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Against Nature: The Notebooks

por Tomas Espedal

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776344,866 (3.97)1
The companion volume to Espedal's Against Art, written in his characteristic poetic prose. In contemporary Norwegian fiction Tomas Espedal's work stands out as uniquely personal; it can be difficult to separate the fiction from Espedal's own experiences. Against Nature, a companion volume to Espedal's earlier Against Art, is an examination of factory work, love's labor, and the work of writing. Espedal dwells on the notion that working is required in order to live in compliance with society, but is this natural? And how can it be natural when he is drawn toward impossible things--impossible love, books, myths, and taboos? He is drawn into the stories of Abélard and Héloïse, of young Marguerite Duras and her Chinese lover, and soon realizes that he, too, is turning into a person who must choose to live against nature. "A masterpiece of literary understatement. Everybody who has recently been thirsting for a new, unexhausted realism, like water in the desert, will love this book."--Die Zeit, on the Norwegian edition… (más)
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Masterpiece. ( )
  JornStraten | Feb 23, 2023 |
This is my third book by this gifted Norwegian author. I had to read it in Danish because I couldn’t get hold of the English version in these corona times, where the library responsible for ordering books from abroad was shut down.

Espedal received the Citizen’s Prize (Borgerprisen) for this work.

The book is mostly devoted to describing Tomas’ relationships with two women – Agnete and Janne. I’m assuming this is not a work of fiction.

Agnete was very beautiful – there was something ugly and uneven about her face that made it especially beautiful. She was an actress and had played the main role in an award-winning film.

“She had an indifferent, slightly tired expression on her face, it was the way she was, unapproachable and distant.”

She became pregnant – “the heavy and indifferent, tired and remote expression that had characterized her face disappeared, or moved from her face to mine.”

“She was an actress, farmer, gardener, carpenter, soon to be mother and writer. I was nothing. I was paralyzed.”

Agnete got a job in Nicaragua – he had to go too and would receive a large monthly income, but they had to get married.

They didn’t love each other. “We lived together, had a child together, co-operated, but the love between us was gone. Perhaps it had never been there. Now we were going to get married.”

Tomas read Shakespeare’s works to his two-year-old daughter; he wanted to read to her what he himself liked, since he couldn’t stand children’s books. Later, she told him that he’d scared her to death with the Shakespearean readings – she had had nightmares from the graveyard scenes and poisonings, from the witches and ghosts, from the swords and knives, and that this was the cause of her resistance to all the books he recommended that she read. She wouldn’t read Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights or Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar or any of the books he gave her.

Later, Agnete died but it wasn’t clear how.

Then Tomas fell in love with Janne. He was going to write a little book on happiness. He was exactly twice her age.

A friend came to see them. When he left, he said “It was lovely to see you and your daughter.”

“Was happiness shameful; our happiness was shameful, it wasn’t natural, it went against Nature.”

They stopped going out together; they isolated themselves.

They made love in all the rooms in the house, but they stayed at home.

Janne moved to Oslo. Tomas’ daughter moved to Oslo. He felt abandoned.

Tomas’ relationship with Janne was like that of Abélard and Héloise. Abélard was 38 and Héloise was 16. That relationship ended badly, particularly for Abélard. (I won’t specify what happened, since it was barbarous, perhaps the worst that can happen to a man.

In the notebooks at the end of the book, Tomas describes his loneliness when Janne leaves.

“She is everywhere in the house, everywhere in the house she is gone.”

“I’ve never loved anyone like Janne. The great love at the age of forty-eight, that is deadly dangerous.”

“I just don’t know how to be alone in the house. What does one do? What shall I do with myself?”
“It was hard when Agnete died and I was left alone with Harriet (Agnete’s child by another man) and Amalie ---.”But this is harder in a more dangerous way; now I’m alone with myself.”

“I am a person who is abandoned; it means I’m a person who is left behind; I can’t do anything else, I can’t do anything but stay in the house where I live.”

“Come back to me.

Come back to me.”

He eats junk food, ready-made food, in a hurry. They used to buy three bottles of wine and drink two of them – now he drinks the three bottles alone.

He doesn’t work, doesn’t shave. He’s lost four kilos. He eats only white bread swallowed with red wine.

“A broken heart is a special disease.”

“I cry, throw up, sweat, have fits of anger, as though everything inside me has to come out.”

“Insomnia, fever. Nightmares, fits of jealousy, as though everything outside has to come in.”

Tomas Espedal has a unique, poignant style. One really understands how he feels. He is a brilliant writer, and I highly recommend this book. ( )
  IonaS | Jul 18, 2020 |
Another amazing book by Tomas Espedal. I love reading his truth, an honesty that holds no prisoners, that frees like few others have the power to release. This is a wrenching love story that has no end, and figures to remain a spiritual part of me for the rest of my life. A beautiful man who has composed another wondrous title to behold. ( )
  MSarki | Jan 23, 2016 |
Fremragende lille roman af den norske forfatter Thomas Espedal. De selvbiografiske elementer gør den bare endnu mere intens. Især sidste halvdel er en hjerteskærende og fremragende skrevet oplevelse af forladthed, ensomhed og kærestesorg - men også af en mand der ikke går på kompromis og "flygter" fra følelserne ( )
  sysmey | Aug 13, 2012 |
I bokas åpningsscene befinner jeg-personen - en eldre mann, forfatteren selv - seg på et nyttårsparty sammen med kjæresten sin. At han er nøyaktig dobbelt så gammel som henne, får vi først vite senere.

