444 pages, Gyldendal hardcover.
This is a tale about Albert Åberg — the main character of a series of childrens’ books written by Gunilla Bergström in the early 1970s. What happened to him after his childhood in the quiet Stockholm suburb of Hässelby? How did he grow from a lively, enthusiastic boy to a disillusioned, bored man? And what are the consequences of his decline?
Hässelby attempts to answer these questions, and more. It relates the sad tale of what happened to Albert’s dad (who used to be the best dad in the world); how Albert rebelled, and ended up in Hong Kong and Paris; and what happened later. And before.
The novel’s narrative structure is such that giving a short summary of its introduction and premise, is well-nigh impossible, or at least beyond my meager capacity. About half is told through retrospection, and while Albert might have lived a fairly uninteresting adult life, he did quite a lot in his early twenties.
When I read the book the descriptions of these experiences were the elements I liked best. Harstad probably wasn’t old in the early 1980s, but he writes very convincingly of the time and its events. He spices up the narration with pop cultural and political references of the time, and thus makes the tale fell more real than if he had not.
The book ends with a more or less surprising twist, which puts the whole novel in a different light. Or perhaps it rather makes it clear how it was to be perceived in the first place. Anyhoo, I didn’t much fancy this turn when I actually read it, but after a few days I realized that I was thinking about it constantly, and that it was actually quite clever. It was even kinda fantasy-ish.
In the end, Hässelby turned out to be both entertaining and thought-provoking. It had a great story with several interesting characters, as well as a fun didactic side, if such a term is applicable.
I’m too tired to scramble much more together right now, and I want to get this done tonight, so I’ll go straight to the rating. It’s one of the hardest ones to rate yet, but I think I’ll fall down on a weak 9.5/10.
Great Expectations for Buzz Aldrin, hvor ble det av deg i alt mylderet?
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Meget god bok, kunne ikke la den stå med et ubrukt kommentarfelt.
Helt på slutten, tolket du det som om tyskeren ble reddet eller demontert? Når jeg først leste det gikk jeg rett og slett ut i fra at han ble kverket, men etter å ha lest diverse anmeldelser skjønte jeg at det godt kan hende at han faktisk klarte seg. Han var tross alt den eneste som “holdt ut”, noe som har vært et veldig viktig tema i Harstads forfatterskap.
Eh, fanboy, whatever. Glad du likte den, i alle fall! Jeg syntes Buzz er litt svakere, men så satte jeg også mer pris på de dadaistiske elementene i Hässelby enn hverdagsscenene, so your mileage may vary!
3. January 2008 @ 12:29 ( Permalink )
“Helt på slutten, tolket du det som om tyskeren ble reddet eller demontert? Når jeg først leste det gikk jeg rett og slett ut i fra at han ble kverket, men etter å ha lest diverse anmeldelser skjønte jeg at det godt kan hende at han faktisk klarte seg. Han var tross alt den eneste som “holdt ut”, noe som har vært et veldig viktig tema i Harstads forfatterskap.”
Vel, jeg tolka det som at han ble demontert, i alle fall umiddelbart, men… vanskelig å si. Han var, som du sier, en av dem som ikke ga opp, selv om det kanskje var litt defaitistisk å designe redningsflåter…
5. January 2008 @ 01:42 ( Permalink )
Also, thanks for the pimpage. Tror ikke jeg hadde kjøpt denne (den første fullprisboka jeg har kjøpt siden Nærums “Krig” ) hvis det ikke var for at du anbefaler ham så ofte. (Eller, det var jo også den greia med at boka er signert, men jeg har aldri egentlig brydd meg særlig om sånt.)
5. January 2008 @ 01:44 ( Permalink )