Naive. Super - Erlend Loe
Aight so yo. I picked this book up a few years back after someone I worked with recommended it. I thought it was pretty neat and easy to read back then, plus the main character made cool lists and didn't really see a point in anything. My man. I've read it again recently (its the first book I've ever read twice- props) and it got a whole lot better. S'like that time when i watched Lost In Translation as a youngen and thought it was lame, then watched it at university and thought it was bangin. Comin' at things from new angles and at different times in your life really makes you see stuff in a new light (including, but not limited to, Scarlett Johansson's breastisiz)
To summarise without giving away the ending (everyone dies), Its about a young guy who, on his 25th birthday, is suddenly overcome with the emptiness of his existence. He plays croquet, then cries and shit. This guy then quits university (My Man) and starts from scratch in his brothers empty apartment- wrestling with what he is, what surrounds him, and what everything means.
The way it's written is what appeals to me the most. S'like simplicity aids the quest for clarity. The chapters and sentences are short, but there's a lot to be found in them. While I whole-heartedly agree there's some cool shit to be found in those long sometimes-convoluted-but-usually-harbouring-some-slyly-dope-meaning classic literature sentences, i kinda dig the brief, straight to the dome style that's adopted here. Saying something simply doesn't diminish the weight it can have, in fact sometimes its the opposite.
Examples -
I love you
I hate you
Fuck off
The book comes in at just under 200 fairly short pages, with easily manageable chapters (the type you can read on the toilet without being in there for a suspicious amount of time). It's pretty fun to read (I swear), and approaches the biggest question in the world with a kinda charming simplicity and naivety (yeaaah) that says more, in fewer words, about everything.
I read the English translation, cuz the books author is Norwegian, just in case you wanted to know that.
Buy It Here (if you want)
Maybe I should do ratings?
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