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joecam79's review
4.0
Stories from “the North”, proclaims the cover of this anthology. But what are we to understand by “the North”? For the purposes of this collection, co-editors Sjón (Sigurjón B. Sigurðsson) and Ted Hodgkinson have harvested short stories from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Åland Islands, Greenland and Iceland, which are the countries which generally feature in the Nordic Literature Prize awards. In the co-editors’ interview-like introduction, they try to single out the elements which unite these seemingly disparate cultures. A more-or-less shared millennial history is one of these characteristics. But there’s also a common experience of battling with extreme weather and social conditions at the furthest Northern outposts of civilisation.
The co-editors make another very interesting and relevant point – namely that in Nordic literature, the magical, the supernatural and the surreal, possibly remnants of the storytelling of old, often live side-by-side with a hyper-realist, naturalistic approach to fiction. And this, indeed, seems to be one of the main strands which binds the collection together.
Some of the stories are, in fact, explicitly “mythical” in conception. Thus 'The White-Bear King Valemon' by Linda Boström Knausgaard is an Angela-Carteresque retelling of a traditional fairy-tale whilst "The Man in the Boat" by Per Olov Enquist is, at face-value, an account of the drowning of a boy in a lake, but recounted in a way which calls to mind both traditional ghost stories and pagan/Norse mythology (the dead being led away in a both). Other pieces are more surreal in nature – for instance the title story by Johan Bargum, featuring a man who starts to behave like (turn into?) a dog.
As the anthology progresses, the ‘realist’ genre starts to take over and we get to the really depressing stuff. Because living at the Northern edge of the world, especially within lonely island communities, seems to intensify social challenges. Certainly alcoholism, marriage breakdown, abuse and harassment of minorities (whether racial, sexual or otherwise diverse) are, unfortunately, problems which can be found in every continent. However, pieces like San Francisco by Niviaq Korneliussen, 'Zombieland' by Sørine Steenholdt and 'A World Apart' by Rosa Liksom, seem to suggest that such issues can be particular hurtful in the lonely, northern reaches of the world.
There’s much to enjoy and to discover in this book, especially since Sjón and Hodgkinson have featured several writers who, despite their domestic success, are as yet little-known on the international stage . Perhaps it is easier to “sense” than to “define” what makes their stories “Nordic”. Eventually, however, one starts to feel that despite the variety of style and subject-matter there seems to be a common soul to these tales. This collection should be experienced for this, if for nothing else.
The co-editors make another very interesting and relevant point – namely that in Nordic literature, the magical, the supernatural and the surreal, possibly remnants of the storytelling of old, often live side-by-side with a hyper-realist, naturalistic approach to fiction. And this, indeed, seems to be one of the main strands which binds the collection together.
Some of the stories are, in fact, explicitly “mythical” in conception. Thus 'The White-Bear King Valemon' by Linda Boström Knausgaard is an Angela-Carteresque retelling of a traditional fairy-tale whilst "The Man in the Boat" by Per Olov Enquist is, at face-value, an account of the drowning of a boy in a lake, but recounted in a way which calls to mind both traditional ghost stories and pagan/Norse mythology (the dead being led away in a both). Other pieces are more surreal in nature – for instance the title story by Johan Bargum, featuring a man who starts to behave like (turn into?) a dog.
As the anthology progresses, the ‘realist’ genre starts to take over and we get to the really depressing stuff. Because living at the Northern edge of the world, especially within lonely island communities, seems to intensify social challenges. Certainly alcoholism, marriage breakdown, abuse and harassment of minorities (whether racial, sexual or otherwise diverse) are, unfortunately, problems which can be found in every continent. However, pieces like San Francisco by Niviaq Korneliussen, 'Zombieland' by Sørine Steenholdt and 'A World Apart' by Rosa Liksom, seem to suggest that such issues can be particular hurtful in the lonely, northern reaches of the world.
There’s much to enjoy and to discover in this book, especially since Sjón and Hodgkinson have featured several writers who, despite their domestic success, are as yet little-known on the international stage . Perhaps it is easier to “sense” than to “define” what makes their stories “Nordic”. Eventually, however, one starts to feel that despite the variety of style and subject-matter there seems to be a common soul to these tales. This collection should be experienced for this, if for nothing else.
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