“Kvitleik” by Jon Fosse – Reviews and recommendations

All people have some preferences in the way we express ourselves. Perhaps we have a fondness for a single term or fixed formulation. Every writer knows this, not least Jon Fosse. He has created his literary signature by letting words and thoughts tumble around and be repeated with tiny shifts in the consciousness of people who are not initially of the talkative variety. By recording the flow of thought so uncompromisingly, by offering faith and doubt to an intimate couple dance, he has created some of the finest that has been written in Norwegian. If a Norwegian author were to win the Nobel Prize, it must be him. More – and less – of the same But even a Nobel Prize candidate can be idle. Even a master can be trapped by his preferred way of phrasing himself. I think Jon Fosse will be too recognizable this time. “Kvitleik” is a sketch, almost, or a minimalist counterpart to books such as “Morgon og kveld” (2000) and the latest, impressive work, “Septology” (2019-2021). The greatness of these novels manifests itself in how Fosse, with enormous musicality, writes out a whole life, in the most delicious major and the darkest minor. Past and present flow into each other. Art gets a lot of space. And the love. In “Kvitleik” there are few leaps into life. We are and remain in one concrete and confused state. It is described at length and disturbingly, but for me it will be too little. Linguistically speaking, Fosse does not break new ground either, even if he scatters more full stops at the start than we are used to. There are fewer of them as the flow of thought accelerates and the end approaches. Anyone who has read Fosse before knows what she gets: This is more of the same, but on a smaller scale. DON’T TALK LIKE A FOSS: Hans Olav Brenner meets the private writer who is not at all afraid of the truth, but who has something he cannot say. Pulling towards death The tension between light and darkness, a classic Fosse theme, unfolds over 72 airy pages. It opens surprisingly. The first-person narrator is affected by boredom, and it is precisely boredom that I have hardly read that any of Fosse’s characters suffer from, apart from the nameless and uncomfortable 17-year-old in the debut book “Raudt, svart” from 1983. Fosse’s people, on the other hand, are blessed with a rich inner life, where the thoughts, if they buzz ever so much, give value to the life that is lived, or has been lived. Boredom, yes, but boredom? This was new. Then it won’t be long before the first-person narrator, who has got into the car and is driving at random, gets stuck in the middle of a forest road. Turning around is impossible, he can’t back up for kilometers either. When the snow starts to melt, our man sets out on a hike into the forest. What is he going to do there? Find a house, people who can offer him help? Or is he in all seriousness heading into what some would describe as the eternal darkness, but which others call the light, with a capital L? Truth in the surreal The Man in the Dark Forest has many questions, but there are no question marks here. Because the questions are not real. As soon as a thought is formulated, it is undermined by the next. A glowing creature appears. Could it be an angel? And what about the barefoot man in a dark suit? Should they follow him over to the other side? The forest feels like a closed space and a limitless area at the same time. The paradoxes make the narrator realize that the whole situation is impossible. Yet here he is. He has to laugh, in the midst of his despair. Is he at his full five? The last realization Jon Fosse writes effectively about a moment in life that no one knows until they are there. The crossing between day and dream captivates me, and gives associations both to Mattis i Vesaas’ “Fuglane” and to Scottish Ali Smith’s many attempts to depict the borderland between earth and sky. Fosse is true to himself. Nevertheless, the text does not feel as intensely open as in previous novels, but rather closed. The form also gives an oppressive touch of routine. Jon Fosse’s productivity as a writer, playwright and translator is formidable. Not until he has translated both Kafka and Rilke into Norwegian and finished the mighty “Septology”, then this little story comes. It gets its twin in the play “I swarte skogen inne”, which premieres during the Bergen Festival this spring. Despite my great feeling for Fosse: In a rare and valuable piece of writing, “Kvitleik” is not the most memorable. news reviews Photo: Samlaget Title: “Kvitleik” Author: Jon Fosse Publisher: Samlaget Genre: Novel Number of pages: 72 Date: 2023



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