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
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