Wait, Blink

April 1, 2018

Obsessive, somewhat prissy literature student Sigrid ponders the significance of women wearing oversized men's shirts and falls for older poet Kåre Tryvle, believing that she can read his whole soul from the beautiful eyes in his author photo. Preening if clueless Kåre tries to strike the right image in front of an audience but profoundly mourns the end of his relationship with wire-taut Wanda, bassist in a rock band. Wanda looks tough but had tenderly feared for her love of Kåre when a conversation about Kill Bill: Vol. 2 clarified their differences. Linnea frantically plans a film, inspired by her affair with literature professor Göran, while producer Robert is too enamored of her to explain that funding has fallen through. Performance artist Trine wanted love and fame but got a child, while hapless Viggo tries to grow beyond childhood bullying and reconcile with his grandmother's death. In this absorbing, smoothly written work, Norwegian award winner Øyehaug (Knots) works by portraiture to delineate contemporary life, as characters cross paths, link and unlink, and don't always find happiness. VERDICT Solid, discussable work for smart readers. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]

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Starred review from April 1, 2018
A delicate net of intermingled lives underpins this witty, spirited novel about creating: art, love, self-sufficiency, and identity.Øyehaug's (Knots, 2017) first novel translated into English, by Dickson in able and deceptively straightforward prose, follows a clutch of loosely connected women pursuing their artistic visions and contending with distraction, most notably the lack, presence, or loss of love. There's Sigrid--a literature student, "the kind...who has photographs of literary theorists on her wall"--who's beset by all three. Earnest and lonely, Sigrid has just discovered the poetry of Kåre, whose author photo she longingly rubs her cheek against just before chancing upon Kåre himself while on a walk. Caught in the reflected glare of Kåre's fantasies, Sigrid is blinded to her work and their incompatibilities, not least among them Kåre's absorption in his ex-girlfriend Wanda, a bassist who hides her insecurity behind a badass exterior. Next there's Linnea, a young film director scouting locations and wistfully hoping to reunite with a past lover, whose primary connection to the others seems to be through Sigrid's essay in progress about the prevalence in film of women in oversized men's shirts. There's Wanda's friend Trine, a provocative performance artist and new mother who suddenly finds her methods and very drive for creation called into question. And finally, there's Elida, the fishmonger's daughter, also a literature student, who may be enmeshed in a fairy tale coming true. Rich with literary references and knowing authorial winks, is this "a perfect picture of inner life," our fractured, contradictory desires, our cinematic fantasies, our melodrama and unassuageable aloneness? One of Øyehaug's many gifts is to induce readers to gently laugh along with her at her characters, helping us, as we see our own absurdities in them, to gently laugh at ourselves.If it isn't precisely perfect, it's awfully damn close.

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May 7, 2018
The disappointing latest from Øyehaug (following Knots), about the intersection of many lives in Norway, shuttles rapidly from character to character, sometimes for only a page before moving on. Sigrid is a young literature student hoping to distract herself from a recent breakup by throwing herself headlong into studying the trope of women who are depicted wearing oversized men’s shirts in literary and visual media. In the opening, she’s fixated on an author photo, and the novel transitions, somewhat clumsily, to the subject of the photo: older male novelist Kåre Tryvle, who has just broken up with his girlfriend, Wanda, a bassist whom he admiringly considers “the ultimate woman.” By chance, Sigrid eventually meets Kåre, and they become romantically involved, even though Kåre’s relationship with Wanda might not be over. Interspersed with Sigrid’s narrative are those of Wanda, indignant and hurt over her and Kåre’s breakup; Linnea, a young film director who’s ostensibly in Copenhagen to shoot a movie, but is more concerned with chasing the memory of an older professor with whom she had an affair; and Trine, a feminist artist who finds her art and her outlook on life changed since the birth of her daughter. As the novel progresses—motivated by pursuit of love, or at least pursuit of meaningful lives without loneliness—these women’s paths intersect and connections between them are uncovered. Suffused with cultural references, Øyehaug’s novel has intriguing characters and sharp moments, though these are let down by trite themes and uneven prose, and the book as a whole tends to blend together.