Lazy Days

by Erlend Loe, Don Bartlett (Translation)

From the bestselling author of Doppler, a wry and very funny look at the pitfalls of human existence . . . and the charms of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson.

Aspiring playwright Bror Telemann loves all things British. His wife, Nina, loves everything German. So a family holiday at the foot of the Alps, south of Munich — which Bror believes to be the birthplace of Nazism — is bound to cause tension. Especially when Bror spends the whole time virtually stalking (and constantly fantasizing about) his greatest obsession, British chef Nigella Lawson.

Can Telemann continue to bear the pressure of his empty existence? Or will his long-suffering family be the first to snap?

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Contemporary, Scandinavian Literature, Novels, Audiobook, Adult

211 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Erlend Loe is a Norwegian novelist. He worked at a psychiatric clinic, and was later a freelance journalist for Norwegian newspaper Adresseavisen. Loe now lives and works in Oslo where in 1998 he co-founded Screenwriters Oslo - an office community for screenwriters.

In 1993 he debuted with the book Tatt av kvinnen, and a year later published a children's book, Fisken, about a forklift operator named Kurt. Loe has a distinctive style of writing which is often likened to naïve art. He often uses irony, exaggeration and humor.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed and laughed....leaving me wanting to read more by Norwegian author, Earlend Loe
I didn't laugh 'all' the time...under the laughter and smiles...there is some marital adult dialogue that's just on the edge....poignant 'mixed' with humor.

I have a used hardcopy of "Lazy Days".
It's a small book of around 200 pages. -- ordered it on Amazon for a penny plus shipping.

The story is about a middle aged married couple and their three kids from Norway. They are on vacation in Germany.
The husband, Bror Telemann is a stage director at a National Theater in Norway... working on writing a play... and obsessed with theater.
Nina, the wife, loves Germany. Bror does not!

Nina and the kids loved being outside living life. Bror rather contemplate it, write about it, and think about theater.

One of the funniest scenes in the book is when the Telemann's have a German guest over for dinner. Nina has asked Bror ahead of time not to talk about the war, or theater, and she would like him to tell a story..... preferably one she has never heard before. Nina, who speaks German, would translate the story to their German guest.
I WAS DYING LAUGHING!!!!!
For me.... this book was worth its 5 stars with that one scene alone!!!

Here's an excerpt at the start of the vacation - the beginning- when the family first arrives in Germany:
"Do you have to smoke here?"
"YES"
"But the weather's so nice outside".
"Darling, it might not have occurred to you, but here we are on holiday in Germany yet again, a country you adore that which I don't, and this time, would you believe it, you have brought us to the very cradle of Nazism, and in return the deal is that I can smoke wherever I want."

I found the writing to be fresh, funny, pessimistic & cranky ... I enjoyed it all!

[Peiman E iran · Rating 2 out of 5]