"Jeg begynner å bli gammel; jeg kjenner ikke meg selv. Det har alltid tiltrukket meg, dette bildet av alderdommen: den gamle mannen og den unge jenten. Jeg vet ikke hva det minner meg om, en forbrytelse, kanskje, eller om naturen; naturens brutalitet og vold, dens uskyld. Man vet ikke hvem som er den skyldige, han som sitter i stolen, eller hun som sitter over ham, i fanget hans, kledd i en utringet, sort selskapskjole." (side 9)

Mannen er altså 48 år, mens kjæresten hans er 24. Han elsker henne slik han kanskje aldri har elsket noen kvinne tidligere, men forholdet kan selvfølgelig ikke vare. Hun, den yngre kvinnen, vil videre. Han var "bare" en liten digresjon i livet hennes. Riktignok en viktig digresjon, men dog en digresjon ... For hun kunne jo ikke ende der, spille resten av sin ungdom på en mann som ikke akkurat ville bli yngre med årene ...

På tross av at jeg kun har lest en bok av Espedal tidligere ("Imot kunsten"), kan jeg allerede nå si at jeg finner hans fortellerstil lett gjenkjennelig, selv om det lett manende preget i "Imot kunsten" ikke er like sterkt til stede i "Imot naturen". Han springer i tid og for den saks skyld også fra sted til sted, men fullt så forvirrende som jeg opplevde "Imot kunsten", er den likevel ikke. Tidvis hadde jeg litt problemer med å forstå hvorfor han trakk inn nesten hele sitt livs kvinnehistorier i denne lille, tynne boka, men kanskje skyldtes det først og fremst at jeg så veldig gjerne ville vite mer om forholdet mellom ham og hans yngre kvinne, og hva som til slutt førte til bruddet mellom dem. Tidligere har jeg hørt at en del synes man kommer for tett innpå forfatterens privatliv, men den oppfatningen deler ikke jeg. Jeg opplevde tvert i mot at hver gang jeg virkelig begynte å komme tett på ham, støtte jeg som leser på en barriere, hvor de skjønnlitterære beskrivelsene kom litt i veien, samtidig som han jo skriver så vakkert og litterært om den smerte som ligger i å ha elsket og ha tapt. Hvor meningsløst alt blir når den elskede er borte for alltid ... Og kanskje er det nettopp i smerten at stor kjærlighet skapes?

"Det må være noe av det verste med å være ensom: å spise sammen med noen som ikke er der, hver eneste dag." (side 147)

Å være alene i et rom samtidig som man vet at kjæresten befinner seg i en annen del av huset, er noe ganske annet enn virkelig å være alene ...

"Imot naturen" er en vakker og smertefull liten bok, hvor forfatteren forteller om sitt forhold til kjærligheten fra han var en ung mann og frem til i dag, stykkevis og delt og litt frem og tilbake. Det er et svært sympatisk bilde som tegnes av ham, og dette står i dyp kontrast til det bildet som har oppstått av ham som en arrogant mann som nærmest steiler ved tanken på at han kun skulle bli lest av femtiårige kvinner ... Det er nå en gang slik at de fleste storkonsumenter av bøker er kvinner, og jeg tenker at han bør være takknemlig for hver leser han har - uansett kjønn! Uansett - dette lar jeg på ingen måte komme i veien for mitt forhold til hans bøker - like lite som Hamsuns nazisme får meg til å være å lese hans bøker ... uten sammenligning for øvrig, bare så det er sagt! Ekstra morsomt fant jeg selvsagt at Espedal skriver om at han har lest Knausgårds bøker!

"Ja hva skal jeg si om lykken? At jeg ble glad med en gang jeg så henne når vi våknet om morgenen? At jeg gikk hele dagen og gledet meg til at vi skulle legge oss om kvelden? Vi lå ved siden av hverandre i sengen og leste. Vi leste hver våre eksemplarer av Knausgård-bøkene, begynte samtidig og leste parallelt, plutselig la hun ned boken og så på meg; leste du det? spurte hun. Hvordan våger han, det er jo helt utrolig, han er ikke riktig klok, sa hun. Så leste vi videre. Helt til jeg la boken min ned og så på henne; leste du det? spurte jeg. Hvordan våger han, det er jo helt utrolig, han ødelegger seg selv, sa jeg.

Det er nesten ingenting å si om lykken. Den er der i alt vi sier og gjør, og vi vet ikke engang om den." (side 115)

Espedal klarer det kunststykke å skrive om kjærligheten og sorgen uten å bli verken banal, klisjéfylt eller klissete. Og det er vel det som skiller ham fra de fleste andre som har prøvd før. Han er en glitrende forfatter! Her blir det terningkast fem! ( )
  Rose-Marie | Jan 11, 2012 |
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The companion volume to Espedal's Against Art, written in his characteristic poetic prose. In contemporary Norwegian fiction Tomas Espedal's work stands out as uniquely personal; it can be difficult to separate the fiction from Espedal's own experiences. Against Nature, a companion volume to Espedal's earlier Against Art, is an examination of factory work, love's labor, and the work of writing. Espedal dwells on the notion that working is required in order to live in compliance with society, but is this natural? And how can it be natural when he is drawn toward impossible things--impossible love, books, myths, and taboos? He is drawn into the stories of Abélard and Héloïse, of young Marguerite Duras and her Chinese lover, and soon realizes that he, too, is turning into a person who must choose to live against nature. "A masterpiece of literary understatement. Everybody who has recently been thirsting for a new, unexhausted realism, like water in the desert, will love this book."--Die Zeit, on the Norwegian edition

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