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I read about this Swedish runaway bestseller a month or two ago in the New York Times and the ringing endorsement from the author of Beartown (my short review of that excellent novel is here) caught my eye:
While I'm not sure I'll be buying extra copies I did find it a worthy reflection on aging, family and how we honor (or fail to) our elder generations.
The book very well could have been called "Things Unspoken" given the main character's intense interior monologue of emotions, outcries and thoughts that he largely keeps locked up throughout the entire novel. The book’s unique narrative construction consists of alternating rambling first -person chapters of an old aging man’s thoughts and conversations, punctuated by shocking staccato entries in a journal kept by the various caretakers and family who look after the old man. The effect is striking. The 89 year-old old man–Bo–is awash in memories and emotions, and each day is often a struggle–these chapters are rich and then you turn the page are slapped with a dry, clinical sentence-long summary of Bo’s life that day. It’s powerful. It’s sad. It’s a purposeful choice that author makes.
Ultimately, this is a story about fathers and sons and the wounds they carry. Wounds that are only exacerbated as they grow older. It’s a tough story at times but one that will ideally prompt some hard conversations or at least move us all a little closer towards empathy.
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