Alt som før - noveller i utvalg

by Kjell Askildsen

Boka inneholder et utvalg av forfatterens noveller hentet fra novellesamlingene Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem (1953), Kooperatøren (1954), Kulisser (1966), Ingenting for ingenting (1982), Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til almenheten (1983), En plutselig frigjørende tanke (1987), Et stort øde landskap (1991), Hundene i Tessaloniki (1996) og Samlede noveller (1999).

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Scandinavian Literature, Modern Classics, 21st Century, Literature, Contemporary

363 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Kjell Askildsen (f. 1929) debuterte med novellesamlingen Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem i 1953. Askildsen har fått Kritikerprisen to ganger, for novellesamlingene Thomas F's siste nedtegnelse til almenheten (1983) og Et stort øde landskap (1991). Han har også blitt tildelt blant annet Aschehougprisen, Doblougprisen og Brages hederspris. Sommeren 2006 kåret Dagbladet novellesamlingen Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til almenheten til den beste norske boken utgitt de siste 25 årene. Kjell Askildsens bøker er oversatt til over 20 språk, blant dem engelsk, tysk, fransk og italiensk.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the pauses and absences that define these three dozen stories of Norwegian writer Kjell Askildsen: the pause between words, the lingering on the stairs, the sighs of an estranged father or brother, the doorways or sidewalks or decks that impede the ability to connect.

In spare, economical prose, the author meticulously crafts his scenes: a fruitless encounter between a God-fearing and abusive father and his unforgiving adult son that begins this way: “The trees, the loose sand where the path was most beaten although people seldom walked there, the ditch were the bridge over it, well, you could hardly call it a bridge: three rotten planks.” The external world becomes a metaphor for the rot within.

Or the two elderly men who parsimoniously share a park bench and reluctantly look forward to these brief connections—until they figure out what it is that connects them. The controlling husband who recognizes in an interaction with his wife that his choice was being denied or being accommodating in such a way so as not to suffer defeat. The father and son, both named Mardon, who are at the mercy of their past, unable to find the panacea that will allow them to spend an evening together. Or the eponymous story of a coupe in Greece and her emasculating flirting with a stranger.

Most of the characters exist in an empty and suspended world, unable to let go of past slights and unwilling to reach out to a transformed future. The aggregated result is a sort of wariness of spirit: I wanted, perhaps, fewer stories and I needed more glimmers of hope, particularly after navigating a year like this past one. The vignettes at the end – for the most part – are shorter, as life certainly becomes. It is obvious that Kjell Askildrsen has talent to burn, but in retrospect, I wish I had read a few stories at a time instead of straight through.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leer los cuentos de Askildsen es como encontrarse en un largo pasillo con puertas todo a lo largo, llevándote cada una de ellas a una escena diferente de la cruda realidad de sus personajes, cerrándose repentinamente cuando empezabas a estar más interesado en lo que estaba sucediendo. O puede que se parezca a mirar un televisor en el que se produce un zapping que tú no controlas, donde te quedas durante unos minutos para posteriormente saltar a otro canal, algo que no puedes evitar porque el mando a distancia no está en tus manos. Así son los cuentos de Askildsen, como pequeñas postales de una realidad amarga, cruel, de malestar y desasosiego.

Kjell Askildsen está considerado un maestro del relato corto, siendo algunas de sus influencias Raymond Carver, Albert Camus o Hermann Broch. Sus cuentos se leen bien, enganchan desde las primeras líneas:

"El mundo ya no es lo que era. Ahora, por ejemplo, se vive más tiempo. Yo tengo ochenta y muchos, y es poco. Estoy demasiado sano, aunque no tenga razones para estar tan sano. Pero la vida no quiere desprenderse de mí. El que no tiene nada por que vivir tampoco tiene nada por que morir. Tal vez sea ese el motivo."

"Estaba bajando por la escalera de un bloque de cinco plantas al este de la ciudad; acababa de hacer una visita a mi hermana y no había sido una visita agradable, pues ella tenía muchos problemas, la mayor parte de ellos imaginarios, lo que no mejoraba en modo alguno la situación. Nunca la he querido mucho, ella nunca me ha tenido en tanta estima como debería."