دوستانِ گرانقدر، «روزهای رخوت» از 236 صفحه تشکیل شده است... داستان در موردِ زن و شوهری به نام «نینا» و «تلمان» است که برایِ تعطیلاتِ تابستانی به اصرارِ نینا همراه با فرزندانشان از نروژ به آلمان سفر کرده و در منزلِ ویلاییِ خانوادۀ «بادر» ساکن شده اند.. نینا سرزمین آلمان و آلمانی ها را میستاید.. ولی تلمان به شکلی احساسی و با تعصبی احمقانه، از آلمانی ها نفرت دارد... آنها روزی 65 یورو اجارۀ این ویلا را میدهند.. آنجلا و هلموت یا همان خانوادۀ بادر، زن و مردِ آلمانی هستند که ویلا را اجاره داده اند و در منزلِ کنارِ آنها زندگی میکنند
تلمان و نینا، سه فرزند دارند.. هایدی، دختری 14 ساله است که عاشقِ ورزشِ تنیس است و میخواهد روزی قهرمانِ مشهور و ثروتمندی شود... برای همین ساعتها تمرین میکند
برتلود، پسری هشت ساله است که درونگراست و خیلی کم صحبت میکند و پرسش هایِ عجیبی دارد که پدر و مادرش حوصلۀ پاسخ دادن به این پرسشها را ندارند
سابین هم 5 سال دارد و هنوز تصمیمی برای آیندۀ او نگرفته اند.. ولی تلمان امیدوارست که حداقل این فرزندش، به تئاتر علاقه مند شود
تلمان، از آن دسته از مردهایست که نسبت به خانواده کم اهمیت است.. او تمامِ فکر و ذکر و دغدغه اش، نمایشنامه و تئاتر میباشد... علاوه بر آن، دلباختۀ زنی به نام «نایجلا» شده که البته نایجلا از این عشقِ یکطرفه، خبر ندارد.. این دخترِ زیبا، با یک یهودیِ چاق و ثروتمند به نام «چارلز ساعتچی» ازدواج کرده که این موضوع برایِ تلمان آزاردهنده است... او هر روز بطورِ پنهانی، عکس هایِ نایجلا را نگاه میکند و با کلی استرس و دلهره، دور از چشمانِ نینا، به تماشایِ فیلمهایِ او را در یوتیوب مینشیند... نینا از دلباختگیِ شوهرش به نایجلا باخبر است، ولی تلمان انکار کرده و نینا نیز نمیتواند عشقِ شوهرش نسبت به نایجلا را ثابت کند.... تلمان مدام زنانِ دیگر را با نینا مقایسه میکند... «یلنا» یک زنِ زیبایِ روس و مادرِ یکی از رقیبانِ هایدی، نمایشنامه نویسانِ مشهور را میشناسد و اهلِ کتابخوانیست.. تلمان حتی همین موضوع را هم بر سرِ نینا میکوبد و با مقایسۀ او با یلنا، وی را بصورتِ غیر مستقیم، سرزنش میکند.. تلمان دوست دارد نینا هم به تئاتر و ادبیات علاقه نشان دهد... تلمان حتی حوصلۀ سکس با نینا را هم ندارد
روزی از روزها، فشارِ عصبی بر تلمان غلبه کرده و یک سکته را رد میکند... بعد در اتاقِ خوابشان، ساعت مچیِ هلموت بادر، آن مردِ آلمانی را پیدا میکند و متوجه میشود در این مدت، نینا چندین بار با این مردِ آلمانی رابطه داشته است... و جالب آنجاست که نینا هم این موضوع را انکار نمیکند!!! بنابراین تلمان خانه و بچه ها را ترک کرده و میرود................... عزیزانم، بهتر است خودتان این داستان را خوانده و از سرانجامِ آن اگاه شوید
*******************
تلمان: تئاتر هجوم است... رسالتِ تئاتر به هم ریختنِ تصوراتِ ذهنیِ پیشین است
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امیدوارم این ریویو در جهت آشنایی با این کتاب، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
«پیروز باشید و ایرانی»

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Loe in general but I this one didn't sit that well with me. It feels a bit like poor man's Dopler, or early draft of Dopler. I'm giving it 3 stars because I had good laugh here and there but it's not as witty as Loe's usual stuff it's more of look at these two quirky assholes being quirky assholes to each other.

[M. Sarki · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://msarki.tumblr.com/post/1293507...

The title of this superb little tale should have remained and contained both the words Mixing Part. The title Lazy Days is unjust, inappropriate, and mediocre for a book this good and honest to the core. From the opening pages one can easily discern what I mean by this as the English translation for the German name of the town this family chooses to spend their holiday in is nothing less than tantalizing as it contains a humorously bad translation. Mixing Part Churches. It definitely set the tone for where the author meant to take me.

Having already raised a family of my own certainly helped me to understand and appreciate the humor and seriousness of this brilliant work. All relationships are absurd, and the reasons we remain in them are often questionable. Some call it love, others an arrangement. I have always termed all marriage alliances as deals no matter how much love is involved. And often, throughout a long life, the deal changes. New negotiations must incur and new agreements for any hope for the continued “love affair” to thrive. Often in these processes, relationships become devoid of any passion, and often love exits to far-off reaches, and is nowhere in the vicinity of where it was supposed to endure the coming tribulations. In other words, sometimes our lives do become theater, and this is what this novel details.

