#jon fosse

In all, as I said above, a good book. The repetition got very exhausting at times, especially when Asle would start going on about the light in his paintings and his religious thoughts and his landmark points when he looked out the window while sitting at his table, so I kept putting down the book to read something else. But when Fosse really tried the narration was hypnotic (my favorite part being the playground scenes in book I), which is probably why I had an easier time with the middle part than the beginning because of the depth of Asle’s memories and how they shaped him. I love books where Nothing Really Happens so this worked for me, especially because I love good stream of consciousness writing, but I can see why some people might fall off this pretty quick. The way Fosse wove in and out between Asle’s memories, and especially the weaving between narrator Asle and doppelgänger Asle in the first two parts (books I-II), was well done and reminded me a lot of Virginia Woolf’s style (and the boat scene at the very end where Asle starts confiding more in Asleik about his life reminded me of the last section of Woolf’s To The Lighthouse, as the narrative wove between the kids and Mr Ramsay on the boat and Lily Briscoe’s reminiscing at the house).

Personally I thought the middle section (books III-V, maybe into VI) was the best, having the most background into Asle’s life and childhood plus the duality with his doppelgänger’s life. Asle came off as pretty neurodivergent to me, but I’m not sure if Fosse intended this or if he was trying to make him an “eccentric” artist type with some vague handwaving that Something was wrong but who cares about specifics. At the very least his issues with math and directions came off as dyscalculia to me, with anxiety and maybe autism thrown into the mix. With that framing I was very sympathetic to him for all the weirdness in his life and his at-times frustrating behavior, especially after the parts where he recalls his neighbor’s drowning death when they were kids, his getting molested by the Bald Man as a child, and his little sister’s sudden death. That would drive anyone to become withdrawn and angry like he did as a teen, especially the aimlessness he felt because he hated school and felt no one in the world understood him. (Side note but I was kind of stunned at the Norwegian school system and how easy it seemed to drop in and out of it lol. I realize this probably takes place in the pre-cell phone/widespread internet era so I’m not entirely surprised Asle could do things like scratch out his ID card to change his age, plus education rules probably changed considerably since his childhood, but it was funny that he kept moving around so quickly, from the workshop in Aga for his time at the academic high school to Herdis Asen’s room to attend the art school in Bjørgvin and then to Ales’s mom’s friend’s house in what felt like less than two months.) My only major issue with this part was Asle’s first meeting with Ales, but that’s more because it came off as cringy teenagers in love haha. I don’t think the dialogue was that good in most of the book, but with the writing style it was more about the feeling of it than the conversation itself that was important, which Fosse conveyed very successfully.

In terms of criticism, I think the ending felt a bit limp and sudden. There’s build-up through books Vi-VII that I felt implied Asle would die soon given his extreme exhaustion, his decision to give up painting, repeated visions of Ales being near him, and his reminiscing about the deaths of the people around him. The sudden drop-off of the final 2-3 pages into the rambling section of flashbacks through his life and his doppelgänger’s was what sealed that conclusion for me, kind of like how people who have almost died but come back often say they saw visions of their life as they were dying. I don’t know if I feel that this is a hopeful ending, but Asle seemed more at peace with himself as he prayed and since every other book section ends with Asle praying then I suppose it had to happen again at the end. Maybe this is a sign that he can finally move on with his life, maybe this is a sign of impending death, I don’t know.

Another issue I had was the Asle and Guro doppelgänger thing. The deaths of the Bjørgvin Asle and Guro felt like a release of negativity for narrator Asle (and presumably Åsleik’s sister Guro), like they embodied the worst parts of their counterparts… but I’m not sure what the dual Guros were supposed to be. With both Asle’s the comparison was clear (one remained an isolated alcoholic who was unfaithful to both his wives and seemed like a much less successful artist than our Asle, while the other managed to move on from alcohol and stayed faithful to his wife even long after her death, and so on) but the two Guro’s felt like an afterthought. I wish this could have been expanded upon when Asle finally visited Sister Guro at the end with Åsleik for Christmas, but besides mentioning that she liked to drink/smoke and also did Hardanger embroidery like her Bjørgvin counterpart this duality fell flat. Was the proximity of the Bjørgvin doppelgängers the connection — that those two couldn’t stay away from each other while narrator Asle avoided Sister for decades? Was each Guro’s ability to collect their respective Asle’s paintings implying something about their level of emotional intimacy/understanding with them or something (one wanted but couldn’t afford to buy her Asle’s paintings but the other amassed a free collection of his best work through her brother)? And now that the counterparts were dead then maybe our Asle and Guro could meet without all the baggage of their counterparts weighing them down? Maybe there are certain details I didn’t catch because I read ~400 pages in less than a week, I don’t know, but the Guro stuff felt a bit superficial.

Also, poor Bragi, losing his alcoholic owner who constantly had issues getting up to walk and feed him only to get taken in by a guy who constantly doesn’t warm his house up and keeps letting him fall to the floor because he can’t remember the dog is in his lap before getting up. somebody please feed Bragi something besides bread :(