We know her: the single, childless woman in her 30s without an adult job, with endless Tinder attempts, among friends and family living their straight, established lives. She fumbles and fumbles and resorts to self-irony to deal with her sense of failure at life. We have seen her in films and TV series, including in the Norwegian Netflix hit “Home for Christmas”, or in the classic “Bridget Jones’s Diary” from 2001. Maybe she is a friend of yours, or maybe it is you who recognizes you in all this. In any case, Freya is such a figure – the main character and first-person narrator in the novel “Dørene slukes”, Maren Skolem’s debut as an adult author. About the author Photo: Karina Ronning / Studio Elisenberg Maren Skolem was born in Bærum in 1991. Educated at Den Norske Filmskolen and has attended the author’s studies in Bø and Tromsø. On a daily basis, she writes for film and television. Skolem made her debut with the youth novel “What I did with the money” in 2022. “The doors close” is her first novel for adults. There is often a pain beneath the self-deprecating laughter of these female characters. In other words, the comic has dark features. In “The doors close” it is a few notches darker than usual. A little “crazy” and “crazy” The bodily discomfort during anxiety is not so much in focus in “Doors close”, compared to, for example, “En velskapt pike” which I recently read. Here we rather become listeners and observers of Freya’s compulsive checking, all the repetitions which, seen from the outside, seem totally meaningless. When Freya closes the bar after the work day, she has to check and double check that what needs to be washed is washed, what needs to be emptied is emptied, and to make sure that she really turned off the water tap or locked the door, she takes pictures and videos of everything . If she gets distracted, she has to start over. It is not easier when she has to leave the apartment, where ovens and tea lights are potentially burning. Or when she has sex, because she may have suddenly called someone, or put on a live stream on Facebook or Instagram. Freya laughs at her compulsive patterns, she is aware that she is a bit “crazy” and “crazy”. But it is obvious that this wears her down completely. Folk tone The novel’s narrative style reminds me of American high school films where the main character runs a kind of dialogue with the audience throughout the action. Freya does not directly address “you, reader” or any diary, it is more like she is having a conversation with herself. Maybe to feel less lonely? The book mostly revolves around Freya’s love life, her fairly recently ended relationship with Alex, and her attempt to write a Tinder bio. She has friends who support her and who oppose her. She has colleagues and family dynamics, and she has her dreams and thoughts of finding her person out there somewhere. “The doors close” is not so textual, and therefore offers little resistance. Orality and comedy take precedence over linguistic ambitions. It’s a style you can like or dislike. Certain parts approach something caricatured, as comedy often risks. Still, when contemporary words and expressions are used so familiarly, it makes the voice believable and Freya resemble a real person. The content is so shady that there is a nice and slightly fascinating interplay with this narrative style. Achieves what it tries for Some parts and scenes are so dark that they feel claustrophobic; you just want to read yourself out of them. At the same time, Freya feels trapped in rituals that should, but never succeed, overcome the feeling that something is wrong. Between the lines, she suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Many will probably recognize themselves in Freya’s overthinking, and perhaps at the same time wish they didn’t. In the end, Freya learns that OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) is the disorder of doubt. The opposite of doubt is trust – trust is the beginning of the way out. If one resists the temptation to check and double-check, which undermines one’s confidence, the doors will eventually open. It is rarely good to be exposed to someone else’s neurosis. But Freya is not squeamish or romantic, and the compulsive acts are only one of two tracks through the novel, which is otherwise about love. This is a novel that achieves what it sets out to do. Wisdom emerges along the way, the observations are good and funny. I notice that I take Freya seriously, the self-irony feels genuine and not a cheap laugh trick. Maren Skolem masters the style she commits to. news reviews Graphics: Gyldendal Title: “The doors are closed” Author: Maren Elise Skolem Publisher: Gyldendal Genre: Novel Number of pages: 224 Date: 25 July 2024 ISBN: 9788205604025 Published 13.08.2024, at 09.41
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“The doors close” by Maren Skolem – news Culture and entertainment