I cannot imagine this book being enjoyed, or being of much use to anyone not already subjected to a long and accomplished relationship. If deceit and cowardly behavior signifies what a marriage can be, then this bit of work by Erlend Loe would be too much for those of us to bear. Plus it is not conventional in its style. It is basically all dialogue and the reader must discern at all times who is actually doing the talking. There is little help given the reader except for the supreme craft of Loe always present on the page. The questions and conversation he employs keep the action steadily moving. Everything on the page is connected, and skillfully executed. I had absolutely no trouble in following the dialogue. It was as if my wife and I were the ones who actually wrote this book. It was if my own kids were present on the page. I like to think our family might too have been, at times, interesting, and this book was actually one I should have written myself. But alas, I did not. It was Erlend Loe who performed this miracle. It appears Loe has additionally much more to offer his reading public, as he has never repeated anything in the three books translated into English that I have read thus far. He obviously borrows from his life and his varied interests in it. It seems every question regarding his life he attempts to face honestly on the page. And we are rewarded consistently by his efforts. The sharp and biting dialogue prepares us for the route his wandering plot portrays. The results are magnificent in their clever and exquisite development.

Having been confused from time to time over which direction my own life should take, and wondering if I ever could be the person I often imagined myself to be, it is refreshing to read of the same consternation the narrator Telemann has for his own life. By reviewing his own sexual fantasies happening outside his marriage bed it helps the reader to understand why Telemann’s wife Nina might actually stray herself from the so-called sanctity of marriage. After his wife’s Nina’s gift of a popular cookbook to him, Telemann obsesses daily over the author Nigella Lawson and her buxom body. Telemann extends his obsession to hating the art collector Charles Saatchi who she was presently married to. The concept that Life is always theater is not difficult to accept when confronted with it so aggressively as Loe is wont to do. By also involving the couple’s later attempt at viewing together the great seven and a half hour Hungarian film Sátántangó by Béla Tarr the absurdness grows amidst the reality of their creative adulteries. Having been myself subjected to this film twice already, the haunting soundtrack composed by Mihály Víg, by default, as well saturates the Loe narrative for me. Sátántangó was based on one of the great novels written by László Krasznahorkai, who is a regular collaborator in most Béla Tarr directed films.

Contrary to the mostly lukewarm reviews of Lazy Days, I found this title to be fresh and invigorating, and one of the best reads of the year so far for me.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need a new shelf called "Silly." Loe is talented, no doubt about it. A few laughs escaped me in a surprise assault. But he indulges himself this time. I suspect he didn't have a subject, so he just picked something--anything--so he could make a few bucks. Such is his reputation in Europe and Norway that he could pull that off.

A playwright and his family vacation in Germany. The playwright, obsessed with Nigella Lawson since his wife gave him one of her cookbooks for Christmas, does not like Germany and pretends to be working while his family tours. In fact, he daydreams about Nigella in her "thin blue sweater" making him taste her concoctions. He's got the whole ridiculous obsession thing down, humiliatingly familiar to us all as it is. He makes it funny, because his wife seems to divine what he's up to and doesn't seem to mind awfully much. We can hear her sigh. She's just as happy to have him out of her hair, what with his comments about Germany getting very annoying and sometimes embarrassing.

For those brain-dead from a fast-paced working life who none-the-less feel guilty on vacation without having a book on their chaise as they sit in the sun, this nothing-really-happens ridiculous train-of-thought by a Norwegian nutcase is a good companion. It's funny enough to pick up and put down for a week without ever being really challenged.

Loe's Doppler was a runaway bestseller in Norway and Europe. It established his reputation and is also small, funny, and great vacation material. It might be a classic of existential angst in our time of plenty-for-some. It is perfect for that overworked executive beginning to wonder if life in the fast lane is worth the effort.

