Shyness and Dignity

June 26, 2006
An Oslo academic who came of age in the way-out '60s shrinks back from the glaring modern age in Norwegian novelist and playwright Solstad's remarkably nuanced novel, his first to be translated into English. Elias Rukla, described in this stiff translation as "a rather sottish senior master in his fifties with a wife who had spread out a bit too much," is fed up after 25 years of teaching Ibsen's Wild Duck
to increasingly apathetic 19-year-olds at Oslo's Fagerborg Secondary School. A breakdown following an incident with an umbrella and verbally abusing a student makes Elias recognize he has become obsolete. Accompanied by rueful thoughts of his aging but once beautiful wife, Eva Linde, the drama of Elias's life unfolds, from the memory of his friendship with Eva's first husband, the intellectual dynamo and Marxist Johan Corneliussen. Inseparable mates at university, the men engaged in vigorous discussions about philosophy and literature that stretched over days and numerous parties. But Johan inexplicably left for New York to join the capitalist quagmire he always railed against, abandoning Eva and their young child, a betrayal from which Elias never recovers. With sublime restraint and subtle modulation, Solstad conveys an entire age of sorrow and loss.

September 15, 2006
This first English translation of Norwegian novelist and playwright Solstad's book is a contemplative journey into the psyche of middle-aged literature teacher Elias Rukla. One day, after analyzing more deeply a character in an Ibsen play with his disinterested students, Rukla finds his emotions fervently stirred, and a damaging confrontation results. Knowing this incident will cost him his job, Rukla begins to ruminate about his life, beginning with his college friendships with a rising star philosophy student, Johan Corneliussen, and the woman who would become Rukla's wife, the quiet beauty Eva Linde. A compelling picture of late 1960s student life emerges, and readers glimpse how Rukla relates to Corneliussen, how Rukla chooses his own career path, and how his marriage occurred. Solstad ("16-07-41" "T. Singer" portrays with precision the angst of a lonely man who yearns for signs of intelligence in everyday life. While not an easy read because of its unusual design and sometimes elongated sentence structure, this novel manages to leave the reader somewhat amazed and satisfied. Recommended for larger public libraries and all academic fiction collections." -Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ"

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