Nornespind af Gert Maarløw Nicolaisen

Forfatter: Gert Maarløw Nicolaisen
Titel: Nornespind
År: 2018
Forlag: mellemgaard
ISBN: 978-87-93692-21-3


"Det grå æbletræs første beretning" står der med mellemstore bogstaver på forsiden af denne historiske roman. Dystre, violette nuancer spreder sig ud over forsiden. Jeg åbner spændt bogen og ser teksten på flappen:

Tøkk skulle dø! Så enkelt var det. Det skulle være nu, og Gudrid skulle selv være den, der sendte kællingen til Hels port med et langt rødt spor efter sig. Hun skulle spytte og danse på troldkvindens døde lig, sprætte hende op og fodre skrigende ravne i ugevis. Hovedet på hende skulle løftes på en stang og øjnene hænges om hendes hals.

Vikingefortællingen lægger ud med et snapshot fra Island, hvor kristendommen er begyndt at sprede sig, trods vikingeånden stadig præger folks adfærd. Snart bliver læseren taget på tur til Danmark, hvor krig, vold og brutalitet karakteriserer landet.

I løbet af bogens 395 sider hersker der ikke tvivl om, at Gert Maarløw Nicolaisen besidder en enorm baggrundsviden om vikingernes historie, kristendommens grundlæggelse i Danmark og Norden, Sagaerne og vikingernes vestlige ekspansion til Grønland. Hvis han ikke gjorde det, ville det simpelthen ikke være muligt at skrive denne så virkelighedsnære roman.

Igennem personerne, såsom den kristne Gudrid i kontrast med asadyrkeren Torfin, får læseren et spændende og dybdegående indblik i denne tids samfund og deres interaktion med hinanden. I Torfins verden i Hedeby i Danmark hersker der et brutalt helvede, og forfatteren lægger ikke fingre imellem, når han med et flot sprog beskriver scenerne hele bogen igennem, som her hvor han siger:

Kvinden og de skrigende unger fanges ind og drives bundne ad sted, men deres fars blod løber mellem gadens belægningsplanker og nedad mod havnen. Byen brænder nu ikke længere stedvist, men overalt! (27).

Forfatterens fine detaljer gør denne vikingefortælling fangende. Man føler næsten, at man bliver suget ind i bogens handling, hvilket for mig er usædvanligt. Jeg plejer at kunne distancere mig fra bogen, se objektivt på dens handling, men denne bog rev mig med ind i den. Det er en roman, som man ikke har lyst til at give slip på, og jeg håber at se flere af ligende høje kvalitet fra Gert Maarløw Nicolaisen.

Gert Maarløw Nicolaisen

Det er en fornøjelse at læse en roman, hvor seksuelle og lidenskablige scener er beskrevet med fornemme metaforer frem for det platte og sommetider direkte vulgære sprog, som ikke efterlader noget som helst til fantasien. Forfatteren er mester på det sproglige, ikke kun i ovenstående scener men også i krigs- og kampscener, der balancerer mellem billedsprog og hårde, brutale beskrivelser.

Bogens sprog bærer præg af forfatterens kendskab til ældre danske udtryk, hvilket gør den til en særlig oplevelse rent sprogligt.

Denne vikingeroman kommer oprigtigt langt omkring i Danmarkshistorien, hvor den blandt inddrager Harald Blåtand, Sven Tveskæg og Trelleborg på Sjælland. For de læsere, som har besøgt Trelleborg og kender til historierne om Harald Blåtand og Sven Tveskæg, kan de sikkert nikke genkendende til mange elementer i Nornespind, som trækker på historien. Forfatteren beskriver blandt anden kort Haralds personkarakteristik, der adskiller sig fra Svens, med ordene:

Harald havde år tilbage overladt hirden og flåden til Sven. Ikke mindst, fordi Sven brændte med hele sin barske natur for hirden og flåde, imens gamle Harald i langt højere grad var en politisk mand, der tænkte i magtbaser, alliancer, regering og i sidste ende velstand og blivende sport til eftertiden (274).