Pero lo más característico de su escritura es la sensación que producen, como cuando entras en una habitación en la que notas un ambiente tenso, y preguntas primero: "¿Todo va bien?", para pasar a preguntar a continuación, tras el forzado silencio y las caras de circunstancias: "¿Qué ha pasado?". Los cuentos de Askildsen ocultan una verdad intuida, que deja un cierto malestar.

'Todo como antes' incluye tres libros de relatos, los más significativos del autor:

Últimas notas de Thomas F. para la humanidad (****). Los cuentos pertenecientes a este libro tienen un tema dominante, la vejez. La visión que tiene Askildsen de la vejez no es muy halagüeña. Él intenta mostrarnos unos ancianos que piensan más en la muerte que en la vida, que ya no tiene nada que ofrecerles. Da la impresión de que critica a la sociedad occidental, no por el maltrato a los ancianos, sino por ignorarlos y hacer como que no existen, que son una molestia; aunque también es verdad que los pinta un tanto cascarrabias.

"Estaba muy cansado, pero nadie se levantó, los que estaban esperando eran demasiado jóvenes, no sabían lo que es la vejez. De manera que me volví hacia la ventana y me puse a mirar la calle, haciendo como si fuera eso lo que quería, porque nadie debía sentir lástima por mí. Acepto la cortesía, pero la compasión pueden quedársela para los animales."

De los relatos de esta parte mis favoritos son 'Ajedrez', 'En la peluquería' y 'Carl Lange', este último con ciertos tintes kafkianos.

Un vasto y desierto paisaje (***). Además de la vejez, otra de las obsesiones de Askildsen es la familia, muy presente en toda la novela, hijos, padres, hermanos, y la difícil relación entre ellos. En muy pocos relatos se muestra ternura, lo que prima es la tensión contenida, situaciones de aparente calma que puede desmoronarse en cualquier momento. Mis relatos favoritos de esta parte son 'No soy así, no soy así' y 'El estimulante entierro de Johannes'.

Los perros de Tesalónica (***). De nuevo nos encontramos con otro de los temas recurrentes en la obra de Askildsen, el matrimonio, en el que sus miembros no se comprenden, o están cansados el uno del otro. Al mismo tiempo, también es llamativa la relación entre hermanos, en la que alguna situación deja entrever algo de incestuoso. Los cuentos que más me han gustado son 'El grillo', 'Un lugar maravilloso' y 'Los invisibles'.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This compilation of 37 stories is a series of vignettes that bring into view the lives and inner thinking of us: the elderly, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, moms, and dads. That we are shaped by our memory and memories (faulty as they can be), and our shared plight with aloneness and loneliness. How we hide our true selves under bravado and cruelty, in fear that our weaknesses and neediness will be discovered. That death, love, and life can be scary, lingering, unwanted, ignored, painful, humorous, and wonderful.

You won’t find much drama or plot in this book. What you will get are interactions: a couple vacationing at a cabin; a son visiting his dad after a prolonged absence; a lonely man who is unable to ask out a waitress; an old man meeting another old man on a park bench; a widower who throws out all of his dead wife’s things so he’d finally have room for himself (who needs three drawers for underwear?).

Many of these vignettes are only a page or two; there are no wasted words. The longest story is Thomas F’s Final Notes to the Public Carl Lange. The plot is the police visit Carl to question him about a rape. What the story is really about is how he thinks and acts during and after this visit. It is spot on—to me—how an insecure person might react in such a situation. A wonderful story.

I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Archipelago Books for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vignette visits into lives of contemporary Norwegians, sometimes just a sliver of a view. Another gem from archipelago imprint.

[Vilis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tiešām forši stāsti, kas lasot ieved tādā viegli klaustrofobiskā noskaņā un mudina prātā risināt starp rindiņām palikušos notikumus, lai tie pēc tam atbalsotos sapņos

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not much of one for reading short stories, but I found this collection from acclaimed Norwegian writer Kjell Askildsen very entertaining indeed. More vignettes than fully-fledged out stories, I enjoyed the black absurdist humour, laconic dialogue and the insightful portrayal of the lack of human connection. Shades of Beckett and Kafka at times, but actually a completely original voice. Clever use of pauses, eloquent depiction of what’s not said rather than what is, and the ability to unsettle are all much in evidence. Not a volume to read straight through, but one to pick up and read just one or two at a time to get the full disorienting effect.

[Mairita (Marii grāmatplaukts) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Garlaicīgi. Plašāk: https://gramatas.wordpress.com/2017/0...

