Novel number two from Danish-Norwegian Kirstine Reffstrup deserves praise for great originality and intense atmosphere. “Jernlungen” takes us to strange places in the exploration of… freedom, perhaps? Exploring identity? Bodies that don’t fit the form? This and more, if you ask me. History is ambiguous and opens the door to co-poetry. Hard facts and fluid forms The novel revolves around two 13-year-olds who live very different lives at different times. Here are the hard facts: 1913: In a forest outside Budapest there is an orphanage for boys. The manager steams chives and wraps himself in a dark cloak with red lining. 1952: In a hospital in Copenhagen, small polio-stricken children lie in so-called “iron lungs” that help them breathe. But before one can turn the page, we are in the fluid, or in limit states. “I am neither a girl nor a boy. I drink bitter amniotic fluid. I’m far from home, and I sing from the hole where I exist and don’t exist.” “I am the child that the mothers supported. I breathe down through the century.” Enigmatic, but also imaginative. What’s going on here? ALMOST-DEBUTANT: Norwegian-Danish Kirstine Reffstrup made her debut in 2016 with the novel “Eg, Unica”, which was nominated for the Debutant Prize and Montana’s Literature Prize in Denmark. In her second book “Jernlunga”, she describes two teenagers who must find themselves under great pressure. Photo: Sofie Amalie Klougart The summer bird that became a pupa Both young people tell their own story. Agnes in iron lung is easy to follow. She lies in the machine that keeps her alive. No one knows if she survives, and in the end, Iron Lung becomes a safe harbor while life outside is dangerous. The body, which should have folded out, instead shrinks in. She is the summer bird that transforms into a pupa. But she can dream, and quite especially the dream about a previous life where she lived in an orphanage outside Budapest, is interesting here. Because there the other girl, who is called “Boy”, lives together with 11 other boys under Tara’s watchful eye. Discipline is strict, shirt collars are high and stiff. No one can read, no other human comes by. There is Tara, some “sisters”, the 12 children and some dogs you don’t want to be unfamiliar with. Here, the Grimm brothers meet Roald Dahl on a dark day. And is our “Gutt” a complete girl, or something in between? It is unclear what it is with Gutt’s gender identity, beyond the fact that everyone thinks he is male. Tara calls what she has in her pants “eggs”. Nobody must see the egg, but Gutt himself has seen “Their dangling flesh and two boiled plums when they pull down their trousers at night.” Despite Tara’s iron discipline, the “egg” is revealed and Gutt’s life takes a drastic turn. Creating oneself The novel suggests that Agnes may be the reincarnation of Gutt. It becomes a claim that doesn’t make much sense; nevertheless, it makes sense to place the two next to each other. Both are forced into extreme conditions that prevent them from unfolding, something that strongly affects their lives. “Jernlungen” is poetic horror about girls under pressure. It is heartbreaking to read about Agnes in an iron lung, but she still lives within familiar categories: family, hospital, homework, grief over life. Polio actually ravaged Denmark in 1952. While Gutt is radically outside and has to maneuver in life without language for his experiences. She must create herself by using the words she has heard, and not least through rather drastic and meaningful actions. In modern parlance, the children in the children’s home are exposed to obvious abuse. But Kirstine Reffstrup does not use the extreme experiences to create moral upheaval in the reader. Instead, she explores aspects of the human, and that in a poetic, suggestive, sensual language that makes both the familiar foreign and the eerie present. Despite the fact that the year is still young: “Jernlungen” is the year’s most original novel. And that is meant positively, in case anyone doubts. news reports Photo: October Title: “Jernlungen” Author: Kirstine Reffstrup Genre: Fiction Pages: 411 Publisher: October Published: 10 February 2023
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“Jernlungen” by Kristine Reffstrup – Reviews and recommendations
