Book Review: Notes on an Execution - Danya Kukafka

This book, somewhat unconventionally perhaps, follows a serial killer on death row, over the day of his execution. As the day progresses, bringing him closer to death, our perspective shifts to three women whose stories intertwine with his over the course of years. These accounts steadily converge until we see how this man came to be on death row. One for the true crime girlies, though this is not, to my knowledge, based on true events.

This is a really interesting, really compelling story. We are first drawn directly into Ansel Packer’s mind and his perspective as the countdown to his execution is told in second person. This is such a difficult perspective to get right and I thought that Kukafka did a good job maintaining this and drawing the reader into this man’s mind. We are then pulled out and back into the lives of three women, in a more conventional third person POV. These women each have distinct, fascinating relationships with this man. We know what’s going to happen but not the details of how we’ll get there, those events unfold steadily over the book.

This is less of a mystery or thriller, but rather the way that Kukafka chooses to present this story feels more of an exploration of how these kinds of crimes happen, what circumstances might lead someone to commit heinous crimes. But also, and more importantly, I think, what justice means in a culture that makes spectacles of these men, allowing them status and notoriety while their victims become footnotes. I don’t always think that this balance works entirely. Sometimes the time spent in Ansel’s head almost detracts from the work she is doing in the women’s chapters. But it is a valiant effort nonetheless.

For the most part the characters are well drawn, which can be quite hard to get right in this kind of book. Ansel is an interesting and upsetting head to be in. He is narcissistic, delusional and filled with rage, as well as what seems like regret, though its hard as a reader to know for sure whether this is real or something he just comforts himself with. It is never quite clear what he really believes which makes it even more compelling.

The women are also interesting characters in their own right. Kukafka nicely depicts the desperation of a young woman trapped in a terrifying, abusive situation, forced to so something horrible to survive and then trying to work out how to live the rest of her life. I didn’t grow up with sisters myself but I found the way that she wrote the relationship between two sisters as they move through life on different paths to feel really nuanced and authentic. And finally, a woman trying to make it in a man’s world, trying to do something important with her life, dogged by a hunch she can’t shake and a need to bring justices to young women whose chances at a full life have been cut brutally short. There were other women I would have liked to get to know more but I can also understand and respect what Kukafka was trying to do with her story.

There were a few issues that I had with the prose. There was some overreliance on certain phrases and similes that started to annoy me the more that they showed up. I don’t know if this was intended but personally it just started to grate on me.

Otherwise, I found this to be a really interesting piece of work, and something that I haven’t really read anything like. If mystery or crime is your vibe, check this one out!