[Richard Derus]

R.I.P. Author Kjell Askildsen...30 September 1929 – 23 September 2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjell_A...

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. This collection contains 36 stories and although there are some excellent pieces, a certain sameness creeps in and bogs the collection down, especially at the mid-point. Askilsen is described as having a "dry, absurd humour not unlike that of Beckett"—yes, at times, but often he is neither humourous or absurd enough. His protagonists—all male—tend to be irritated, misanthropic and lacking empathy. A number of stories involve couples who have fallen out of touch or worse, and the husbands have no real interest in the concerns or inner lives of their wives. Another theme is the bitter octogenarian which can be of interest, but again they blur. All of his characters are isolated, often through their own behaviors or choices, and the endings resolve little. However, the good pieces, often the longer ones, really stand out. Some of my favourites include "A Bucket of Time", "A Sudden Liberating Thought", "Mardon's Night", "Midsummer", "The Wake" and "Carl Lange". The strong stories make the collection worthwhile, but I would suggest it is best read dipping in and out over time. Many of the stories are very short, about three pages long.
Longer review here: https://roughghosts.com/2022/03/13/sy...

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to get through this collection of Norwegian short stories. I appreciate that the author was showing loneliness, lack of connection and a dry humor. There was just no relief from such a dour view of humanity. I decided the theme song for the book should be Eleanor Rigby. "all the lonely people, where do they all come from?"

[Agris Fakingsons · Rating 2 out of 5]

..sen atpakaļ šī grāmata mani uzrunāja ar autora sacīto (uz 4. vāka): "Laba diena ir tāda, kad uzrakstu vienu teikumu un izsvītroju divus." taču lasīt šo grāmatu ir grūti. nezinu, vai autors tā raksta, vai tulkojums ir slikts, jo patiesi izbaudīju tikai Tomasa F. ciklu un vēl varbūt šo to. visādi citādi stāsti mani neuzrunāja.

[Aleka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay que leer los relatos de Askildsen para darse cuenta de que muchos vivimos en ellos.

[Sulthana · Rating 5 out of 5]

making the mundane, lonely specks of living intelligible. brief and moving collection of stories.

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Mardon lit a cigarette and said: We can't actually do anything about who we are, can we? We're completely at the mercy of our pasts, aren't we, and we didn't have a hand in creating our pasts. We're arrows flying from the womb and landing in a graveyard. And what does it matter how high we flew at the moment we land? Or how far we flew, or how many we hurt along the way? That, Vera said, can't be the whole truth."

Translated adeptly from the Norwegian by Seán Kinsella, the stories collected in Everything Like Before hinge on moments of dissonance. It is a mirror slowly cracking as the still surface gives way to ripples rising from within. As a result of this disillusionment, characters face truths that had been carefully hidden and ignored till ennui broke them out of containment. They must now reckon with these revelations and realizations for no matter how much they want, they cannot put back everything like before. Askilden injects his work with an inexplicable, deeply felt, sadness.

These lives are defined by disaffection, dismay, and drag. Characters are suspended in viscous regret, trapped in patterns and routines that are empty and rapidly unbearable. Most stories are quite short in length and better-called vignettes so they are quite a few in number. After a point, there is a sense of pervading sameness. There are only so many stories of unhappy marriages from the point of view of the husband that I can take. The rest did not particularly make me feel one way or the other. I was largely indifferent to the stories. "...Carl Lange" was brilliant though.



(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Video review here: https://youtu.be/rjNReXpIuCA

[Johan Wilbur · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ver, vaya por delante que esta recopilación de tres libros de cuentos de Askildsen tiene sus cuentos buenos y sus cuentos que, sin ser malos, dan un poco igual. Pero me voy a centrar en mi opinión de los que me han parecido mejores.

Eso sí, leyendo a este hombre siempre me queda una sensación extraña de: "Vaya, ya se ha acabado... me da que me quiere decir algo pero no sé muy bien qué". Y esto no sé si es algo muy bueno o muy malo. Porque quizá yo sea muy simple (que ya digo que puede ser) o quizá simplemente este leyendo simples relatos que no me quieren decir nada, que están ahí por estar, y yo me estoy flipando o algo, no sé.

Eso sí, de los tres libros que recopila, el último: Los perros de Tesalónica, ha sido el que más me ha gustado. Los cuentos que contienen son lo más parecido Carver que he leído de este autor.

