The Room

Starred review from December 15, 2014
Swedish actor and playwright Karlsson’s short novel offers a monologue that builds from simple office satire to a reality-bending psychological profile with insights into the nature and importance of personal space. Bjorn, a Stockholm bureaucrat, is a meticulous but unreliable narrator whose sense of superiority comes in conflict with the facts. When his boss eases him into another job, a demotion in several ways, Bjorn sees it as his chance to blossom into his full potential, which unfolds in a series of short, often humorous, and increasingly disturbing narratives. Bjorn begins the new job by organizing his days into 55-minute intervals with five-minute breaks. During one such break, he sees a door. When he steps inside, he finds a small, tidy, unused office. The problem with this room is no one else sees it—and it’s not the only thing Bjorn sees that others do not. In the receptionist’s smile Bjorn sees an invitation; in his desk-mate’s pile of papers he sees encroachment; in his coworkers’ denial of the room he sees conspiracy. Bjorn visits a psychiatrist, promises to never reenter the room, and meanwhile devises a strategy to defeat his adversaries. Karlsson deftly captures individual voices, which he conveys directly (as Bjorn reveals his obsessions) and indirectly (as Bjorn describes interactions with coworkers). Using Bjorn’s voice to draw characters and build dramatic tension, Karlsson exposes the gifts and gaffes, visions and delusions, and the rise and fall of a seemingly ordinary civil servant.

December 15, 2014
Could a banal office act as an incubator of madness? That's the question posed in this provocative fictional debut by a prominent Swedish actor.The Authority is a government department in Stockholm. Its purpose is obscure; its days may be numbered. The unreliable narrator, Bjorn, starts work there after being eased out of another civil service job. He's a loner who sees himself competing against the other paper-pushers, rebuffing help from a co-worker. Bjorn discovers the titular room early on. Its door is next to the toilets. It has standard office equipment and is apparently unused. The room gives him energy, but does it really exist? Where he sees a door, his colleagues just see a wall and are disturbed by his standing motionless against it for minutes on end. Karl, the weak-willed boss, calls a meeting at which the staff sound off. Bjorn doesn't give an inch. He's as intractable as Melville's Bartleby, but while that tragic lost soul aroused compassion, Bjorn alienates the "little people" with his haughty defiance, though he allows that "I am prepared to forgive you." Karlsson laces his narrator's megalomania with hints that stultifying work and an acquiescent office culture can drive a person to extremes. The twist comes when Bjorn steals a co-worker's project and does a vastly better job with it. Suddenly he's hot! His expertise, which he insists on attributing to the "room," attracts the attention of the Authority's director. Should Bjorn be allowed to indulge his obsession? Karl, the hapless bureaucrat, tries to make folks happy with the formula "the room does not exist for everyone." Nobody is appeased; the director must decide; Bjorn's fate hangs in the balance. Karlsson's deft jab at dead-end workplaces keeps you agreeably off-balance and eager for more of his work.

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Starred review from November 15, 2014

The "room" in question is visible only to Bjorn, a new employee at a government building known as the "Authority." It is a small space located near the restrooms, neat and tidy yet equipped with everything he needs to do his work, and he seeks refuge there from the constant and severe scrutiny of his coworkers. After several files are accidentally placed on his desk, he voluntarily writes "templates for all future framework decisions in the communal sector." Surprising everyone with his talent for creating these excellent templates, he is now regarded by his boss as an invaluable employee and no longer spends his time adding paper to the copiers and similar mundane tasks. VERDICT This debut novel by Swedish playwright and actor Karlsson is a contemporary tale worthy of comparison to Franz Kafka's works, Amelie Nothomb's Fear and Trembling, and Herman Melville's classic "Bartelby, the Scrivener," while the antics of Bjorn's fellow workers recall Terry Gilliam's film Brazil. Enjoyable reading, extremely well executed, this fable should become mandatory reading for cubicle and office workers everywhere.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2014
Vaguely reminiscent of Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener, this tale of workplace alienation is narrated by Bjrn, a low-level bureaucrat recently hired to work at the Authority. While the exact nature of the Authority's work is unclear, the environment seems to breed mediocrity and complacency. Hoping to shake things up and exhibiting odd, obsessive behavior, Bjrn immediately irritates and offends his coworkers. Shortly after arriving at the Authority, he finds a secret room down a long corridor, outfitted with a neat desk and mirror. Once in the room, he becomes a new manconfident, relaxed, productive, and even virile. However, no one else in the office will acknowledge the room's existence and soon Bjrn's perceived antics produce chaos and strife in the workplace. The reader is left to wonder whose version of reality is correct. Part psychological drama documenting a disturbed man's possible descent into madness and part satirical take on corporate culture and the alienated workers it produces, Karlsson succeeds admirably in creating the perfect combination of funny, surreal, and disturbing. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE