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Ein Meer Aus Zeit
It is midsummer in Norway. A long-divorced couple, Johan and Judith, meet one another again in the wake of a family tragedy. Finally they are forced to confront what went wrong in their relationship and the effect it has had on those around them. In the extraordinary psychological drama that follows, Johan and Judith plumb the very depths of sorrow and despair, before emerging with a new understanding. "A beautiful book which will communicate to everyone who reads it"--Jostein Gaarder, author of Sophie's World. "Andersen [is] adept at perceiving love's intricacies as she is as parenthood's... a bravely clear-eyed study"--The Times. "An intensely moving novel, written in pellucid prose"--Michael Arditti, Independent. 'This beautiful, translucent and wise book is difficult to put down"--VG, Norway's leading daily. "Captivating, sensitive, forceful,"--Norwegian Critics Association, Award Winner 2003
- GenresFiction
381 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 24, 2019
2002 norveç edebiyat ödülü almış. Full diyalog. Kişi sayısı az . Kitabın ilk yarısında çok sıradan diyorsun ,birden herşey karışıyor. Bazı yerlere gerçek ve düş birbirine giriyor. Deraylar şok edici. Drama kısmı uzun anlatılmış. Seven katlanabilenler benden daha çok sevebileceklerdir. Anlatımı çok farklı . Karakterler kimisi ekstra sıradan kimisi ekstra sıradışı . Değişiklik arıyorsanız okuyun ama dramaya toleransınız olmalı.
January 4, 2023
Hav av tid
Denne boken har vært veldig bipolar. Jeg vet ikke helt hvor mange stjernekast jeg skal gi den. Noe jeg elsker med boken er skrivemåten. Det er vanskelig å forklare, men det er nesten som hodepinen til karakteren smitter over til meg når jeg leser om kranglingen til Johan og Judith. Jeg forstår hvorfor de ikke fungerte og misliker dem begge på en måte. Ganske mange ganger under lesingen har jeg tenkt dette er meningsløst og ventet på poenget. Men det er hele greien med boken, nå høres det ut som dette er en helt ass bok, men jeg likte den. Det handler om noe som er vanskelig å forstå, og konklusjonen min etter boken er at jeg ikke forstår (purr det va litt poetisk). Det er også deler av boken som får meg til å spy litt, det blir veldig klisje. Favoritt delen min er på side 208. Jeg har ikke blitt særlig påvirket av bøker til nivået der jeg gråter, men hav av tid fikk ut noen tårer (kan egt ikke gi all credsen til boka da, den triste musikken jeg hørte på bidro ganske masse lol) Alt i alt var det en fin opplevelse. Har merket at bøker slik som denne ofte sitter en del i hodet. Jeg glemmer dem egt ikke. Glad for at jeg er endelig ferdig.
Mvh Lady Dunya
November 4, 2012
Il monologo mentale del padre prima, quello della madre poi. Due tentativi di iniziare a superare l’immenso dolore per una perdita inaccettabile: il suicidio della figlia adolescente. Si ripercorre la storia d’amore dei genitori e la conseguente rottura. Poi i dialoghi del padre e della madre, compulsivi, assurdi, dolorosi.
Non mi è dispiaciuta la lettura, anche se l’ho trovato poco coinvolgente. Nonostante la neve della copertina (riferita alla nazionalità dell’autrice, norvegese) nel romanzo, che pure si svolge in Norvegia, c’è un clima caldo. E’ estate. La luce che si protende anche nella notte mi è sembrata voler scavare e mettere a nudo ancora di più il dolore dei genitori.
Non mi è dispiaciuta la lettura, anche se l’ho trovato poco coinvolgente. Nonostante la neve della copertina (riferita alla nazionalità dell’autrice, norvegese) nel romanzo, che pure si svolge in Norvegia, c’è un clima caldo. E’ estate. La luce che si protende anche nella notte mi è sembrata voler scavare e mettere a nudo ancora di più il dolore dei genitori.
September 18, 2021
Oceans of Time by Merete Morken Andersen has one of the most shocking openings of any book I have ever read. Written in emotionless, clinical, declarative sentences we are told about a sixteen-year-old girl getting up, having a wee, washing her hands and face, getting dressed (including the order she puts on her clothes), having a glass of orange juice, putting the glass in the dishwasher and turning it on so her mum can have clean dishes, getting some rope, going to the woods, rolling a stump she used to sit on near a tree, making a slipknot, stying the rope to the tree, climbing the stump, putting her head through the noose and jumping off. Each part is told with as little emotion as any other - if the narrative were to be believed, her putting on her top before her trousers is as important and meaningful as her killing herself.
Her boyfriend finding the corpse is described just as unemotionally, then we go into the first-person perspective of her Dad, Johan. He talks to Ebba, his dead daughter, as he tries to explain his relationship with her mother, Judith. He fall madly in love for a while before falling out of love, then trapped and then leaving her and finding a new wife called Minna with whom he eventually has a daughter, a half-sister for the dead girl, called Jennifer.