[Alessia Scurati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erlend Loe è un autore che io amo particolarmente, non so se perché l’ho iniziato a frequentare e me lo sono goduto in un periodo particolarmente spensierato della mia vita, o perché condividiamo una sorta di stesso humor abbastanza incomprensibile, o per entrambe le cose.
Fatto sta che per molto tempo non avevo più letto niente del buon Erlend e ho recuperato questo suo romanzo. Che definirei ‘molto Erlend Loe’. Nel senso che è strampalato e stralunato e per molti versi, un rebelot insensato.
Telemann è un drammaturgo in crisi che pensa a una sola cosa: il teatro. Ogni due righe, dice, pensa la parola teatro. Anche se, l’idea di Telemann di teatro è un po’ strana. Quando non pensa al teatro, Telemann pensa a Nigella Lawson, anzi, ci fa proprio dei sogni erotici. Intanto la moglie Nina, insegnante con la passione della Germania, tradisce il protagonista con herr Bader, ovvero colui che ha affittato alla famiglia una casa a Mixing Part, che sarebbe Garmisch-Partenkrichen secondo il traduttore automatico di Google utilizzato da Bader per comunicare in inglese coi Telemann all’inizio della vicenda.
È una lettura divertente e leggerina, nonché mostruosamente preveggente: il romanzo è del 2012, Saatchi, marito di Nigella dal quale il protagonista sogna di salvarla, divorzierà da Nigella dopo essere stato beccato dal Sun a trattarla in modo violento nel 2013.

[Peter Dahl · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the kind of book an author only gets away with because he's written some brilliant books before it. This novel is terrible.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5, rounded down.

There's just something about Loe's writing that tickles me enormously. Others have complained that this is a slight, inane book, and I can see their point, but even though on one hand it IS rather silly, it also contains a bit of profundity as well. And there aren't many books in which the protagonist, like myself, is a theatre director (albeit one with a slight obsession with Nigella Lawson!), so that was a bonus in my estimation. Sadly, now that I've read this as well as Doppler and Naïve. Super, I've exhausted all of Loe's books translated into English. :-( And I'm not about to follow Mayor Pete's initiative - he learned Norwegian just so he could enjoy Loe's books in the original language!

[Matteo Fumagalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una famiglia norvegese in vacanza in Germania. Marito e moglie scoprono (o si rendono finalmente conto) di essere troppo diversi.

Una trama che lascia presagire un drammone psicologico sulla crisi di coppia. Ma stiamo parlando di Erlend Loe e, quindi, tematiche come l'incomunicabilità, l'assenza di senso dell'esistenza, gli impulsi erotici e il senso di impotenza di fronte alla società passano sotto quel tritacarne che è la sua scrittura: secca, minimale, densa di feroce ironia.
Si ride tanto, amaramente e, oddio, quanto mi diverte e quanto amo quest'autore!
Quando nel romanzo, poi, si fa ironia persino su "Satantango" di Béla Tarr, mi ha conquistato ancora di più.

[StJust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ezaz, ilyet vártam. Pergő, érdekes – helyenként ütős – párbeszédek, jól megírt sallangmentes sztori. Egyébként még a leíró részeket is elhagytam volna. Valahogy így képzelem el a jövő irodalmát – azért nem minden fenntartás nélkül –, ahol már nem lesz idő háborúésbékére, meg fejtegetésekre. Meg lesz mondva aszt jónapot. A kölyköket meg nem kell majd haccázoldalakkal riogatni.
Ezek az északiak értik a dolgukat, az öreg Bergman elégedetten nyújtózhat egyet koporsójában, ha van neki ilyen egyáltalán. Ez a norvég bácsi ügyesen bánik a bergmani örökséggel.
Tetszett!

[Antonomasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

[2.5] Mostly inane. May hold marginally more interest for people who've been in decade-plus long relationships like the holidaying, constantly bickering central couple - or for readers of Henry Miller (on whom it's some kind of odd satire). Otherwise not recommended reading, unless possibly you're half asleep, drunk or suffering from a fever. As something to read when I was too tired or distracted to concentrate on another chapter of Krasznahorkai, it had its uses. [In an unexpected moment of synchronicity, the film of Satantango was mentioned late in the novella.]

