The Unmapped Country: Stories and Fragments by Ann Quin

Title: The Unmapped Country: Stories & Fragments
Author: Ann Quin
Publisher: And Other Stories
ISBN: 978-1911508144
Genre: Short Stories, Non-Fiction, Fragments
Pages: 178
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5 Stars

I think my heart skips a beat when I discover a new author. The same happened when I heard of Ann Quin and there was something about her that drew me instantly to wanting to read her. Ann Quin’s work is unlike anything I have read before. I know this is said of a lot of writers in this time and age, but in the case of Quin it couldn’t hold truer. If you are in the mood to read something experimental, mind-boggling and also the kind of writing that makes you emotional, then please read “The Unmapped Country: Stories and Fragments” by Ann Quin.

Quin does not only break form in her stories and fragments but also goes over the edge in terms of plot. Her writing leaves you with this heaviness in the soul and is ironically also liberating. For instance, here I was reading, the titular incomplete novel (almost 50 pages or so) and I found myself crying and strangely enough smiling (since the story is that of a psychiatric collapse set in an institution quite similar to the ones Quin attended in her troubled years). Her skills of telling a story are crackling and this is a good place to start.

There are then staccato pieces in the book: “Never Trust a Man Who Bathes with His Fingernails” and “Ghostworm” – which are also very vague and make sense when read over and over again. Quin’s pieces are like wine I suppose or an exotic cuisine that one grows to like or love or not. There cannot be in-between emotion when it comes to her writing (or so I think).

There is this sense of unease, this constant shuffling from one reality to another that all-pervades this collection of stories and fragments. Reading this collection reminded me of the urgency of Virginia Woolf, the resplendency of Elizabeth Bowen and the sense of loneliness of Katherine Mansfield. Not that I am comparing (because really Quin cannot be compared), I am just providing a reference or two. All said and done, I know for one that I will be looking out for more of her works (she left this world too soon) and cherish what she had to offer.