I didn’t like him that much. First, he had an annoying tendency to describe things solely in terms of metaphor. He sees his early life as being invisible until Judith revealed himself to himself with her special torch. He’s clearly quite self-centred, his descriptions of falling in love with Judith are wholly about her influence on him. He infantilises all the women in his life, thinking of them as little girls and seems a bit creepy when I think the intention was to be charming. He considers himself smarter than most other people (not a ‘read’ of the text, he literally says that) but doesn’t seem to be smart in any particular way, unless it’s thinking about his pet theory about Mozart learning about the Elysium Mysteries through the Freemasons - a theory he ignored (both) his families for. Most egregiously (to me) he considers Nietzsche to be a good philosopher - always a bad sign.
The next section was in Judith’s mind, she’s also talking to the spirit of Ebba. I like her even less. Johan may have been self-centred but he clearly felt some connection with his daughter. Judith only connects with herself, she’s also completely helpless and relies on her mum for everything. She also speaks mostly in metaphors but they make less sense.
The fourth section was from the third person and deals with Johan and Judith meeting to plan Ebba’s funeral. The book may have started unusually unemotional but this section is overemotional. Johan and Judith fling metaphors at each other, repeat each other, repeat themselves, fling more metaphors. They cry, rage, break things, collapse into clothing, have baths, walk around the room, talk utter, utter nonsense. If some conclusion is reached, I’m not sure what it is. There were metaphors about inner children, and buried couples and caves with children in it, and walking about in boots too small, and waves, and light, and cords of connection and inner music - and who knows what?
The fifth section is a letter Ebba wrote to her half-sister, Jennifer. It doesn’t impact the plot because Jennifer is not to open it until she is sixteen (she’s now four). All it really reveals is that Ebba had been preparing to kill herself for some time as the letter is written months before the suicide. There’s no real expression of why she did it but seeing as most of the book has dealt with her parent’s failed relationship, I suppose it must be that. The book has also shown that her parents are both hideous people - but I don’t think that was exactly what I was supposed to feel. I think I was supposed to find her parents flawed and essentially decent but I didn’t.
In the last section, Minna, the only reasonable adult in the book, comes round and gives some practical help with the funeral while little Jennifer helps tidy up. There’s a suggestion that the four of them are to become a family together in the future. If that’s the case, I don’t think Jennifer will even wait till she’s sixteen before she finds a log of her own.
I don’t really know what I feel about this book. The beginning was brutal in its coldness in a way which wasn’t pleasant but powerful but then the book seemed to squander it in rising waves of incoherence. It wasn’t so much the flying metaphors but the emotional incoherence, the two first-person point-of-view characters had no idea why they felt or did as they did and the book didn’t grow into understanding or a moment of transcendence, it just ramped up the incoherence. The blurb promised a transformative novel that ended in ‘hope, recovery and love’ and it simply didn’t do that. The book ended with the one adult in the novel (and a literal toddler) picking up after the two baby-adults who had tantrumed themselves out. That could be a very real response to something as incomprehensible as the sudden suicide of a loved one, but it’s not the satisfying thing to do in terms of a novel.
(I've given it two stars because I'm imagining how I'd feel if I had to read it again for some reason and my main feeling is exhausted.)
Her boyfriend finding the corpse is described just as unemotionally, then we go into the first-person perspective of her Dad, Johan. He talks to Ebba, his dead daughter, as he tries to explain his relationship with her mother, Judith. He fall madly in love for a while before falling out of love, then trapped and then leaving her and finding a new wife called Minna with whom he eventually has a daughter, a half-sister for the dead girl, called Jennifer.
I didn’t like him that much. First, he had an annoying tendency to describe things solely in terms of metaphor. He sees his early life as being invisible until Judith revealed himself to himself with her special torch. He’s clearly quite self-centred, his descriptions of falling in love with Judith are wholly about her influence on him. He infantilises all the women in his life, thinking of them as little girls and seems a bit creepy when I think the intention was to be charming. He considers himself smarter than most other people (not a ‘read’ of the text, he literally says that) but doesn’t seem to be smart in any particular way, unless it’s thinking about his pet theory about Mozart learning about the Elysium Mysteries through the Freemasons - a theory he ignored (both) his families for. Most egregiously (to me) he considers Nietzsche to be a good philosopher - always a bad sign.
The next section was in Judith’s mind, she’s also talking to the spirit of Ebba. I like her even less. Johan may have been self-centred but he clearly felt some connection with his daughter. Judith only connects with herself, she’s also completely helpless and relies on her mum for everything. She also speaks mostly in metaphors but they make less sense.
The fourth section was from the third person and deals with Johan and Judith meeting to plan Ebba’s funeral. The book may have started unusually unemotional but this section is overemotional. Johan and Judith fling metaphors at each other, repeat each other, repeat themselves, fling more metaphors. They cry, rage, break things, collapse into clothing, have baths, walk around the room, talk utter, utter nonsense. If some conclusion is reached, I’m not sure what it is. There were metaphors about inner children, and buried couples and caves with children in it, and walking about in boots too small, and waves, and light, and cords of connection and inner music - and who knows what?