It doesn't start too promisingly; here's the epigraph, equivalents of which must have been aired in a few rag mags:
Unfortunately a small dog was hurt while I was working on this book, but it received treatment fairly quickly and is now doing well, all things considered.

One of the few jokes which I did like, being a heavy user of Google Translate, was calling the holiday destination 'Mixing Part Churches' (Garmisch Partenkirchen) - originating from raw machine-translated emails sent by the owners of the self-catering house the family stay in. Everyone's using English as the lingua franca, but some more competently than others.

Norwegian Erlend Loe has had two very good short novels translated to English, Naive. Super and Doppler. Perhaps in his home country, Loe is so well-liked that anything he writes gets the green light, however flawed - like Ian McEwan's frequently derided Saturday in Britain. The reviews from Norway aren't very good either, so this may not be a case of humour failing to cross national boundaries. Anyhow, presumably this turkey was chosen for translation because of its British references.

Nina & Bror Telemann, and their three children Heidi, Berthold and Sabine, are on holiday in Bavaria. She, a teacher, loves modern German culture - guess who named the kids? He, I imagine to look like the bearded ordinary dad from the current Sky TV Christmas ads, but inside he has the mind of Adrian Mole. He has two obsessions: one, Nigella Lawson; two, The Theatre, and the play he hopes to write, which he goes on about with all the intelligence and detailed knowledge of teenage Adrian on the subject of 'being an intellectual'. It's impossible to believe this man is a director at a national theatre... British comic novelists can do a prattish writer character far better than this one, and a hundred times less irritating.

After noticing the original title (Stille Dager i Mixing Part) a few times, I had a hunch, and searched Stille Dager i Clichy. Bingo. I'd always meant to get round to the smutty 1970s film - which I'd assumed was French not Danish; nor had I previously realised (as with so many films) that it was originally a book. I gather that Henry Miller's Quiet Days in Clichy is about two male housemates who spend their days writing and fucking; the irony here is evidently that Bror spends a lot of time just thinking about these things. Perhaps the conceit is that his life is as close as one can get to Henry Miller whilst surrounded by the expectation of being that subtype of Norwegian husband satirised in Lillyhammer, who's overdone the New Man thing to such an extent he's turned himself into an oppressed 1950s housewife. Oh yeah, and stupid dumbing-down English translators again who for no good reason stripped a layer of meaning by not titling this Quiet Days in Mixing Part.

Nigella hasn't bothered to say anything about this book AFAIK (in contrast with Scarlett Johansson, who set lawyers on a French novelist who wrote a male character obsessed with her). Maybe seeing your dad as a Spitting Image puppet and the subject of countless newspaper cartoons gives you a thick skin as far as satire and fame are concerned. Though Bror's fantasy that Charles Saatchi was controlling and violent (his notion being to rescue her) looks inadvertantly and bizarrely prescient after those photos a year or two ago.

I could see what kind of buffoon Bror was being painted as, but it just wasn't funny. Instead it was almost as irritating as being stuck with the man himself and his repetitive crap jokes about Germans (you can't blame her for being snarky with him one bit). Loe also lazily re-used a major dramatic device from Doppler. Whilst Doppler gets a bump on the head before deciding to leave civilization, Bror has a minor stroke before lapsing into actual erotomania re. Nigella. Trying to write it like a play, with plenty of dialogue only scenes, was a nice try at least, but speaker names and detailed stage directions and scenery descriptions would have enhanced those chapters a good deal.

[Lily S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend gave me this wonderful book as an early christmas present.

I didn't know anything about this author before and oh, man, I was missing out. This book is clearly not what anyone would expect, I think that's why a lot of people gave this one a low rating.

This book consists of dialogues between a married couple. An aspiring writer going through a severe existential crisis and his wife who seems to be completely oblivious. Their marriage is at a breaking point when they go to spend the summer in a German town with their three kids.

Telleman, the husband is filled with cynical dread towards everything, including the town, the suouvernirs, the people in it and the things they do which produces some funny moments but the joke is on you when you realize they are not funny at all, and a visceral anxiety sets in. He just wants to be left alone to write his drama and to daydream about a female starchef to escape from his life.