Af både fiktion, men også vikingefortælling, er Nornespind blandt de bedste, jeg til dags dato har læst. Gert Maarløw Nicolaisens Nornespind fangede mig fuldt ud lige så meget, som de opslugende romaner i Saga fra Valhalla af svenske Johanne Hildebrandt, hvorfra kan anbefales Freja (2009), Idun (2203) og Saga (2004). 

Nornespind får derfor topkarakter.

Link: Nornespind er tilgængelig hos din boghandel og på Forlaget mellemgaards hjemmeside via linket her.



Af Karina Schmitt
Forlagschef
Sophie Publishing House, Inc.
Florida, USA

HINKELEG af Julio Cortázar

HINKELEG

Af Julio Cortázar

Forlag: Skjødt Forlag

Dansk udgivelse: 2017

Sidetal: 490

ISBN: 978-87-92064-16-5

Oversættelse: Rigmor Kappel Schmidt

Original Titel: Rayuela

Original udgivelse: 1963

Land: Argentina

Hinkeleg af den argentinske forfatter, Julio Cortázar, oprindeligt udgivet i 1963, er en roman, som fortjener en særlig plads i sydamerikansk litteratur, hvis ikke også i verdenslitteraturen. Dette 490-siders litterære eksperiment er monumental, idet læseren indvikles i en strøm af dialoger, som ikke forklarer sig konkret overfor læseren, men involverer denne, som sendes på en udfordrende rejse.

Indledningsvis informeres læseren om bogens strukturelle inddeling. Bogens kapitler kan læses enten 1) i almindelig rækkefølge fra 1 – 56, eller 2) labyrintisk ved at starte med kapitel 73 og følge den anviste rækkefølge, som angives ved slutningen af hvert kapitel. Det kan anbefales ikke at vælge blot den ene eller den anden læsning, men at starte med 1 efterfulgt af 2 til trods for, at denne metode dog betyder, at visse kapitler læses to gange. En bredere indsigt i bogens dybde opnås ved denne læsetilgang.

Ved denne læsetilgang introdukseres læseren til bogens hovedperson, Horacio Oliveira, som er flyttet til Paris, hvor han møder La Maga. Længe efter ser han tilbage på hans flugt fra sine indre dæmoner fra hans tidligere liv i Argentina i 1950erne. Han er fængslet i den opfattelse, at han er på gale veje i livet og ser sig selv som en fiasko i en håbløs kamp med hans egen valg og fravalg. Han spekulerer undertiden, hvilke betydninger for hans liv det ville have, havde han truffet andre valg.

Oliveira har i årevis levet et nærmest nomadisk liv flakkende fra sted til sted og fra kvinde til kvinde i en konstant søgen efter hans egen identitet ude af stand til at indse roden til hans indre dæmoner. Alligevel nægter han at acceptere sig selv om en fiasko selv om, han konfronteres med denne kendsgerning i sit kæresteforhold til Maga, hvilket forfølger ham både i og efter forholdet. Forholdet kompliceres med tilstedeværelsen af Magas baby, som er syg og senere dør, hvorefter Oliveira og Magas veje skilles. 

Bogens fortæller vinkel pendulerer igennem flere kapitler fra første person til tredje person. Gradvist overgår den i en længere periode i første del til primært at bestå af dialoger, som forfatteren opfordre læseren til at udrede selv, hvilket gør Hinkeleg til en litterær rejse i filosofiske debatter, subjektets positionering af sig selv i forhold til andre samt andres positionering af subjektet, foruden at være en kunst- og litteraturdebat. Den er et gigantisk, farvestrålende litterært billede af hovedpersonens indre konflikter over en langvarig periode. Netop derfor opfordrer jeg læseren til at følge den ovenstående anbefalede læsning, trods genlæsning af nogle af kapitlerne. Læses den kun traditionelt, går læseren glip af vigtige og dybe aspekter af dette fænomenale mesterværk.

Oliveiras indre dæmoner, der som syrer ætser huller i alle hans forhold, hvad end der er tale om venskaber eller de romantiske, plager ham livet igennem. Undertiden indser han i småbidder hans uhelbredelige mistro, manglende empati og forståelse for andre, men kun længe efter skaden er sket.

