by Don DeLillo

Pammy and Lyle Wynant are a successful couple with attractive jobs. However, they are bored and desparate.

Pammy had to put down the bag of fruit before she could get the door opened. She remembered what had been bothering her, the vague presence. Her life. She hated her life. It was a minor thing, though, a small bother. She tended to forget about it. When she recalled what it was that had been on her mind, she felt satisfied at having remembered and relieved that is was nothing worse. She pushed into the apartment.

Enter a terrorist plot that I am sorry to say I did not get.

The Washington Post wrote:

A witty, harrowing and superbly controlled novel about modern alienation and violence.

That may very well be so but I cannot recommend it.

Eftertanker fra Italien

af Frederik Dessau

Dessaus tanker i forbindelse med et efterår i Toscana. Om det at rejse, Verdi, vin og balsamico.

Poul Behrendt, Weekendvisen, skrev:

Lyrisk i sine anslag og uafbrudt tankevækkende ...

Anbefales stærkt.

En bog om ensomhed

af Frederiks Dessau

Dessau fortæller om ensomheden i alle dens afskygninger.

En interessant og klog bog, der er fuld af citater.

by Helen DeWitt

The story of a single mother, Sibylla, of high intelligence and her 6-year-old son, Ludo, of extraordinary intelligence. Ludo learned Greek at the age of four, and at six he also speaks Hebrew, Inuit, Old Norse, and he is starting to learn Japanese as well as advanced mathematics.

Sibylla uses the seven samurais of Kurosawa's masterpiece as role models for Ludo who none the less gets more and more obsessed with meeting his real father.

... boredom a fate worse than death.

Brilliant, witty, and intelligent novel that unfortunately looses a bit in the end.

Recommended anyway.

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The story of an anti-hero - an immoral moraliser. About fear and freedom. About being smarter than everyone else but none the happier.

The depression of being under the yoke of the almeighty, eternal and dead laws of nature.

Dostoevsky at his darkest.

Recommended

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The story of three brothers, Ivan, Dmitry, and Alyosha, and about God, free will, and rationalism.

Dostoevsky's greatest and last novel. Simply a masterpiece. At least read Ivan's story of The Grand Inquisitor if you find the 1,000+ pages too much.

Highly recommended.

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The story of Prince Myshkin - a laughable character who is none the less full of compasion - the people he meets.

A vision of Christian ideals. Full of penetrating psychological insights.

Recommended.

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Also published under the title The Possessed.

The story of a group of revolutionaries led by Verkhovenskij and Stavrogin.

Dostoevsky's great ideological novel about politics, moral, ethics, and faith.

Recommended.

by Patricia Duncker

The tale of Paul Mitchel - a scandalous writer - and of the student who sets out to free him from a French asylum.

Yet compared to the people I saw hobbling down the paths around us, he [Paul Michel] was astonishingly well-coordinated and powerful. I commented on the difference.

“Mmmm,” he nodded. “I take fewer drugs and greater risks. I’d rather go on knowing and seeing the things I do – being mad they call it here, and they’re not wrong – than become a sober acceptable vegetable. Most of the men in my unit feel the same. But it’s a high price to keep paying, day after day.”

A wonderful little book.

Recommended.

by Umberto Eco

A literary conspiracy story. Three editors publish an occult manuscript with a crackpot story only to find that there are actually people out there who actually believe the nonsense they wrote.

New York Times wrote:

Brilliant...A novel that is deeper and richer that The Name of the Rose,

I, however, found it brilliantly written but excruciatingly boring.

by Umberto Eco

A murder investigation in a monastery in 1327 in which Aristotle's lost book on comedy plays an important role.

A literary detective story. William of Baskerville - a franciscan monk and previous member of the inquisition - arrives at a monastery to participate in a debate of whether Christ owned the clothes he wore only to find him entangled in a series of murders.

Brilliant. Highly recommended.

by Bret Easton Ellis

A story of the young jet set of Los Angeles in the early 1980's.

Money, drugs, and sex are everywhere. The characters are beautiful, disturbed, and have nothing to do.

Bret Easton Ellis' first novel.

USA today wrote:

The Catcher in the Rye for the MTV generation.

Not quite but an OK read anyway.

by Bret Easton Ellis

A picture of the 80's turned into the extreme.

Patrick Bateman is 26, works on Wall Street. He has everything going for him - looks, intelligence - but he is also a raving psychopath. So brace yourself for sex and violence in the extreme.

