Melancholy by Jon Fosse
My rating: 1/5 cats
karen’s book club says:
** edit to include excerpt because it is hard to explain how painful this book is without making you guys feel it, too. **
no. this book is not for me. but i learned the value of maybe not just buying every book with a nice cover, or put out by dalkey, or that sounds mildly interesting on the back copy. dana gives the two-page test. maybe i should use that once in a while. because i would never never have bought this one. it is so heavily stylized with repetition and insanely neurotic narratorial voice that you never feel you are making any progress. i thought maybe i would read it aloud a little to see if it helped, but it just made me feel like i was dr. seuss’ older, less successful embittered brother. there are different books for different people… some people read to learn things, some read for escapism, some read to feel like they are trapped in the mind of a demented norwegian painter. if you are in the last category, might i recommend this book? it may be just the thing for you. for me, i require a fluid storytelling technique and a certain accessibility to the story itself that doesn’t seem like in order to get to it, i have to pass fairy-tale style tasks like clearing the brambles to get to it. but i am a lazy american. sorry, fosse, you’ve been banished.
this is what this book is like. had i opened up TO ANY PAGE i would have known this and have been able to avoid it. it gives me a headache.
And Mr. Winckelmann pulls Helene toward the door and I have to just sit quietly and watch while Mr. Winckelmann takes my darling Helene away from me, Mr. Winckelmann is pulling my darling Helene away from me forever, he is pulling my darling Helene with him, he is pulling her out of the room I rented in Mrs. Winckelmann’s apartment, he is grabbing the arm of my darling Helene hard and pulling her away from me and while Mr. Winckelmann is pulling my darling Helene away from me Mrs. Winckelmann just stands in the doorway and watches. My darling Helene is being pulled out of the room by her arm. And he can’t do that. And I have to just sit here. And my father is standing over by the window and watching Mr. Winckelmann pull Helene out of the room. My father is staring at Mr. Winckelmann who is pulling my darling Helene out of the room. My darling Helene is being pulled out of the room forever, away from me, away from me forever. And my father doesn’t say anything, he just stands there with his cap in his hand, in his wooden shoes, he stands there and watches Mr. Winckelmann pull my darling Helene away from me. And Elizabeth, my darling sister Elizabeth, why are you just standing there and looking up at Mr. Winckelmann??
and on and on and on for the whole book. i was so glad to see the end of this one, i tell you.
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