Rosa Liksom

The is the biography of a woman of northern Finland, born about 1915, who was taken very young by a much older colonel, went thru the Interwar period as a devotee of nazism, as was the colonel, lived the high life of a colonel's wife through most of WWII, then existed through a long post-war period in which their side had lost the war, finally freeing herself and taking on a new life. I found it compelling, deeply intrusive on my complacent middle class psyche, and riveting to the extent of mesmerizing.… (meer)

Je n’arrive pas à comprendre pourquoi j’ai lu ce livre… j’avais vu des notes de lecture élogieuse, certes, mais en les relisant j’ai l’impression qu’il n’y avait rien dedans qui aurait dû m’attirer… Et effectivement, cela a été une lecture laborieuse et qui ne m’a rien apportée. De ce quasi monologue d’un homme se vantant d’avoir tout compris à la vie et aux femmes, qu’il traite comme moins que rien et qu’il n’hésite pas à violenter de temps à autre, sûr qu’il est d’être dans son bon droit, face à une jeune femme que l’on sent fragile et qui ne dit presque pas un mot de tout le trajet, mais qui a l’air de développer au bout d’un moment une sorte de syndrome de Stockholm face à cet homme qui l’importune et l’insulte mais dont elle semble par moments rechercher la présence, je ne sais pas ce qu’il faut retenir, à part un immense malaise et un désir de refermer ce livre au plus vite.… (meer)

I have read two Liksom novels in translation* and enjoyed both very much, but this slim book, which I picked up way back in 2010, kept being passed over for no good reason…until now.

This 1989 book is a collection of very short fiction, which might be called ‘flash fiction” these days. It’s 117 pages of short pieces varying in length from a half page to perhaps six pages (and the pages have fairly liberal margins top and bottom). But, those stories!

Liksom is a master of dark humor. Many of her first lines seem so subtle, so ordinary, to the reader, one hardly expects to be caught by it, but so we are. A few examples of first lines:

"I got out of the handcuffs on Friday morning",
"The sun was shining behind the factory"
"Every day I eat at least two bars of Marabou Chocolate"
"While the ‘soldiers at the military were putting on their leather suits and flying boots…"

So, yes, I was hooked.

*Compartment No. 6: and The Colonel's Wife… (meer)