Comments on: Inger Christensen: Azorno

By: Carsten

Carsten — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:38:45 +0000

Trevor, If you want to read contemporary danish authors, I can also recommend Peter Adolphsens “Machine”, but there are so many good authors that are not translated into english. “Machine” is not Adolphsens best work, but it is a good introduction to his writing either way. Also Solvej Balle: “According to the law”.

If you want to read classic danish authors: Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) of course, J. P. Jacobsen, Henrik Pontoppidan (nobel prize winner), Johannes V. Jensen (nobel prize winner) and my favorite danish author: Herman Bang. He is the danish Oscar Wilde.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:19:51 +0000

One of the fascinating things in reading someone else’s review of (or comments on) a book one has written up, is the different takes each reader has. Anything really worth writing about has more in it than any one person will capture in a single blog entry. A thought that personally I find rather cheering. I’d hate personally to write up a book and feel I’d said all there was to be said about it, it would suggest I’d wasted my time in reading it.

Besides, I only ask questions because the review was interesting enough to make me want to learn more.

You did say the cleverness had a purpose, that does make all the difference doesn’t it? There’s nothing wrong, and can be a great deal right, with clever books that play with narrative and reader expectations. It’s only when it’s done for its own sake, for showiness, that it becomes a bore.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:02:30 +0000

I didn’t say it in the review, Max, but the book has a quote by Kierkegaard at the end that really explains the purpose for all the cleverness.

And your questions are excellent ones, Max, so excellent in fact that I see a major gap in my review above! The latter half of the novel shows some excellent desperation in the characters, so well in fact that one does not care whether they are real or fictional or the same. In fact, the effect is better since we can combine or separate them at will, to great results. It could have easily fallen into being too clever, but this one — to me, at least — skirted the line nicely.

Thanks for the comment, Max. I think it adds great content to this review!

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:42:37 +0000

Hm, I have to admit Trevor, it does sound a tad clever, and I use that word there in the British uncomplimentary sense.

Perhaps I’m burned by Lawrence Norfolk, who would change narrative voice mid sentence on occasion so deliberately throwing the reader, in my case right out of the narrative.

It does sound at the end like one is left slightly unclear who was who, what happened and why, are you left then with a mood? A sense of significance even if significance of what is unclear? I ask as M John Harrison’s Viriconium novels specialised in uncertainty, in a complete lack of clarity as to what if anything happened, but had a very strong emotional content so that while nothing may or may not have happened the emotional consequences were yet clear, the effect on the reader was powerful even though the reader cannot know what if anything has occurred. Harrison writes in a different field to Christensen, but I find myself wondering if the effect is similar.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:57:22 +0000

Hmm, if you fancy a bit of Danish minimalism, you could try Peter Adolphsen. I read his Machine earlier this year, but neglected to write about it – no worries, should I want to, as it’s just shy of ninety pages. The story, which covers prehistory through to recent days, isn’t all that interesting — well, ninety pages is never going to do such a time span justice — but it’s how he gets there and with all manner of slight diversions along the way that makes it interesting.

By: Randy

Randy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:16:59 +0000

Than there was this Danish author just posted in WLF:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/17612-mikkel-birkegaard-library-shadows.html

Randy

By: Randy

Randy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:52:58 +0000

Well, when I said small, I should have said consists of: The Quiet Girl by Peter Høeg,a post modernist novel, The Girl of the 7th Century (published in 1917) by Jens Peter Jacobsen and The Apothecary’s Daughters, by Henrik Pontoppidan (1917 Nobel prize winner, called the Danish Zola).All unfortunately unread by me.

Randy

By: Trevor

Trevor — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:09:24 +0000

I’m not sure that I have any Danish fiction besides this one, Randy. What else do you know of? I’d like to expand.

By: Randy

Randy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:26:15 +0000

Trevor,

This sounds right up my alley, so I need to try to pre-order it. Besides, my Danish fiction section is a small one. I had not heard of her…

Randy

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:34:56 +0000

The pleasure was very much mine, Carsten. I saw that she died in early January, so this translation (which will be released later this month) was already in the works. A few of her books of poetry are translated, but not much else. I hope that changes soon!

Thanks for dropping by!