OBOC - Sweden

Apologies, for not sticking to the A's. This one by Reidar Jonsson was on my reading list for a long time and I had to finish it. A Swedish friend recommended the book as one that has managed to capture the soul of Sweden. How can I turn down the book after such a recommendation! Also i am still waiting for Argentina and Armenia to arrive :)

I've seen the movie long before I read the book, but like with so many adaptations, while I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, the book tops it hands down. The big difference is the first person narration - the same reason I preferred "To Kill a Mockingbird" the book 10X times to the movie. While the movie wrapped up everything as a beautiful package with a bow, the book on the other hand left you hanging and therefore was more tragical.

From the sympathy he feels towards the dog in space, to his morbid metaphors ("Going home w/o glasses is like volunteering for San Quentin's gas chamber"), his musings on life ("you become what you are if you are where you are", "isn't it funny - the best thing i've got in life is a loan" and my favorite "People's fate are often determined by timetables") and his amusing encounters with the people of Smaland - eccentrics and individuals in their own right, the book makes your heart reach out to Ingemar. How he deals with the tragedy of his mother's death, being passed around from one person to the other and coping with being split up from his siblings and his pet dog Sickan all topped with a generous layer of guilt ("I had done it again. I had killed her a little again") is the crux of the book.

Although the story is very much set in a small town in Sweden and is replete with imageries and events from Sweden in the late '50s the story is in some sense universal. How do you feel when everyone around you wants to move on, but you are still not ready? Ingemar does the only two things he knows, pretending - which he is very good at, and running away - which he is not so good at.

As I said the book triumphs because of its first-person voice, Ingemar's voice tugs at your heart strings and many times I just wanted to shout out what he wanted to hear - "It is not your fault". How can you not feel for a 13 year old struggling to manage his life despite everything ?

A beautiful coming of age story, powerful in its brutal honesty. This one is going to stay with me for a long time!