Aliss at the Fire by Jon Fosse – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘In her old house by the fjord, Signe lies on a bench and sees a vision of herself as she was more than twenty years earlier: standing by the window waiting for her husband Asle, on that terrible late November day when he took his rowboat out onto the water and never returned. Her memories widen out to include their whole life together, and beyond: the bonds of one family and their battles with implacable nature stretching back over five generations, to Asle's great-great-grandmother Aliss.

In Jon Fosse's vivid, hallucinatory prose, all these moments in time inhabit the same space, and the ghosts of the past collide with those who still live on.

Aliss at the Fire is a haunting exploration of love, ranking among the greatest meditations on marriage and loss.’

Aliss at the Fire is an experimental novel written by Jon Fosse, who is a well-known playwright from Norway. Having said that I do not know how to place or where to place this. This novel goes through several generations of the Signe’s husband Asle, and talks a lot about his great-great-grandmother, Aliss and how since her days, the same events have been repeating in her family. Even Signe, who has been ‘waiting’ for her husband for over twenty years even though it is very apparent to the reader and everyone else that her husband left on a day when the weather was terrible and the boat sank, and that he is dead.

There are texts that are complex, which require the level of detail and verbose writing is enjoyable to the reader. And then there are books like Aliss at the Fire which have no content and is complicated for the sake of being complicated. I tried my best to get into the experiment of the author and I often like such innovative ideas or experiments and give it the widest time possible for me to judge, but this tested my patience immensely. The first five pages of the novel effectively conveyed that Signe looked out of her window, in so many words (mind you, this is an 80 page novel). It reminded me of a character from the British satirical show Yes Minister, the Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, who spoke such sentences but at least his intent was clear, that was to confuse the minister and in the end get his own agenda through. However, what was the intent of Jon Fosse? I would presume to frustrate the reader.

There are some parts of the text that I enjoyed, such as the description of Signe’s rural home by the Norwegian fjord, but that was all the content that was available on this book, the rest of the 75 odd pages were fluff. I read this book for a book club, and there were those who had positive views on the book, especially among those who enjoy poetry, so if you are someone who enjoys such works, you may try this book.

Since I read a translation, I also did not appreciate how the translator changed the title of the book, wherein, the Norwegian name of the title character is ‘Ales’ but the translator added a note stating that he changed it to Aliss (which is not a traditional Norwegian name), since it could have been misinterpreted as a story about ale and other types of beer. I hardly think anybody would have thought this book is talking about some technique to ferment an ale using fire. 

I would conclude by saying that reading this book was one of the worst by which I used my time and on that note, I award this book a rating of two on ten.

Rating – 2/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville - Book Review

Note : I read the French translation of the novella

Afin de lire mon avis de lecture en français, cliquez ici

Publisher’s write-up (translated by me from the French edition):

‘The world described by Melville in this 1853 novella is already the world of ‘start up nation’, automation, surveillance, uberisation, the world of ‘bullshit jobs’, of open space, a world that is empty and impersonal, digitized and petrified in which all forms of resistance are criminalized. The world of copyright, the fast life of the megacity. To summarise, a mercantile world, brutal and closed, born during the first half of the 19^th century in Wall Street, and that which has become ours today. It is thus not surprising that ‘I would prefer not to’ is a slogan that was used by the protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement’.

Bartleby the Scrivener is a novella written by the American author Herman Melville, who is known for his novel ‘Moby Dick’. In this, Bartleby is a new scrivener employed by a Wall Street advocate who was at first impressed by Bartleby’s sincerity at work. However, little by little, he loses interest in everything and thus, always responded to every question or request with his famous phrase ‘I would prefer not to’.

Even though the novella was written two centuries ago, it is still relatable as mentioned by the publisher, that the text is still relevant in the world of Uber and ‘Bullshit Jobs’ (to read my review on Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, click here). Through this novella, the author had also shown the absurdities in the work environment, where the advocate did not lose anything even when Bartleby was doing nothing, never sacked him owing to sympathy and he was forced to eventually sack Bartleby not because of ‘cost cutting’ but because his reputation was being damaged in front of his clients who were observing that there was someone in the office doing nothing. If not for that, there was no impact in paying Bartleby for doing nothing.

The study of psychology and psychiatry was not that developed in the 19^th century but today, Bartleby might have been diagnosed as someone suffering from a severe depression. It was also a commentary on the American society of this era, where the a person’s profession defined who they were, which is even the case today where the society prefers a person who does some ‘work’ even though it is not useful for anyone rather than someone who does nothing (though the value added to the society in both these cases is nil). As mentioned earlier, there were many similarities between what was described in this novel and the 21^st century essay written by David Graeber on the phenomenon of ‘Bullshit Jobs’.

I would also add a point on the translation, I normally hate reading translations if I know the original language, especially in this case where the original language is my native language. However, the French translation was done very well and had a lot of footnotes which are required for the understanding of a 21^st century audience, for example, the book talks of a ‘dead letter office’, a concept which people are unlikely to be familiar with today, but, my French edition had a footnote explaining what it was and I could understand Bartleby’s plight further, thanks to that.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel, even though it was at times a caricature and the situation described by the author was an extreme and totally absurd, but still, sometimes it is these absurdities that help us think of more important questions on the society and the discussions that we need to have. On that note, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy