"Ellevte roman, bok atten" (1992 original; edició 1992)

Min andre Solstad-bok, den første var T. Singer. Nivået er like høyt. Dette er veldig bra. ( )

Well that was something.

I almost abandoned this book because I thought it was yet another "middle aged man rationalizes the bad things he has done" book. Never my favorite trope, and I slogged through one recently. But I had promised to do a #readnordic instagram post today, and I needed to finish this.

So I kept going. And wow. It got a bit better. And then it went...calmly, deliberately, wacky.

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Summary (for me)
Bjørn Hansen abandoned his family when his son was two, to move with his mistress to her hometown when she inherits a house. And he slides into life there--he gets the job of head town tax collector (much to the anger of those who have put years into the department), he has a good friend in the dentist, and he participates in the theatre troupe. And, years later, she leaves him and goes back to Oslo.

And for the first time ever, he reflects on his life. Everything has been "by chance" (how is abandoning your family to follow your mistress "by chance"? Or applying and getting a good position?). But that's Bjørn. He's not one to take responsibility for his actions. So he takes charge and makes a plan. Which works, as he comes to regret. ( )

Testo avvolgente, quasi ipnotico. In compagnia di Bjørn Hansen, esattore comunale, eroe romantico in navigazione attorno all'abisso. Spiazzante, grottesco, irrimediabilmente umano. ( )

Bjørn Hansen's horror at the way his life has turned out gives me goosebumps but is also a bit bleh.

I want to say it's "technically brilliant", whatever that means. ( )

I read this book because of an LT recommendation. It is without a doubt one of the most disturbing books I've read recently. Solstad writes in a very matter-of-fact style about a man who is living a relatively boring life in a provincial Norwegian town. At times, I thought where is this going and why should I care? Then the man makes an extremely bizarre decision (although its full horrifying details aren't revealed to the reader until the last 10 pages or so). I will be thinking about this book for quite a while because it packs a lot of ideas in its brief, spare pages.