The start of something brilliant

Money to Burn
Asta Olivia Nordenhof

I liked this book a lot. I felt that it painted a vivid picture of its protagonist and the violence that she experiences at the hands of men; sentences such as “he could be sitting right there, right now, owning the moment she thinks is hers” struck me as a nuanced description of the psychological effect that such violence can have.  

This book is so much more, though, than the story of one woman. Although mostly told in the third person, it has a mysterious first-person narrator who appears at intervals. When s/he does, the effect is slightly bizarre. One chapter begins with him/her asking the main character “Are you awake, Maggie? I’ve been wanting you. Tell me something” before the narrative slides back into the third person and “Maggie sits up in bed”. Similarly, after a chapter that authoritatively relays the story of a complex business arrangement, the first-person announces “it makes me dizzy, reading about commerce” and thus undercuts the certainty of the previous pages.

The novel kept me on my toes in other ways too. It begins by telling the stories of Maggie and Kurt, before switching abruptly to the aforementioned account of business dealings. The shift was so absolute I wondered if this was in fact a collection of short stories. By the end, however, it became clear, much to my satisfaction, that everything was related. What wasn’t clear is how; this is the first in a series of seven novels and there is evidently much more complexity yet to come.

All in all, this novel was quirky to just the degree I like. I look forward to reading the next instalment.