Hvordan kunne jeg ane, at det, der lignede en lodret løgn, var sandt […], da madame Léonie læste i min hånd, […] ”Hun bærer på en lidelse. Hun har altid lidt” (21).

Oliveira referer til Magas fortælling om mulatten Ireneo, som hun en aften beretter om, og som Oliveira og deres ven, Gregorovius, ikke troede (185) var en sandfærdig historie. Hans mangel på empati skildres blandt andet, da han og Maga strejfer spørgsmålet om tilblivelsen af Rocamadour, Magas baby, som ikke interesserer Oliveira, idet han ikke nærer kærlighed til hende men blot begær (53). Maga er heller ikke ivrig efter at fortælle om det (42-3), men gør det alligevel. Først flere år efter igennem Talita, efter Oliveira er flyttet tilbage til Argentina, indser han med fortrydelse, at han var forelsket i Maga (411) og at det ikke blot var begær.

Hinkeleg hinker igennem hovedpersonens til tider meget bizarre tankegang, som Cortázar på genial vis demonstrerer i kapitel 34, hvor læseren får intens indsigt i Oliveiras psykologiske komposition. Cortázar benytter sig af sproglige og typografiske eksperimenter, der beskriver, hvordan Oliveira oplever at læse en bog samtidig med, at hans tænker flyver rundt i en diffus pærevælling. Ved første øjekast kan man umiddelbart være tilbøjelig til at tænke, at der må være sket en grufuld redaktions fejl i bogen eller at tro, at Oliveira er på stærke euforiserende stoffer, der totalt spiller puds med hans kognitive processer, idet to historier parallelt fortælles i hver anden linje, som læseren tvinges til at læse aktivt hver anden linje, som eksemplet (275) viser:

Jeg havde ikke været i Madrid siden Gonzáles Bra

syltetøjsmad, og du så sad ved vinduet med en rædsom

vos tid, og mine første indtryk af byen var en behagelig

mammutroman i hånden, somme tider græd du endda,

overraskelse. Jeg beundrede de smukke, nye bydele med

ja, du græd, det kan du ikke benægte, fordi nogen lige

god plads, de hurtige transportmidler, de forskønnede

var blevet halshugget, og du klamrede dig til mig og ville

Man indser dog hurtigt, at kapitlet skal læses hver anden linje og dermed essentielt to gange, hvorved man får to kapitler ud af kapitel 34: en indsigt i den bog, som Oliveira læser, og samtidig hans flyvske tanker uden for hans læsoplevelse. På denne geniale litterære facon at skrive på får læseren en knivskarp indsigt i Oliveiras komplekse psykologiske komposition.

Hinkeleg er en multisproglig identitetskonflikt roman, hvor kulturelle elementer, som den argentinske drink mate på forunderligvis får betydning i relation til nationalidentiteten, som under overfladen fylder i romanen. Cortázar inviterer læseren til kontekstuel tekstforståelse via dialogerne som hiver os med ud på vandringer i verdenslitteraturen, politiske referencer, filosofi, kunst, kultur og jazzmusik. 

Titlen er så original, som noget kan være, idet læseren sammen med bogens personer netop hinker sig igennem historie, der strækker sig over lang tid.

Jeg skal ikke ødelægge det for læseren og røbe alle bogens hemmeligheder, men Hinkeleg anbefales varmt. Skulle jeg give den karakter, giver jeg den et rent 12-tal. Der hersker ingen tvivl om, at Hinkeleg er i topklassen af argentinsk litteratur.

Bogen kan købes i din boghandel eller hos Saxo.dk her. 

Anmeldt af Karina M. Schmitt

The Beginning: Breath of War

By R. Malak

The Beginning: Breath of War (2017) is an action-filled, futuristic warfare story that takes place in the years between 2053 and 2061 in various locations. Crisis between man and beast permeates the lives of all. War and chaos has wiped out normality leaving the human inhabitants to fight for survival. The book written more in thematical order rather than chronological order, which is a cause for wonder. 
The intimate, close-up narration gives the reader a sense of looking over the narrator’s shoulder following the characters by the second. There is extreme proximity between action and the character’s feeling. As a reader, you can nearly feel the breathtaking pain of the characters observed.

