Say hello to Frank! He plays an important supporting role in Malin CM Rønning’s Brage Award-nominated second novel. To say that he is unsympathetic is the book year’s biggest understatement. Because Frank is more than that. He is a complete piece of shit. I’m tempted to say he’s delightfully unlikeable. Because isn’t it much better to meet such types in books than in reality, where they certainly exist? “The bad guy” adds tension to the story. The hero is met with resistance, and we are given the opportunity to think through how important it is that we do not leave room for our inner Frank. In short: Art needs people like Frank. Here he also has another function. His badassness tells us something about some women. Because there are women who choose people like Frank with open eyes. Shotgun and porn calendar And then we are at the start of “The twelfth house”. When the mother of two, Karla, decides that she is tired of life as a single mother in a block of flats, yes, she gets in the car and moves in with Frank. It is the daughter Molli who narrates. We meet her in glimpses after she has grown up. But most of the novel takes place that summer when she and her older brother were moved into Frank’s house. Malin CM Rønning draws with a sure hand the house where Frank sits and hisses disparaging remarks to his new stepdaughter. It is the early 1990s, and there is a lot of smoke. Aquarium and solarium in the living room. Shotgun and porn calendar on the wall. A car scrapping company as the nearest neighbour. The river is dirty. The nearby forest is a thicket. There are few safe places here. Big brother Bill is placed in the basement room with a locked door up to the first floor. Listen to the review of “The twelfth house” in “Apen bok: Kritikerne”: The vulnerable child in a dysfunctional family must be one of literature’s most well-used motifs. Two of the year’s strongest books, “Jævla menn” by Swede Andrev Walden and “Pabbi” by Mimir Kristjansson, are about children who grow up, and who make it through a childhood in rather broken families. Reminiscent of Bergman Both of these two books appear as pure “feel good” stories juxtaposed with the completely grim atmosphere of “The Twelfth House”. At Andrev Walden, the light and humor came in the form of a steady stream of, to put it mildly, peculiar father candidates. With Mimir Kristjansson, it was his father’s faithful love and admiration for his son that saved him through an upbringing characterized by his father’s heavy alcohol abuse. It’s as if Malin Rønning doesn’t think she can afford such bright spots. Here the thoughts go rather in the direction of Ingmar Bergman’s film classic “Fanny and Alexander”. In the second part of the film, the siblings Fanny and Alexander are terrorized by the priest their mother marries. At Bergman’s, two uncles appear to save the situation. A possible savior in the form of an uncle also appears in “The Twelfth House”. He is a musician, and seems like his heart is in the right place. But he too turns out to be unable to be an adult in the face of these children who are largely left to fend for themselves. Explanations The great bright spot in this story is the resilience that grows in a child who does not allow himself to be broken. Perhaps it is, as the child claims when we meet her as an adult, that certain children have a special toughness in them: Fine-cut “Det tolvte huset” is Malin Rønning’s second novel. Here there is little desire to renew the novel genre, neither in form nor in content. As the author himself says: This is a simple story. She has found that way. There are people like Frank. Then there are women who choose these men with open eyes, and children who have to live with the consequences. Malin CM Rønning has written a finely honed story about this. She is unusually stylish for being so new to the game. What other themes and motifs does she have in her? It will be exciting to follow her further. news reviews Photo: Forlaget Oktober Title: “The twelfth house” Author: Malin CM Rønning Genre: Novel Publisher: Oktober Number of pages: 311 Date: 7 June 2024 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. Published 19.11.2024, at 15.31
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“The twelfth house” by Malin CM Rønning – Reviews and recommendations