The fifth section is a letter Ebba wrote to her half-sister, Jennifer. It doesn’t impact the plot because Jennifer is not to open it until she is sixteen (she’s now four). All it really reveals is that Ebba had been preparing to kill herself for some time as the letter is written months before the suicide. There’s no real expression of why she did it but seeing as most of the book has dealt with her parent’s failed relationship, I suppose it must be that. The book has also shown that her parents are both hideous people - but I don’t think that was exactly what I was supposed to feel. I think I was supposed to find her parents flawed and essentially decent but I didn’t.
In the last section, Minna, the only reasonable adult in the book, comes round and gives some practical help with the funeral while little Jennifer helps tidy up. There’s a suggestion that the four of them are to become a family together in the future. If that’s the case, I don’t think Jennifer will even wait till she’s sixteen before she finds a log of her own.
I don’t really know what I feel about this book. The beginning was brutal in its coldness in a way which wasn’t pleasant but powerful but then the book seemed to squander it in rising waves of incoherence. It wasn’t so much the flying metaphors but the emotional incoherence, the two first-person point-of-view characters had no idea why they felt or did as they did and the book didn’t grow into understanding or a moment of transcendence, it just ramped up the incoherence. The blurb promised a transformative novel that ended in ‘hope, recovery and love’ and it simply didn’t do that. The book ended with the one adult in the novel (and a literal toddler) picking up after the two baby-adults who had tantrumed themselves out. That could be a very real response to something as incomprehensible as the sudden suicide of a loved one, but it’s not the satisfying thing to do in terms of a novel.
(I've given it two stars because I'm imagining how I'd feel if I had to read it again for some reason and my main feeling is exhausted.)
September 7, 2023
En vond, men likevel god bok.
Språk: Omstendelig bok mtp all poesien/bildene gitt. Minner om Nietzsche, kanskje et bevisst valg fra forfatteren mtp faren likte Slik talte Zarathustra av N. Blir litt lettere språk senere i boken.
Handling: Går innpå noe veldig sårt, tungt og dystert, men er virkeligheten for noen - et eget barns selvmord. Mange reaksjoner og tanker rundt selvmordet hos foreldrene virker så realistiske at jeg selv fikk vondt.
Språk: Omstendelig bok mtp all poesien/bildene gitt. Minner om Nietzsche, kanskje et bevisst valg fra forfatteren mtp faren likte Slik talte Zarathustra av N. Blir litt lettere språk senere i boken.
Handling: Går innpå noe veldig sårt, tungt og dystert, men er virkeligheten for noen - et eget barns selvmord. Mange reaksjoner og tanker rundt selvmordet hos foreldrene virker så realistiske at jeg selv fikk vondt.
July 28, 2018
The story does not have the best and desired beginning but I found it very interesting, above all the writing, the thoughts of the characters involved that let the reader see the same situation and story from several points of view. It remindsme of the stream of consciousness and the free flow of thoughts. I liked it!
April 16, 2024
Et par som har vært skilt noen år opplever at datteren på 16 år tar livet sitt. Natten før begravelsen møtes de for første gang på mange år. De snakker om hva som skjedde da deres kjærlighet døde og hvorfor datteren ikke ville leve lenger. Sterk historie er skrevet vakkert, klokt og med senket pekefinger om noe så sjokkerende som en ungjentes selvmord.
September 10, 2018
Ypperlig. Den står seg fortsatt
September 13, 2010
Ein 16-jähriges Mädchen geht eines Tages in den Wald hinter ihrem Haus und erhängt sich. Die Eltern, die sich vor vielen Jahren haben scheiden lassen, zermürben sich und ihr Umfeld (und die Leserin) mit der Suche nach dem Sinn hinter dieser Tat. Die Geschichte wird aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven aufgerollt, aber auch ein Brief des Mädchens an seine jüngere Halbschwester kann zur Klärung nichts beitragen. Die Kapitel sind allesamt sehr langatmig, doch vor allem am Schluss des Buches wird die Verquastheit so dramatisch, dass man kaum noch Lust verspürt, das Buch wirklich zuende zu lesen und man schliesslich froh ist, wenn man den Buchdeckel schliessen kann.
January 14, 2016
En dyster historie. Så utrolig trist og mørk, allikevel en fantastisk lesing. Dette er ikke en lett sommerlektyre, den er tung, dyster og følsom. Språket er vakkert. Metaforene er flotte og samtalene er dype. Hvis det er en ting som kan trekke boken litt ned er det gjentagelsene. Jeg liker denne boken, så mye som man kan like en så dyster bok. Anbefales på det sterkeste. For full anmeldelse, se: http://edgeofaword.com/2015/12/27/hav...
January 25, 2016
Dit was niet mijn boek. Ik vond het erg traag voortkabbelen en ik kwam niet in het verhaal. Er werd naar mijn gevoel te veel teruggekeken in de levens van de personages en te weinig geschreven over wat er in het heden gebeurde.
February 2, 2008
A powerful, moving and beautifully written book. I wish there were more of her books in English translation.
April 6, 2013
a little jewel...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews