I completed my ninth book of the year last night. I'm well on my way to reaching my goal of reading 12 books for 2026.
This one was a very short novella of only 100 pages. I actually completed it in one day which is very unlike me, even for one so short. I'm finding that reading a short book between much longer ones is a good way to resent myself and an even better way of padding my book reading numbers. A book is a book, right?
Anyway, the I completed book was called Termush and was originally written in 1967 by a Danish author by the name of Sven Holm. It was translated to English by author Sylvia Clayton.
Let me start this review by talking about the cover art. At first I didn't like the covers design. I thought that it looked cheap, and tacky in a way. The more I look at it the more it grows on me though. The image is a nuclear mushroom cloud set inside a hotel desk bell. Its somewhat clever and fitting to the story and I actually appreciate it a little more now.
The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where an unspecified nuclear attack or disaster has ravaged the earth. A group of wealthy individuals emerge from shelter to spend their days in a luxury hotel. They paid for the priveledge of safety. The Hotel management tailors the guests life and curate their reality. Conflict arises in the story when strangers living outside the hotel, sick from nuclear fallout, begin to arrive at the hotel in order to seek help and safety.
Overall I'd give this book 3 out of 5 stars with all its points going to its prose. The book was nicely written and its a very good translation. On the other hand, the books minimalist style didn't really provide anything at all. There was virtually no character development, which is to be expected in a short novella, but there was also no real plot. Nothing really happened in the story at all. I feel like the author had a message that they were trying to convey, a commentary on some aspect of life and society and the world that we live in, but it was so subtle and sparsely written about that your mind just sort of glazes over such things. Mine did at least.
I looked up an analysis on the book afterwards to see what others said about it and I could recognize the themes and ideas that they discussed and pointed out. The only idea that really stood out for me as being clever though was this idea of commodifying survival - paying for safety in a nuclear apocalypse. In the world of Termush, survival itself is a luxury that can be bought. Its an interesting concept.
The rest of the ideas amd themes might possibly have been new in 1967 but now they are well played tropes so they were sort of "whatever" to me.
For me this book was missing something overall. It wasn't interesting or exciting and worst of all it didn't make me think. Its the type of book that is read and immediately forgotten. Its unfortunate because I had high hopes for it.
Personally, I wouldn't waste your time on this one, unless maybe you're an English major and really love to dig into analyzing stories for any sort of meaning. Or maybe if you want a short book with nice prose that you can read in a day. Aside from those two scenarios Termush is not something that I would recommend.