Y hablando de esto, se le compara mucho con Carver por la aparente sencillez y contundencia de su escritura, sin embargo, aunque si que es parco, que no parece usar más palabras de las necesarias y que sus dialogos entre personajes se asemejan un poco, puedo decir que Carver es mucho Carver y que Askildsen, quizá por lo que dije al principio de que, en el caso de que sus cuentos tengan mensajes o cosas demasiado ocultas, pues, al menos para mí, no le llega ni de coña.

Aún así, buena lectura, porque el hombre escribe la mar de bien, pero, ya se sabe, las comparaciones son odiosas, sobre todo cuando sales perdiendo.

[Dree · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The 30-odd short stories in this collection vary from being very short to more typical short-story length.

All or nearly all of these stories show slices of regular life for very regular people. All are frustrated and/or bored or the stories just have a feeling of dread hanging over them, many of the characters are elderly or middle-aged and looking at the ends of their health/lives. Some of the characters reappear, and honestly (perhaps because I was reading an egalley on kindle) it was hard to tell sometimes if the stories were meant to connect, if ALL of the stories are mean to connect (like maybe these are all residents of one small town, for example), or even if the same names were reused and they were not meant to connect at all. And while I had some favorites here, reading an entire collection of 30+ stories featuring dread and sadness is...exhausting.

Favorites:
"A Lovely Spot": a couple (husband and wife? brother and sister?) go to a family cabin. She is paranoid, he starts to feel it after too much wine.
"Thomas F's Final Notes to the Public; Carl Lange": An officer comes to Carl's apartment and accuses him of a crime. Carl is upset and wonders how he could be accused of such a thing--and possibly wonders if he might have actually forgotten? He cuts his hair, shaves, and his stress reaction is somewhat odd but also understandable. Cop sees it as very odd. (Is this the Carl from the story "Carl"?)

[Mary Lins · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Everything Like Before”, a collection of short stories by Kjell Askildsen (translated from the Norwegian by Sean Kinsella) is a unique and unusual collection. These stories are all fairly short (some only a few pages) and they are more “atmospheric” than plotted. The evocative prose (beautifully translated) elicits a myriad of feelings in the reader: disquiet, dread, amusement, bemusement, and more.

There are several stories that involve married couples. At first I thought it might be the same couple at different times, but then I noticed their names were different. Still, in each story the point of view if from the husband who generally views his wife as an enigma, and there is quite a bit of both overt and buried hostility in several of these vignettes. I enjoyed these stories the most for their realism.

For the most part, these stories are more “snapshots in time” or esoteric scenes, than traditional stories with beginnings, middles, and endings. I also enjoyed the final story, “Thomas F’s Final Notes to the Public” which is actually 11 short short stories about an elderly curmudgeon named Thomas.

Askildsen (91 years old) has won numerous literary prizes in Norway and Sweden, and his spare/minimalist style is very evocative of what we think of as Nordic literature.

[SueLucie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quietly devastating collection of stories, mostly specific events taking place over the course of one day. They relate encounters between strangers or, just as often, between people who are related or living together who find they do not know each other well at all. There is a tendency for one person to guess what the other is thinking or how they will react to their, often provocative or even malevolent, behaviour. Combined with dialogue fraught with misunderstanding and evasion, this creates tense atmospheres with frequently surprising outcomes. As they progress, the stories become shorter and more observational, preoccupied with old age and death, and increasingly poignant. Scandinavian noir at its best and highly recommended.

With thanks to Archipelago via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[Johan Wilbur]

Tiene un par de cuentos geniales y otros cuantos que son un tanto insustanciales, sin embargo en general dejan un poso bastante satisfactorio. Bien.

[J.D. Cetola · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best collection of short stories I have ever read. Bar none. Simply wonderful.

[Greg Gerke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piece forthcoming: "The stories, and some are very short, two to three pages—are redolent of Chekhov and Isaac Babel (Askildsen is also a writer Lydia Davis would nod to)—the style is stripped—few adjectives, little setting or atmosphere, but all emotion, with tension often instantly delivered on the first page, often the first line: “When my wife was alive, I used to think about how much more room I’d have when she died...”

[Paul Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful collection of short stories, especially if you are into the absurd and mundane of every day life. Many of the stories are darkly humorous as well. This almost got 5 stars from me. Very enjoyable read for me.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

"What a stupid story, she said.
Yes, he said."