A clever and biting satire of the 80's obsession with money and status. And American Psycho probably has one of the very best last sentences of any book.

Highly recommended.

by Bret Easton Ellis

Victor Ward is an actor/model doing the celebrity scene - money, drugs, sex, and superficial relationships.

Glomorama tries to be to the 90's what American Psycho was to the 80's. A some what complicated plot with subplots that do not seem to important..

A bit tedious so do not read Glamorama unless you really, really like Bret Easton Ellis. If you do not know Ellis you should definately read American Psycho first.

by Henry Fielding

An 18th century love story. The adventures of Joseph Andrews (borther of Richardson’s Pamela) as he travels with Adams to see his beloved Fanny.

Fielding's parody of one of the very first English novels.

An ok read.

by Erik Fosnes Hansen

Short stories of why things happen the way they do.

"No," [Fiorello] said. "I did not have the time." (my translation)

"Oh, time," [Simonetta] said. "Do you think that time is something you have? Time is something you get."

"No," he said thoughtfully, "I actually think that it is something you loose.

Hauntingly beautiful.

Highly recommended.

by Erik Fosnes Hansen

The story of five of the seven musicians of the Titanic. Musicians whose lives already had shipwrecked long before they sailed on the Titanic.

Ihr führt ins Leben uns hinein,

Ihr lasst den Armen schuldig verden,

Dann überlasst ihr ihn der Pein:

Denn alle Schuld rächt sich auf Erden.

J.W. Goethe

Recommended.

by John Fowles

Nicholas Urfe meets the mystical millionaire Maurice Conchis - a psychiatrist, patron of the theatre, and the Magus - introduces, seduces Nicholas into a strange and irrational world.

A surreal and bizarre psychological game.

Read it young and it might influence you enormously.

Recommended.

by Jonathan Franzen

A series of essays on books, reading, prisons, the US postal service (or rather lack of service), and more.

Very well written but I find most of the essays rather uninteresting and a bit dated. For instance, his comments from 1995 on Negroponte's Being Digital might have been interesting back then but now I cannot really get exited about them.

How to be alone contains the essay Perchance to Dream (the Harper's essay) retitled Why Bother? and revised throughout.

Fiction is the most fundamental human art. Fiction is storytelling, and our reality arguably consists of the stories we tell about ourselves.

At least read the revised Haper's essay if you are interested in literature.

by Marilyn French

The author and feminist Marilyn French was diagnosed with metastasized esophageal cancer in 1992. A Season in Hell is her account of that illness, her miraculous recovery, and the lasting physical consequences of cancer.

Naturally, you already know that cancer is definately not a pleasant experience. However, you probably do not realize just how horrible cancer can be.

A somewhat interesting read.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

Gennem fire dage i marts genovervejer Ingrid Drejer sit liv. Hendes 15-årige søn har sparket en anden dreng ned, og Ingrid må erkende, at hun som sin mor og mormor ikke har været verdens bedste mor.

Grøndahl skriver godt, men Fire dage i marts er en smule irriterende i dens sprogbrug. Grøndahl bliver ligeledes en anelse moraliserende mellem linjerne, hvilket ikke er fremmende for læselysten.

Desuden er der nogle fejl, som fx at en 15-årig er under den kriminelle lavalder. Desuden tvivler jeg stærkt på, at der findes hjem i den indkomstklasse, hvor en 15-årig ikke har sin egen pc. Men det kunne jo selvfølgelig forklare den latterlige scene, hvor sønnen taber pornofilm på DVD'er ud af en pose foran sin mor.

Bogen er slet ikke på højde med Grøndahls to andre store kvindeportrætter, Lucca og Et andet lys.

Men dog ok at læse.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

Flere historier om kærlighed fortæller om længsel efter frihed og frihedens pris. En stedsøn fortæller farens og dermed også sin egen historie.

Man har det som bekendt med at genkende sig selv i andre, og det er en god grund til at vogte sig for medlidenhed.

Thomas Bredsdorff, Politiken, skrev:

Vemodigt panorama af vildfarne sjæle i den postpolitiske verden ... Hans sprog er som skabt til at tegne disse personer.

En udmærket bog. Dog ikke én af Grøndahls bedste.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

En 56-årig advokat, Irene, forlades af sin mand. Mens hun tænker over sit forhold, støder hun på en familiehemmelighed, der starter en biltur ned gennem Europa.

