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Karen Patrick

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Karen’s my-favorite-books shelf

Every Word You Cannot Say by Iain S. Thomas

The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente

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Karen is Currently Reading

Karen Patrick is currently reading

The Square Persimmon and Other Stories

by Takashi Atoda

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Sep 25, 2026 11:16PM

Karen Patrick is currently reading

The Room, The Invoice, and The Circus

by Jonas Karlsson

bookshelves: 5-stars-excellent, my-favorite-books, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in November 2022

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Karen Patrick said: " Do you like Murakami? Surreal little novels starring ordinary people in off-beat situations? Do you want to read Swedish fiction but don't know where to start? This might be the book for you! Three charming novellas wrapped into one convenient book. Do you like Murakami? Surreal little novels starring ordinary people in off-beat situations? Do you want to read Swedish fiction but don't know where to start? This might be the book for you! Three charming novellas wrapped into one convenient book. Lots of fun variety and unique plot twists! Ordinary characters living their ordinary lives but thrown out of the loop by unexplained or absurd plot twists! Dark comedy but grounded in reality, lightly seasoned with Swedish rationality and dry humor.

I was really entertained by this collection and I felt so relieved that my blind buy turned out to be exactly the kind of book I was looking for. It fits my taste so perfectly well that I feel really grateful to include this book in my 2022 reading journey. Books are so expensive in my country so nowadays, I cannot afford to buy anything without reading extensive reviews about them first. I took a risk with this one and bought it during my very first trip to KL by myself. Big girl moment right there, folks!

This book is a hidden, delightful gem. Three novellas. All of them with their distinct style, flavor and voice. I loved all the stories even though sometimes, the meticulous descriptions of mundane day-to-day life can be a bit boring (I found this a recurring trend in Swedish fiction. Are they all like this? The Girl With The Dragon tattoo had a very long description of coffee making. In all 3 of Karlsson's novellas, there will be a long descriptions of people putting away their clothes, doing office work or things like that).

My favourite story is "The Invoice". The story blew me away with its darkly comical plot line. Imagine getting an invoice charging you for all the happiness you have ever experienced in this world. How can you pay? Why would you pay? It's little thought exercises like these that make the novella so special. I wonder if Jonas Karlsson is a master of little dinner party topics that liven up any conversation. The story itself gives me a comfortable feeling. I feel strangely happier reading it till the end. The main character of the story is no one special. You might say he is perfectly mundane. The most average Joe of all average Joes. That's what I like the most about it. All of his stories are about everyday people that you could pass on the street without a second look. But Jonas peels back a layer into their seemingly ordinary lives and reveals hidden turmoil and tensions. The Invoice was a beautiful story, a little heartwarming, a little heartbreaking but ultimately happy in the end. It's a story I feel the average person can relate to and inspires a sense of wonder in our daily lives.

The Circus danced between the fine lines of mental illness, sanity and unreliable narrators. It was a delicious mix. I adored how he bamboozled me with the last story. You think you're reading one story from one POV and then bam! He changes the whole game and left me reeling, sitting up in bed and going, "Oh wait, he did what???" The concept of a person disappearing at the circus did not feel really strong at first but just stick to it until the end because everything will be explained in such an elegant way that I knew I was dealing with a master of misdirection.

The first story is a parody of working life and the corporate world. It had a very annoying narrator (think of the most anal-retentive and work-obsessed colleague you can find and multiply it by a million) but his delicious spiral into controlled chaos and surreal situations made the story memorable to me. Imagine having access to a special room but only you can see it and the whole world thinks you are mad but you clearly can produce results at work while being in that room. It's just brilliant. I adore how the author puts his characters in slightly bizarre scenarios that are still grounded in reality. You can never be quite sure if the main character is insane or just experiencing some supernatural alternate world. The more you read about his adventures in the room, the more you sense his paranoia and the thoughts of his colleagues. I adored the open-ended ending.

This was a really great read. Short, easy to finish yet entertaining to the last drop. I get the sensation I just had a filling meal full of seemingly ordinary flavors but fascinating after tastes that linger for a long time. ...more "

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(page 200 of 496)
"I cannot stress again how lucky you are. No rent to pay, no vehicle loan, nothing weighing you down, 2 parents still alive, beloved grandma still alive, good relationship with cousin and living in a city with all basic facilities catered to. No medical issues, no disability, high education, good health…perhaps you are blessed." — Nov 25, 2022 02:46AM

Jan 29, 2023 03:53AM · see review

Karen Patrick is currently reading

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

by Lucia Berlin

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jul 16, 2026 04:45PM

Karen’s Quotes

“It's okay if some things
are always out of reach.
If you could carry all the stars
in the palm of your hand,
they wouldn't be
half as breathtaking”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

tags: inspirational

24 likes

“Fairy tales are full of girls who wait, who endure, who suffer. Good girls. Obedient girls. Girls who crush nettles until their hands bleed. Girls who haul water for witches. Girls who wander through deserts or sleep in ashes or make homes for transformed brothers in the woods. Girls without hands, without eyes, without the power of speech, without any power at all. But then a prince rides up and sees the girl and finds her beautiful. Beautiful, not despite her suffering, but because of it.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

89 likes

“You will have memories
Because of what we did back then
When we were new at this,

Yes, we did many things, then - all
Beautiful...”
― Sappho, Come Close

tags: little-black-classics, love, penguin, sappho, tags-ancient-greece

106 likes

“It was as if a morning-glory had bloomed in her throat, and all that blue and small pollen ate into my heart, violent and religious”
― Anne Sexton, Selected Poems

24 likes

“You can't root yourself
In the ground, hoping the world
Will grow around you.

You were made to do
More than hide in the shadows
Of another's leaves”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

tags: inspirational

11 likes

More of Karen’s quotes…