The book title lends itself to science fiction. But the name of Lotta Elstad’s seventh book and fourth novel, “Xiania 1” has a simple explanation: “X” stands for “Christ”. Then “Xiania” becomes “Kristiania”, i.e. the name of the capital before it changed back to Oslo in 1925. No warrior princesses, spaceships or Martians, in other words. But Lotta Elstad has certainly written a cool heroine, and the environment she depicts is at least as interesting as distant galaxies. We are going to Kristiania a hundred years ago. The narrator in the novel, 19-year-old Klara, arrives there. She is unwanted pregnant. This is how she explains herself in the very first paragraph of the book: Abortion Klara has tried to sort out the consequences of the “pastime”. But when neither bitter herbal decoction nor brutal washing of the abdomen works, she is desperate. In addition, sick, as one can quickly become from home-made gynecology. Books about young women who have ended up “in the loop”, there are many of them. The original thing in “Xiania 1” is that the author does not make Klara into some poor victim. On the contrary! Elstad clearly believes that a woman must have control over her own body and her own future. But she does not argue explicitly, she shows it through Klara. WATCH: Literary critic Gerd Elin Stava Sandve talks about “Xiania 1” in Nyhetsmorgen. Slummen Oslo Klara is tipped off that she can get an abortion in Kristiania. Thus she left her house post near Hamar, and went to the capital. The address she has been given is in Vaterland. Today, this area is where the Plaza hotel, Oslo Spektrum and the bus station are located, while parts of Akerselva are under a concrete cover. A hundred years ago, Vaterland was a slum. WAS A Slum: The Vaterland area in Oslo in 1951. The area still had the feel of a slum with small brick buildings and wooden houses in severe disrepair. Photo: STAGE / NTB Klara arrives in a district where prostitutes and alcoholics share space with workers, recently arrived immigrants and other immigrants. People live in rickety sheds in muddy streets, with the smelly, heavily polluted Akerselva as their nearest neighbour. The fact that outside is standard and the dot cleaners are on strike doesn’t help the smell either. Or on hygiene. Lotta Elstad describes stench and noise. The energy and linguistic drive are at their peak as she conjures up the city as it was a hundred years ago. Alcohol ban Once at Vaterland, Klara gets help. In addition, new friends, who also arrange work for her among the richest of the rich, in a very large mansion on Bygdøy. Klara finds herself torn between revolution-ready Bolsheviks who run an illegal family planning clinic in the slums, and unimaginably wealthy salon radicals in the city’s very best areas. She soaks up the impression, and shares it with the reader. This is how Lotta Elstad opens up so that the reader can draw lines between then and now. In particular, she tells about the alcohol ban, and how people get around this. Stopping drinking alcohol is out of the question. At least in the milieu Klara becomes part of. The liquor ban The alcohol ban was temporarily introduced in Norway in August 1914, when the First World War broke out. There was a ban on brewing beer and making liquor from grain and potatoes. The Storting continued the ban in 1916. The ban was introduced to ensure that grain and potatoes were used for food instead of alcohol production. Gradually, other arguments took over (health, finances, crime in intoxication) that people should abstain from alcohol. Fråhaldrørsla was great. The ban had many unexpected and unplanned consequences, such as smuggling, “medical” alcohol on prescription, illegal sales, and home burning. The ban was lifted in 1927. Source: Store norske lexikon Here Lotta Elstad works with fascinating history dissemination. She portions out the information nicely, without reading on and making a “textbook” out of the text. In between, Elstad inserts nice pauses, like this one: Klara is a healthy heroine. Young. Absolutely naive. But to believe in and love. “Insane” in 1922? Only a couple of times it rattles a bit. Like when Klara says that something hurts “insanely”. Did you use “insane” as “terrible” a hundred years ago? The word was perceived as a linguistic anachronism, i.e. out of place modern language. Here are also a couple of passages where Klara perhaps explains too much. Sometimes she uses an outside view, while a person who experienced all this would probably rather tell about them from the inside, more understanding and less detailed explanation. This is of course a big challenge for all authors who write historical novels. How much can an ordinary reader in 2023 already know about the 1920s, and how much must be explained? GREAT WORK: Lotta Elstad clearly read up thoroughly before she started what will become a trilogy. Behind the book, she has a long literature list, with everything from thick historical works to contemporary fiction, peppered with contemporary pop songs that have also served as inspiration. Photo: Oda Berby Charm and politics Lotta Elstad has managed to bake an impressive amount of historical facts into the text. In the vast majority of cases, the information fits in nicely. It is not often that it feels overburdened. She also uses a clever move to make it more realistic that Klara explains about political events. As she tells, Klara is actually sitting a little forward in time, in another place. Then it makes sense that she explains a lot. So my objections are mostly sarcastic. The main impression is that “Xania 1” is a particularly charming novel, with a memorable heroine in the lead role. Lotta Elstad runs fascinating history dissemination from a Kristiania that no longer exists. That the author dares to let his own views on political topics such as abortion and class shine through is also positive. “Xiania 1” invites you to think further, to draw lines between history and the present. But most of all it is a story with good drive, told with springy language. news reports Illustration: Cappelen Damm Title: “Xiania 1” Author: Lotta Elstad Published: 31 August 2023 Number of pages: 320 Category: Novel Publisher: Cappelen Damm ISBN: 978820279843 Hello! I am a new critic at news, with a particular interest in Norwegian and sold fiction. Feel free to read my message about “The wrecker” by Lars Saabye Christensen, and about “Fire, teeth, water, tongue” by Nhu Diep. Feel free to write to me! The address is [email protected]
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“Xiania 1” by Lotta Elstad – Reviews and recommendations