Now, while I appreciate a book that provides its own review, it does tend to be the negative ones, meaning that, like this example, I read far too many pages for the sake of a quippy riposte. Far too many pages, as we have here, of an author who really did need to change the record. Far too many of these stories are of people stuck in a loveless relationship, and while she may be playing patience until he sees through an accident what she's really doing with the cards, or while she may be a bored housewife who declares first that she's going mad then that she's going for a new job instead, the stories are just too close together. The characters are of course quite the opposite – far apart – and therefore hit the wine bottle, either to justify their not talking or to have something in common.

The other trope here is for the characters to be on holiday, or in a holiday home, or something. They're still not talking, or not talking properly, and so they see strangers in the foliage, or get cuckolded, or think they're about to get cuckolded. And when our author wants to branch out and try something out, he has someone visit a care home, or a blind father, or go to a funeral with the rest of his family he's not seen in years, or yack inconsequentially about father issues. A lot of the pieces have the modernist style of unattributed dialogue, as well, so they're not terribly easy to read, and they're certainly not fun. Reviewing this with my general browser, common commuter taste in play, these offered nothing – a hermit with a clock in a bucket getting knocked about was a bright spark here, a kid getting atheism because his home burns down a welcome change of spirit.

It's only towards the end when variety stumbles unknowingly on to the pages, with a full copy of his award-winning 1983 opus, "Thomas F's Final Notes to the Public". This starts well, with a dryly humorous, Kafkaesque look at someone accused of a crime. And then gets into the crotchety old not understanding the younger generation, going to funerals, thinking they were better off dead. They might not be that wrong.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are about 30 stories, most quite short, most with men as the narrators or focal characters, most situating the story in a season or month (sometimes a day of the week) in the first few lines. Many of the stories focus on people observing others, or cogitating on past observations and interactions. The stories explore a fairly narrow range of emotion from anger to confusion to disappointment to satisfaction, and they dwell in the awkwardness of human contact and conversation -- with partners, siblings, parents and children, neighbours, strangers -- and the seeming aimlessness of our easily triggered thought processes. In more than a couple, the characters make assumptions about the others' intentions and actions and are deceitful so as not to reveal their own feelings and intentions.  (For example, in Sunhat, the man keeps picking up the book at the place the woman has left off reading to try to determine why she's talking about what she's talking about: "She went out to the kitchen and he picked up her book and turned to page thirty-three. He could find nothing there to account for the calling to mind of a sunhat or Yugoslavia." In "The Grasshopper," a man tells his wife he's not hungry and that he's going to see his father but instead he drives to an outdoor cafe and buys two sandwiches and a coffee, then returns home, where he answers his wife's questions about this nonexistent visit to his father, thinking "You're suddenly very interested in my father.") One bit from "The Grasshopper" summarises the through-line for most of the stories: "'You could have just said that straight off.' 'There are a lot of things  that could be said straight off,' he said. 'What do you mean by that?' she said 'Do I mean something by it?' he said."  As one review notes, there's an off-kilterness to the stories. There's an emptiness, a sense of something vital missing, and an abiding sense of dissatisfaction. Another review says they "could reasonably be called ghost stories in which there are no ghosts," and that seems right to me.

[Emily Jang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this while browsing the new-releases section of my library; it's not one I sought out, but one I'm glad I stumbled upon.

This is a collection of translated short stories set in Norway. The stories themselves can be as short as two very small pages, but together they elicit a string of related feelings: loneliness, confusion, melancholy, wonderment, emptiness. The dialogue, while spare, is bursting with thoughts unsaid and feelings unrevealed, which has a chilling uncanny effect. It's not altogether unpleasant, because the heart of these stories come from the observation of people in their true, inconsistent, doubtful, prideful, paranoid selves.

And even if the characters themselves seem far from my own life, they are still relatable. For example, "He... ate snails and berated himself harshly. Slave, damned slave, every time you try to exact some justice for yourself, you collapse with compassion for your tormenter!" made me think of my relationship with my boss (and is funny only because I happen to be on vacation). Or "...it's usually the debtor who harbors hatred for the creditor, not the other way around" which I read shortly after snapping at my mother for no good reason. All this to say, packed in these quiet stories are sharp revelations about all of us.

