How We Cheat Each Other

by Odd Nerdrum

"How We Cheat Each Other" is a textbook on human deceit, as narrated by Odd Nerdrum. It consists of six short stories in dialogue form, drawing on Nerdrum's experiences in Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Russia and Germany, and spanning "The Last Days of Immanuel Kant" in the eighteenth century through to our time, and into the future. The theme of cheating takes various forms: Kant cheats the Dutch painter Haan Van Meegeren who in turn deceives the world with his forgeries; a German writer is cheated by his country after the Second World War; the protagonist of "The Diamond Man" is cheated by a spirit; in "The Sleepwalker" a Swedish painter is continually cheated by his environment; in "Marlowe" a neglected poet cheats the system that had ignored him for years; and the concluding story, "After Armageddon," ends with an explosion of all kinds of cheating against a backdrop of torture and slaughter.

Genres: Fiction

626 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Herman · Rating 3 out of 5]

How We Cheat Each Other six short stories by Odd Nerdrum: Let me begin with a digression, the author is a famous artist from Norway and I'm interested in his art philosophy which I think I can find in his book "On Kitsch" which is out-of-print and impossible to find. (anyone have a copy message me and I'll work out a price), anyway I was just book searching online and found this one, thought what the hell give it a chance, so when it came in the mail I wasn't expecting it to be written as for the theater as a play, six hundred pages! Ahhh scheisser! Ok and so it sat on my too read book shelf for a number of months until the wet cold months of fall and I just picked it up one day and said ok, well this must have been my worse book buy of the year might as well check it out see how badly I messed-up. The first story was the Final Days of Immanuel Kant, created a scene that was believable, ironic, humorous, satirical, and before I knew it I was a hundred pages into the book. Now it wasn't always as interesting as the first story. The Diamond Man, takes place somewhere in the middle of Russia and seeks about people and places and lack of choices, lack of resources, it's like Nerdrum paintings kind of a brownish pallet, The Caryatid is about longing and loss of place dying, being past your prime, again not a cheerful story. The Sleepwalker is in memory to Swedish painter Alex Borge
it and the next story named Marlow deals with what is an original, what is a fake, and After Armageddon deals with a dark ages war between Norway and Iceland, a war between religions, and a war between twins. Overall these six stories were not anything I was expecting to read but they were while not cheerful they were also very well written thought out stories some were confusing some I'm sure I missed some important points. I managed to read all six hundred plus pages and I wouldn't have done that if this wasn't interesting. Can't really give it four stars because it's not what I normally read and I didn't find enough traction in the story themselves to feel really connected to these stories so a very solid three stars on this one. Strangest book I've read this year

[Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing

Odd Nerdrum is an endlessly fascinating artist who has created his own mystical world full of human angst, netherworld landscapes, and innumerable self portraits that tell us much about the attitude to this brilliant artist than any book could describe. Unfortunately his ability to weave narratives on canvas is not matched by his talent with the written word. In this overly long book HOW WE CHEAT EACH OTHER he rather clumsily narrates six stories ranging in time frames from the 18th century to the present, representing a swath of countries and cultures including Germany, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and Iceland - all dealing with the topic of cheating, forgery, torture, and all manner of human misbehavior.

Some readers may be expecting a book on the order of WG Sebald or Bernard Schlink or even José Saramago, but what appears here is more akin to the darker novels of Cormac McCarthy - but without the finesse of writing of these great artists. The tone of the book, though divided in to 'short stories' is unrelentingly dour and after a fairly brief time the themes wear thin. Better to turn to the books on the visual statements of this artist and leave the stories to your own interpretation of his paintings rather than to the artist's written words.

Grady Harp