This is a book of faltered, stalling conversations, a still slice of life of a man losing himself no matter what final outcome is.

[Zuzulivres · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ako ja neviem. Zmysel pre humor mám, ale taký svojský. Miestami to bolo úsmevné, ale to je všetko. Keby to nebolo také krátke, tak to ani nedočítam. Žiaľ jediná kniha, ktorá sa mi od autora páčila je Doppler. Všetky ostatné sa iba vezú na jej sláve a sú viac než podpriemerné.

[Amir · Rating 4 out of 5]

داستان ارلند لو در عین سادگی بی‌نهایتش، مهم و پرجزئیات و تکان‌دهنده‌س. داستان خونواده‌ای نروژی -مرد، زن و سه فرزند- که برای تعطیلات آمده‌ند آلمان. در منطقه‌ای مسیحی‌نشین. روایت کتاب برای من تازگی داشت. با نامه‌نگاری‌های آدم‌های کتاب برای رزرو هتل شروع می‌شه و بخش زیادی از کتاب مکالمه‌‌س. شبیه نمایشنامه.کتاب محور اصلیش درباره تئاتره. تلمان مرد داستان فکر می‌کند بعد مدت‌ها کار کردن با نمایش‌نامه‌نویس‌ها و کارگردانی‌ها کم و بیش وقتشه خودش چیزی بنویسه. مدام در فکر تئاتره. اما درگیر ابتذال دیگری هم هست. کتاب درباره خانواده هم هست. درباره رابطه‌ی زن و شوهر. درباره‌ی تظاهرها و پنهان‌کاری و میل‌های پنهانی و ملا‌ل‌ها و خستگی‌ها.
ترجمه خانم قندهاری خوب. طراحی جلد محشر. و خود کتاب از لاحاظ وزن و خوش‌دستی و نرمی کاغذش بی‌نظیر.
کتاب‌های دیگه‌ی نویسنده هم پیشنهاد می‌شه.

[Aurora Hattrem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Egentlig ganske alminnelig bok. Fant den i en telefonkiosk omgjort til bibliotek på Marienlyst. Gjort om alle mine morgenvaner; tatt av soundcancelling headset og lest denne boka på t-banen på vei til Blindern. Perfekt som en liten reisebok, da Loe gjerne skriver korte og konsise setninger og dialoger. Det har til og med vært mulig å lese mens jeg går (men det er kanskje litt overkill).

[Maddie Rayner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I imagine this book is a lot more laugh-out-loud funny if you’re suffering through a decades long, “marriage is hard work” kind of relationship. Luckily, I can’t relate. The Nigella/ Saatchi stuff is also just so uncomfortable/ eerie/ gross.

[Leilah Skelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved Loe’s previous novel ‘Doppler’ and I’m thrilled that the dark, subversive humour that made that novel so memorable seems to be honed to perfection in this. The central character is a man of the theatre and it might just be coincidental then that my strongest feeling upon finishing ‘Lazy Days’ is that it would make an excellent play.

Telemann, a reluctant holidaymaker, is trying to write - but all attempts to concentrate on his craft are mischievously waylaid by his obsessive thoughts for Nigella Lawson.

The dialogue throughout is whip-smart, and it was genuinely funny. I was compelled to follow Telemann’s swift delusional decline with morbid awe and fascination. It is a little spooky that this novel was published ahead of the Saachi/Nigella media storm, though!

Loe is quite incredible, and I’d recommend this to anyone seeking something a little different. It is a swift, palette-cleansing delight of a novel.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

well I was going to give this 'novel' 2 stars or even one, because it is on the surface a slight book, even a silly one: the protagonist is a Norwegian theatre man on holiday with his wife in Bavaria ('the cradle of Nazism', as the unimpressed hero says to his over-impressed wife), who has an obsession with Nigella Lawson, and in his constant fantasising about her neglects his wife and child to the extent they split. However it's funny. I started to - if not exactly lol - giggle at his stupidity and blindness but grow quite fond of him, and his long suffering wife. This was written in 2009, and in it he suggests that Charles Saatchi might be violent towards Nigella, and that she is calling out for rescue in her TV programmes and books, what (unintended?) foresight!