Towards the end there's this scene that I felt captured a lot of the feel of this book. This older gentleman is walking along when he hears his name called. "We had a lot of traffic between us and neither he nor I dared to cross the street, it would have been stupid to lose my life from joy when I had managed to survive so long without it. So the only thing I could do was shout his name once more and wave my cane." Well then.

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on this book, I hope you enjoye it as much as I did.

[Anna Hargett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Everything Like Before" by Kjell Askildsen

This is the first time I have read anything by the Norwegian author, Kjell Askildsen. He is known to be a master of short stories, and after reading them, I can understand why. Askildsen's stories are not super long, and there's not a ton of fancy imagery thrown in. He writes with basic conversations and simple words. But even with the minimalist vibes, that's where the power in his words lies. "A Sudden Liberating Thought" is one of those stories that just sticks to your soul. I swear it's gonna be living rent-free in my head for ages.

I haven't read the biography on Askildsen, but in reading his work, I'm assuming he isn't the president of the "Let's Praise God" club. His stories give the feel that he waves the atheist flag and has a world view that flirts with nihilism Looking at it from a religious lens, I am reminded of reading those Psalms where David leaves off his Psalm with questions and where he doesn't seem to get an answer or even reply. Askildsen's stories seem stuck in that same vibe.

Despite being an amazing writer, don't binge-read this stuff. Take it slow, my friend. 'Cause once you're done, you're left with this heavy feeling, a dose of sadness, and a PhD in life's gloominess.

In a nutshell, "Everything like Before" is a rollercoaster of emotions by Kjell Askildsen. His short stories are an eye opener to the sometimes sad reality of the bleakness of life. So don't be in a rush to finish. Life's tough, and so are Askildsen stories.

[AvidBibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despondency Begets Sentimentality and the Acceptance of Melancholic Circumstances ♾

Voyeuristic cowardice, vague remembrances, and pathetically humiliating moments of personal defeat fill these pages with tangible emotions. There are charming cafés, missing index fingers, photo albums, burnt playing cards, and house fires, but there are also several mentions of grief, solitude, loneliness, regret, demolition, deafness, and funerals. Unspoken animosity simmers between spouses who’ve found peace with subordinate levels of defeat, and unprovoked provocations destroy keepers of time while leaving untouched whistles intact. Awkward park-bench conversations bring clarity to the meaning of life — or the deafening lack thereof, and the psychological burdens of satisfying familial obligations weigh heavily on many of the characters within.

I will say that some of the storylines started feeling a bit monotonous to me, but perhaps that’s because there are innate redundancies already embedded firmly within many of the mundane facets of life. Drinking, smoking, jealousy, and annoyance, were heavily present themes, and I genuinely found myself feeling perplexed and confused at the abrupt conclusion of several of the stories. The rhetoric was engaging and the scenes were well described throughout, but I found the content to be somewhat underwhelmingly disconnected at times.

[Cynthia Arrieu-King]

I had heard of this book on Twitter and it happened to be in my library's e-books.

These are contemporary short stories from Norway and Europe (vacation). What interests me is the style being so entrenched in limited third person, and so reminiscent of Hemingway/Ingmar Bergman in austerity of tone and in the deceptive, superficial simplicity. One early story of two men meeting by chance in a park over and over reminded me of that kind of profound extremis in Knut Hamsun's Hunger. There's always something off, intriguing, and depressing. The pleasure in the book, for me, is that I often have this uncanny feeling that I'm reading something from the late 19th century but I know it's from today: feeling the revision of the present into something so clear and matter of fact and spare, without any quotidian little phrases is like looking at an abstract painting of a figurative scene--except that it moves.

If the book continues to be about loveless couples in awkward, tense scenarios, though, I'm going to bail.

[Eric Hinkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I've never heard of anyone who walks as slowly as I do, it's a nuisance, I'd rather be a deaf-mute, what's the good in hearing after all? And why speak, who's listening, and is there anything left to say? Well, yes, I suppose there are things left to say, but who's listening?"

Some of these stories are among the best I've ever read. Usually nothing much happens, but the internal experience of the characters is often spellbinding, and always interesting. These are very lonely people, extremely imperfect men and women, but he writes about them in such a compelling, warm, and often blackly humourous manner. I had never heard of this Norwegian but he's known as the country's best short story author. I will definitely seek out more.

"We're arrows flying from the womb and landing in a graveyard."