Norwegian author, Knut Hamsun, 1859-1952, was the first novelist to use steam of consciousness in the protagonist's mind as a literary technique. For examples read Mysteries, 1890 or Pan 1894. Both books are small, quickly read and worth reading. His Growth Of The Soil, won the Noble Prize in 1920. A Nazi sympathizer, he fell out of favor during WW II. His style exercised a huge effect on following novelists, not the least of which was Earnest Hemingway.
Contemporary Norwegian author, Jon Fosse, age 64, is a busy writer with 39 novels and short story collections, 40+ plays, 13 volumes of poetry and numerous children's stories. He received the Noble Prize in 2023, for Septology, a tour de force. The English translation, which I read, is 667 pages of small print, 1000 pages in Norwegian. Reading it is also a tour de force which took me most of January.
His writing is much in the tradition of Knut Hamsun. It consists of what Asle, the main character, thinks or remembers. Originally published in three volumes the book cover's seven days in Asle's life, thus the title. Memories of this old man fill in the gaps of the story, so while the book covers seven days, his memories are of a lifetime. There is no period in it so all these pages consist of one sentence.
Two themes penetrate the story, The first is relationships; family, spouse, friends and acquaintances. One of Asle's friends is named Asle so the reader needs to pay attention to the who's revealed in the memory. Asle's wife is named Ales, and if that isn't confusing enough another friend is Asleik. Two women in the story are named Guro. Profound thoughts emanate about these relationships.
The other theme is harder to name: spirituality? the nature of God? the numinous? His thoughts about the nature and presence of God are keen. I'll have much more to say about this in a subsequent blog.
Takk for alt,
Al
No comments:
Post a Comment