Nina Lykke has previously shown us the inherent folly of Norwegian society seen through the glasses of doctors and teachers. This time the Norwegian literary duck pond will be cleaned up. And who has she chosen to do the cleaning job? Say hello to Knut A. Pettersen! Author. Well into the fifties. He hasn’t been able to write anything properly for years. He is still remembered for his third novel, which he refers to as “The Famous Book”. In return, he has recently experienced being portrayed as an abuser by a younger female writer. And it is her that he has been invited to sit on a panel with at the country’s biggest literature festival in Lillehammer. It moves inexorably towards the showdown at Gudbrandsdalslågen’s bank! Nach at the hotel Before the time of the settlement approaches, we will also take a trip to everything else that can be said to belong to the standard menu for a Norwegian literature festival in the 2020s. Sami, feminists in hijab, trans people and muttering Kenyan poets – they all meet over a hot dog at Dagbladet’s party and at the nachspiel at the Breiseth hotel. Endless rows of ill-prepared literary conversations must be led by cranky presenters, in front of an audience that can’t stop staring at their mobile phones. Future archivists who wonder how our time faded will find a rich supply of sources in this novel. Different realities But there is also another truth about this cultural figure accused of abuse. This truth is taken care of by Knut’s ex-wife Lene. She knows he is incapable of harassing anything. On the contrary. He is, and really has always been, the kind of person that women choose entirely voluntarily. Two descriptions of reality are thus opposed to each other. Is Knut a fairly ordinary person with strengths and weaknesses on a receding front, as his ex-wife knows he is – or is he a horny lizard, as he appears in thousands of copies through the “Virkelighetsforfatterens” novel? Tattooed at a sausage party But what about the woman of culture? Is she paying enough attention? Which women’s roles are available in the literary and media narratives of our time? Is it the case that the woman tends to end up as a victim? What then becomes the task of literature? Nina Lykke contributes some new variants: drunk, young, tattooed woman with no inhibitions at a sausage party. Strategic reality writer who puts herself in a victim position to build her literary career. Happiness nuances by caricature. That is her strategy, and she gets far with it. These provocations have an underlying message. It must be possible to show off and talk about this type of lady. And it must be done with the help of exaggerations. That is the task of art. To speak completely freely. Helgardings can be carried out in the so-called reality. The artist is not here to have fun! So the question is finally how artistically successful this will be. The answer to that is, also in this novel, that reading is a slightly mixed pleasure. Some dialogues sit like a shot. Others do not. Shooting from the hip That a man of culture should be hanged with both his first and last name in a Norwegian novel is not entirely believable – and it is a central premise in the story. Maybe, I think I should say maybe, I could have also wished for a somewhat more nuanced portrait of Knut’s femme fatale when they finally meet on stage. But these objections do not overshadow the joy I feel that Norwegian literature has Nina Lykke. She is a trapeze artist who balances on a tight line – without a safety net. She is the court jester who tells it like it is. The child who points out the obvious. That makes her a gift package for anyone who feels a little on the conformist side. Nina Lykke has written an epic for outsiders. news reviews Photo: Forlaget Oktober Title: “We are not here to have fun” Author: Nina Lykke Genre: Novel Publisher: Forlaget Oktober Number of pages: 459 Date: 14 October 2022 Hi! I read and review literature in news. Please also read my review of “Kairos” by Jenny Erpenbeck, “Etterliv” by Abdulrazak Gurnah or Franz Kafka’s “The Process” translated by Jon Fosse. More Nina Lykke books reviewed:
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“We are not here to have fun” by Nina Lykke – news Culture and entertainment