In the beginning, it is slightly obscure what the purpose of war is, or if mankind has merely spun out of control in an endless and senseless fight against goblins and beast. We follow, among others, Talmen, who is searching for his lost brother, and Cora, who is trying to eliminate the menacing Orc. Each chapter provides insight into the struggles of the characters. As the story progresses, the purpose of the war, which I’m not going to give away, becomes clearer.

Although the book takes place in a world of despair and destruction, the author hints occasionally that there still is, though little, good left in the world such as when he says, “what his father had said about survivors being cunning and resourceful, didn’t apply to everyone. Yet, it was nice to see there was still good left in the world.” Loss is something all have experienced as consequence of war, though hope is still held by some surviving human beings.

Contrast is seen in their opponent who is described as a group of savages seeking approval of their gods. An example is when Togran states that he is convinced that the Master of Death, Lord Sezrath, is pleased with Togran by the mere blood shedding that Togran has engaged in. Another interesting scene that depicts how destruction of history sometimes occurs to form a specific, socially acceptable view of “a world” that the rulers wants us to have is when Greta takes Talman into the U.N. tent only to reveal to him the preservation of library materials still intact and saved from the savages. Similar events have occurred in history, such as during the WWII. Greta says, “We’ve lost much of our history the day those freaks arrived, this here… this is my attempt to keep a part of our history intact.” I find this sentence very relevant to the discourse in the media today where reports of marginalized groups or fundamentalists have tried to destroy history books while creating new ones merely because they do not like what once took place in history. An example is African Americans in the United States and their liberal supporters trying rewrite history, which only provides future generations with falsities, or countries such as Iran that burned Salman Rusdie’s The Satanic Versus; an attempt to erase history, literature, and culture.

Periodically, the author, through dialog, states his opinion on how to battle an enemy, e.g. when Duncan discusses war tactics to be used against the evil, savage goblins that the human survivors are battling. Here, he says that “Knowledge is Power.” Indirectly the author states that to combat an enemy once must outsmart the him and use the his own weapons against him. The author has used knowledge of military strategies in parts of his book, which increases its credibility, even if the weapons used are those of present time and not fabricated, futuristic weapons and even if in the author’s perspective of a world fifty years from now the U.N. still exists.

The Beginning is an adult, gory story about survival of the fittest, remaining human beings as they strategically attempt to fight through senseless battles with questionable purpose. The language is a bit heavy at times because of positioning of sub-clauses throughout the book, though still easy to understand.

About the Author: R. Malak was born in Egypt in 1987 and moved to Australia in 1988. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Western Sydney, and has since worked as a tutor and courier. Malak is a history enthusiast and an avid gamer. He has pursued a writing career and written many online articles. The Beginning is his first novel inspired by his one of his favorite authors Robert Jordan. Additionally, R. Malak grew up reading David Gemmel, R. A. A. Salvatore, and William Johnstone.

The Beginning is published by Nuff Said Publishing sold on Lulu.com and Amazon.com in eBook and paperback format. 

City Boy Book Review

City Boy
by Greg Alvarez


The autobiography City Boy by Greg Alvarez captures the essence of his life from early teenage years to adulthood in an outrageously humous way. The book is a first-person narrative regularly addressing its audience directly in a colloquial, tranquil voice giving its reader a feeling of being in close proximity to the writer and the events unfolding in the story. 

Greg invites the reader into his crazy, funny life as his journey takes them back to the wild and carefree 1960s. It is full of entertaining stories, while giving the audience an insight into what it was like being young at that time. He is a rebellious, free-spirited youth with no interest in school. He is more concerned with having fun and hanging out with friends, while chasing girls, than crunching math problems. When Greg eventually leaves school, he sets out on his life’s journey.  

As Greg says, this is the lifestyle and awesome times that could not happen in today’s world simply because of how our world has changed. It is refreshingly nostalgic, though that in itself may be a contradiction, to be brought back several decades and introduced to a time when hitchhiking did not necessarily put your life in terrible danger. We are brought to a time when you didn’t risk getting shot by the police because you got caught with a water bong in your possession. Refreshingly, it is also an era when political correctness did not kill society and plain old good times. 