Hvem er du? Hvem kan du mon være? Hvad rummer du, og hvad vil du stille op med det? Hvor vil du gøre af det? Hvor vil du hen?

BG Banks literaturpris i 2003.

Fremragende.

Stærkt anbefalet.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

En historie om, hvad der sker, når man i en fremmed by bliver blandet ind i en anden kvindes liv. Når intet længere er det samme.

Indeni er jeg alene, og udenpå er jeg sammen med andre.

En tankevækkende og god bog.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

Den blinde prins Usus oplevelser på til sin nye brud.

En dannelsesrejse.

Du snakker som en bondetamp! Har din blinhed også angrebet din fostand? Kan du ikke se, at også fyrsten er afmægtig? ... Hans rige er en vag og tåget luftspejling i hans eget hoved. Hans magt er en illusion, der kun opretholdes, fordi alle nærer den.

En udmærket bog.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

Et sted mellem fantasi og virkelighed møder en mand en kvinde, som han tidligere har elsket.

Citronskivens hvide, konvergerende linier, der inddelte frugtkøbet i trekantede cirkeludsnit omgivet af skallen i en fleksibel, gummiagtig ring, fik ham til at tænke på et hjul med eger, der flimrer for øjet, idet de reflekterer lyset fra gadelygterne, som vognen passerer.

Bogen er simpelthen for tænkt. Jeg tror, man skal være mere end almindeligt glad for Grøndahl for at synes om denne bog.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

Endnu en Grøndahlsk rejse i erindringen sat igang hos en kunsthandler af hans vens død.

Hvis man intet fortryder, må man være enten en helgen eller en filosof eller meget glemsom. Det sidste er vist ikke det dårligste. Kunne man bare glemme. Folk siger altid, at det ikke nytter at fortryde, men er det en grund til at lade være? Skal vores tanker og følelser altid være til nytte?

Grøndahl er altid værd at læse, men Hjertelyd er ikke én af hans bedste.

by Jens Christian Grøndahl

A 44 year old art historian is forced to reexamine his life and marriage when his wife of 18 years suddenly leaves him. Set in Copenhagen, Lissabon, Paris, and New York Silence in October is about the little things that could have changed your life completely.

You kiss because you do not know what else to do. You do not have anything but your stupid lips, your stupid hands that valiantly continues to speak the same language while the world changes. (my translation)

An existential love story.

Highly recommended.

by Jens Christian Grøndahl

The 32-year-old Danish actress Lucca Montale is hospitalised after a suicide attempt. Robert who is the doctor that has to tell her that she will never see again is also on the rebound from love and a special bond is formed between them.

He had been just as alone when he was with Sonja as when he was with Monica. Alone somewhere deep inside his own body while it did what the two women and he himself expected of it, mechanically and obidiently. (my translation)

A story of pain and of learning how to live again or perhaps on how to live again without quite living.

Recommended.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

En historie om ung kærlighed set i lyset af et liv.

Bjørn Bredal, Politiken, skrev:

- en smuk lille, melankolsk fortælling.

Ikke helt så god som fx Lucca og Stilhed i oktober.

af Jens Christian Grøndahl

En midaldrende tidligere forfatter, August, møder sin ungdoms kærlighed, fotografen Alma, der forlod August til fordel for hans ven. Mødet sætter en strøm tanker i gang om det, som gjorde August til det han er.

Niels Højlund, Ekstra Bladet, skrev:

"Køb den. Læs den. Det er et helstøbt kunstværk...Så fornemt, så færdigt, at det er sjældent på dansk"

Jeg kom heller ikke til at skrive flere bøger. Jeg var træt helt ind i skelettet af at sidde og tygge på ordene og kitte dem sammen med mit spyt. Jeg havde mistet min uskyld og kunne kun trække på skulderen af det billede, omgivelserne havde dannet af den unge alvorsmand, tynget af modernisme og melankoli.

Fremragende. Stærkt anbefalet.

by David Guterson

A fisherman is found drowned with his scull crushed. A Japanese fisher with an apparent grudge over land ownership is accused of the murder. During the few days of the trial the story of the small society before and after the 2nd world war is told while the snow is falling on the cedars closing down the small town.

Excellent description of the hardship of Americans of Japanese descendance that was interned during the 2nd world war because of their origin.

A brilliant and poetic novel about love and racism in a little island society off the American west coast.

Highly recommended.