So, it's childish, light but fun. You could read in under two hours.

[Chihoe Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would go as far to say I like "Lazy Days" more than "Doppler." Doppler was the outdoors man, who moves to the wilderness and bond with a moose, where Telemann is a theatre man with an unhealthy infatuation for Nigella Lawson. Doppler and Telemann are opposites, in the sense of one having more of a laissez-faire, countryside attitude, whereas the other being more obsessive in his urban leisures. The common thread is that both have unstable relationships with their spouses and kids, and that is the root for most of the unhinged yet insightful conversations, which mostly runs through this little book. They are loathsome, but boy, are they hilarious in their incongruous ways and wacky musings, that sometimes make me stop and, regrettably, nod in silence.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

He takes his pen from his pocket and wants to jot down some notes about Russia and groundsmen and risk-taking, this is theatre, all this is potential theatre, but at the top of the pad, in block letters, in an irritating light blue colour, he sees an idiotic logo: HAPPY TIME. That’s no bloody good. You can’t write theatre on a page that says HAPPY TIME.

[tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

one book a day keeps depression.......(not really away)

pozorište, pozorište, pozorište ----- smejala sam se malo, ali na živce mi ide što je muškarac tu u centru pažnje. doduše neki dijalozi su neverovatno dobri, to mu priznajem (i podsećaju me na...pa nije ni bitno na šta ili koga)

(možda ovako i on zamišlja ljubav)

[Sanja_Sanjalica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a weird book. But weird in the Loe way and so easy to read, at least on the surface. Dark humor, weird, but relatable imperfect people, family dynamics, cultural prejudice, the imperfection of mind and relationships, self-doubt, everything and a bit more. And theater and Germany. Didn't like the ending, but I liked the book. A fast read, a lot to think about afterwards.

[Lovisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Den svagaste Loe jag läst men med det sagt inte så dålig! Rolig lättsam underfundig och lite tänkvärd men äsch Naiv. Super. är ju också tänkvärd + rolig så man kan hellre läsa om den än att läsa den här.

[Erik Vesterhus Rasmussen · Rating 4 out of 5]

57 i 2023 (lydbok) :
Haha, deilig med litt underlig Erlend Loe igjen. Funker veldig bra som lydbok når forfatter leser selv. Se bort fra den ytre handlingen; en familie som reiser på ferie til Tyskland (eller skal jeg si Nazi-Tyskland), for her er styrken den underlige dialogen og hovedpersonens dagdrømmer om Nigella og teater. 😊

[Mak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dette er ein Movie 4real

[Petr · Rating 3 out of 5]

We have so much fun in Europe.

Ksakru, kdo to nezná, aspoň si to umí představit: dovolená rozloží rodinu, i když předtím vypadá všechno skoro v pořádku. Obzvlášť, když se jede do Mixing Part, tedy do Ga-Pa, kde Nina vidí jen věci hodné obdivu a Bror jen nácky. Neusnadňují jim to nijak zvlášť ani jejich tři děti, ani manželé Baderovi, u nichž si pronajali letní byt, a už vůbec jim to neusnadňuje Nigella Lawson, na kterou Bror myslí tak intenzivně, až začne Nina myslet na pana Badera. Ten je ovšem poblíž, zatímco Nigella je nedosažitelná - nebo ne? Koneckonců, jak dlouho trvá dostat se z Mnichova do Londýna? A jak dlouho trvá, než se vám dovolená zbortí natolik, že se od sebe v rámci rekreačního střediska rozstěhujete a dohodnete si střídavou péči o děti?