It is hard to point to just one favorite story in City Boy but one that surely made me literally cry from laughing too much was his story about crashing into a Marine’s car. His description of the event is priceless. Likewise, is his description of his boss’ Italian accent and behavior when Greg worked at a Pizzaria. Through his own charming narration, Greg adds richness and character to his life story. Additionally, we are taken on a good, old American trucker’s journey with all it entails.  

Although names have been changed, we meet Greg’s family, friends, coworker’s, lovers, girlfriends and wife through the events that shaped him from a young kid, to a rebellious teenager, and finally to an experienced adult.  

City Boy is full of sex, drugs, and free-spirited times. However, on a more serious note, Greg enters an interesting discussion of his perspective on the differences between men and women, and how they think differently. Greg openly discusses how he thinks men, contrary to women, often, if not always, distinguishes between sex and love, whereas women tend to equate the two with one another. His frankness about sexuality and testing our boundaries breaks with political correctness, which he argues permeates society, as if it is the only way to rightfully view ourselves and each other. Greg has the guts to openly discuss the topic from a man’s perspective, however with the ability to also see things from a woman’s perspective. 

City Boy is not book, as Greg also says, for the prudish, sex-phobic audience. It is a book for those who have not yet been lost to dull, modern day political correctness. It is a book for the mature audience with a open-minded sense of humor. 

I much enjoyed the read, and would look forward to any other book that Greg Alvarez may write in the future. 

City Boy is available on Amazon as eBook and paperback. 



Published: 2017
Publisher: Independent Publishing 

English After the Fall 

By Richard Scholes 

Research Professor Robert Scholes’ English After the Fall: From Literature to Textuality (2011) is a 176-page book written for students and academics. Scholes is also known for his now classic, Rise and Fall of English.

English After the Fall is concerned with how English departments have become stuck in its old ways of reading, and writing, text. He charges that academics and scholars have become a narrow study and begs the need to reconsider a broader purpose of English studies providing university educators with improved tools to help students think critically when interpreting a text and to use textuality in reading and writing studies to improve study methodology.

As many English departments in the United States, where Scholes lectures, as well as other parts of the world, have become increasingly smaller, his book is released at the right time calling for an expansion of perspectives, study methods, and cross-studies. He argues that reading English involves writing English and vice versa, and argues that texts must be considered as being more than merely classic, literature studies.

Scholes encourages the usage of a broad range of texts – textuality – in university English departments arguing that the study of literature should encompass reading as well as writing. The book provides numerous examples, supporting Scholes’ thesis, to demonstrate how textuality works beneficially in English studies. It argues that the barrier between teaching literature and teaching writing composition must be broken down in today’s age of technology, as the drop-in humanities studies is reflected in the exponentially progressing use of technology. Scholes laments that the academic world is “constrained” to antiquated notions of literature that ignores other important text types.

Scholes supports his thesis, and the book’s title, with examples such as the need to read poems from a contextual ankle, such as reading Wordsworth from the perspective of the real problems that colored Wordsworth’s late nineteenth century world. He argues that literariness ought to be a “combination of textual pleasure and power.” Likewise, he exemplifies with the John Ford movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) where the protagonist uses different texts to teach reading to illiterate students. Scholes argues for the movie, as an example of how beneficial textuality usage is, that any text type must be interpreted and responded to critically, and not just at face value, to be properly and justly understood. Modern students of English must reach, interpret, reflect and criticize texts contextually and must include other types of texts in the discourse analysis, from primary and secondary sources to poems and even operas.

Conclusively, English After the Fall interprets and reflects on sphere of texts that students of English as well as their educators should consider when studying not only reading but also writing. It pleasantly provokes old, ingrown ways of studying English to rise up to the twenty-first century to encompass textuality. The only thing it does not directly address is that English studies are still to fully catch up with is contextuality where a combination of English literature, history and social studies is more thoroughly combined in some universities, as is the case in some European universities.  

English After the Fall by Robert Scholes was published in 2011 by University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, IA, USA. ISBN: 978-1-60938-055-7. English After the Falls is available in paperback on www.Amazon.com.