Unfit // New Directions, 2025

Ariana Harwicz has a new novel translated by Jessie Mendez Saver. It is Elana Ferrante meets Wiltold Gombrowicz; W. G. Sebald meets Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. It is a feminist novel about the love of a mother for her children and what she is willing to do to keep them with her. Full of dark humor, introspection, and wonderful run-on sentences, this book is a delightful, fast read.

What stands out most about this book is the writing style which lends itself to the intimacy of the narrator, a young, Jewish mother from Argentina who is living as an immigrant in France. At times, it is difficult to tell the difference between what the narrator is thinking and what thoughts are brought into action as real. This narration style captures the experience of the mother, whose phycological landscape is an existential crisis. Without use of quotations, it is not always clear who is talking, or what thoughts are said aloud. There are respective flashbacks in italics which help fill in some of the backstory, as the novel launches into the story from the first sentence.

Harwicz’s novel (and Mendez Saver’s translation) is editorially perfect; I couldn’t suggest a single edit to the entire work, which is the greatest compliant I could give a work of writing. What I learned from this book has something to do with how to be true to the experience of the characters through use of language, not plot.

Unfit—Anyone interested in becoming a better writer should read this book.