Byla by to v podstatě strašná blbina, kdyby Erlend Loe neuměl tak dobře psát. Fakta o Finsku se mi líbila víc, ale tohle taky vůbec není zlé. Autor nějakým zázrakem dosáhl toho, že Tiché dny nejsou ani komedie, ani melodrama, ani postmoderní samoúčelnost. Má dar dívat se na svět jaksi o kousek vedle, posunutě: jako když Bob Dylan zpívá pod tónem a trochu to rve uši a trochu je to krása a rozhodně to je zbrusu nová zkušenost v tomto světě, kde je nových zkušeností tak málo. Dokázali byste - troufli byste si - napsat úplně originální knihu o rodinné dovolené v Německu? Potíž je v tom, že tato metoda nemůže fungovat věčně. Loe sice tvrdí, že se Tiché dny nepodobají ničemu z toho, co dosud napsal, ale pravda to tak docela není a ten patent se zpíváním pod tónem mu jednou přestane fungovat, neboť falešný nápěv se stane novou kanonickou melodií. Nebo ne?

Jednu ukázku dialogu jsem už napsal do anotace, přidám další:

Nino, začal jsem si psát seznam lidí, které známe a kteří dostali rakovinu, chceš se podívat?
Klidně.
Rozdělil jsem je do tří kolonek.
O.K.
Jedna kolonka pro ty, co jsou mrtví, jedna pro ty, co přežili, a jedna pro ty, u kterých se ještě uvidí, jestli to zvládnou, nebo ne.
Jasně.
Není to snadná práce, nemysli si.
Ne, to si nemyslím.
Za prvé to je emočně vyčerpávající a není snadné si na všechny vzpomenout. Zdá se mi, že rakovinu mají všichni do jednoho.

Celý text je z větší části v dialogu, což je jistě záměrné, uvažování Brora Telemanna, jednoho ze dvou hlavních hrdinů, se stále točí kolem divadla, vždyť mu autor také přisoudil profesi dramaturga Národního divadla; a Bror se snaží napsat divadelní hru (stejně jako se hrdina Faktů o Finsku snaží napsat propagační brožuru). Ostatně Tiché dny si o inscenaci jen říkají.

Hele, tenhle Loe... už zas dost dost dobrý, vážně.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual little book. It made me laugh quite a lot - the translation software jokes at the beginning, and the grumpy Norwegian husband unwillingly on a family holiday in Germany, with a lot of "don't mention the war" moments. He is also (unhealthily) obsessed with Nigella Lawson. (This was written in 2009, so does it actually predate the real life public collapse of Nigella's marriage to Charles Saatchi in much the terms of his fantasy?) This is quick to read, only real gripe is that much of it is in dialogue with no attribution, which makes it very realistic no doubt but you sometimes have to stop and count up the page to work out who is speaking.

[Tiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lazy days is the narration of a Norwegian family's holiday to Germany, well, to Mixing Part Churches to be precise, if online translators are to be believed.

Theatre director Telemann doesn't like being in Germany - where, apparently, Nazism is rife and all German people talk about is the Second World War (Telemann doesn't speak German). He has a habit of letting his mind...wander...artistically you understand - to the theatre, plays he has seen or must write, and to Nigella Lawson who needs saving from her husband. Very little of Telemann's time is taken up thinking about his wife Nina or his three children who are all at various stages of curiosity.

Family holidays - what's not to love?

This is a darkly amusing novel from Norwegian Erlend Loe, author of Doppler. I suspect I enjoyed this book all the more as Nigella Lawson is currently very newsworthy.

Lazy Days is kooky, observant and highly original with a fabulous arty cover design.

Love it!

[Mountbatten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miluju automaticky prekladace. Mixing Part:-))))
Pribeh zajimave psany pouze za pomoci dialogu a to vcetne tech vnitrnich, predstav, fantazii. Diky forme kratkych vet, otazek a odpovedi to vse plyne rychle, ma to tah a svih. A vtip, te taky. Vse pusobi obycejne, ctyricatnici s trema detma jsou na dovolene u lidi, kteri neumi anglicky. Ale o to tam nejde, i kdyz vtip s Mixing Part se pripomina casto ("a nejmenuje se to tu Mixing Part"), jde o zivotni realitu, ktera se velmi slusne prehoupne do poradny manzelsky krize.

[Nina Misson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The funniest book I've read, I think ever! Perfect reading for picking yourself up from a gloomy mood.