Already from the first paragraph, Lina Breidablik offers sentences with an unusual poetic flair. Under the heading “The ash tree”, she quickly outlines the journey she will take us on. “(…) sometimes I go out into the streets of the city where I live, cross paths and meet people I know or don’t know, everything is like lines, but feels like a stack, no like a pile, a pile of time and things and choirs for all days I will make of it”. Blue morning branch No, where on earth are we going to make of it, this life? Is it really possible to live in everyday life, when everyday life, i.e. life, turned out to be this? Lina Breidablik shows that the ordinary can hold quite a lot. SEE: Literary critic Knut Hoem talks about “Heime aleine” in Nyhetsmorgen. A friend who works at the emergency room. PowerPoint presentations in the office, and trips home to the industrial estate she comes from. The journey home itself, on the night bus, ends here: “Sometimes on the night bus I close my eyes in Oslo, and then I open my eyes and I’m home. Mum and dad and the dog are in the bus compartment by the national road. It’s a blue morning branch. Mum opens her arms softly, smiles and takes care to lower her face so that she shows that there is much more seriousness here at the moment, she closes her arms around me, so nice to have me home. Dad hugs and pats my back, the bag on my back: ‘Nice'”. Planner “Majorstukrysset” “It is possible to live in the weekdays too”, wrote Olav H. Hauge. And also meant the literature. Everything cannot be about the climate crisis or the war in Ukraine. Because our lives don’t. It is perhaps just as well to take it in, even if it is a painful realization. Large parts of life were to be spent wandering around the Majorstukrysset (crossroads in the west of Oslo). At least that’s how it turned out for some of us. SKINNER: The Majorstukrysset in Oslo may not be the most beautiful place in the world, but in Lina Breidablik’s debut it takes on a kind of poetic beauty. Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB It’s good to see that there are writers who can make even this tired old crossroads shine in their very own, unique light: “Those in the traffic logistics office’s most honorable mission, the most talented in the office, those must have stood and looked beyond the plan, a large map that lay on the table in front of them and showed the Majorstu junction, they had thought and tried everything, and time and time again it still appeared like this, with a tiny little green man who lasted a little too short, and another that lasted a little too long”. Mosaic Lina Breidablikk has written a mosaic novel, consisting of 85 sections or chapters. Together they form a portrait of a woman, if not in flames, who is in any case very much alive. Now I have studied every piece of the mosaic – and I struggle to find weak pieces. On the contrary, I have the feeling that I could turn the pages like anywhere, and find phrases I could imagine quoting. This must then be the perfect spring book. That’s how a debut should be. Not too long. With room to expand. Lina Breidablik knows how to galvanize everyday life. news reviewer Photo: Gyldendal Title: “Heime aleine” Author: Lina Asheim Breidablik Genre: Novel Publisher: Gyldendal Number of pages: 144 Date: 2023 Hi! I read and review literature in news. Please also read my review of “Kairos” by Jenny Erpenbeck, “Details” by Ia Genberg, or Franz Kafka’s “The Process” translated by Jon Fosse.
ttn-69
“Heime aleine” by Lina Asheim Breidablik – Reviews and recommendations
