The unnamed narrator of this novel is a middle aged woman who is experiencing an illness with high fevers and fatigue, which confines her to bed for several days. In the midst of her illness she recalls and revisits Paul Auster's [The New York Trilogy], which was given to her by Johanna, a lover from her past who has found fame as a well known radio broadcaster. The book consists of four characters who have been integral to the life of the narrator: Niki, her roommate in college, who the narrator attempted to befriend while being repeatedly ignored and pushed away; Alejandro, a lover who was a member of a local rock band; and Birgitte, her mother, who had to overcome her own demons after the birth of her children. Each character is somewhat inscrutable in her or his own way, although the narrator’s life was greatly impacted by each of them.

I found "The Details" to be a lovely novel to read, but its ethereal nature and structure means that it neither it nor its characters will stay with me long, and I would be very surprised if it wins the International Booker Prize. ( )

17. The Details by Ia Genberg
translation: from Swedish by Kira Josefsson (2023)
OPD: 2022
format: 137-page hardcover
acquired: library loan read: Mar 29-30 time reading: 3:36, 1.6 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary fiction theme: Booker 2024
locations: Stockholm (1990’s)
about the author: Swedish journalist and novelist born in Stockholm in 1967.

I just finished, my second of the International Booker longlist, another super-short one. I enjoyed it.

The novel is broken into four parts, each a relationship. They read like autobiographical essays about the quirky offbeat artistic world of 1990's Stockholm, Sweden. The four relationships include lovers, friends, and the unnamed narrator's mother. The opening two sections, two relationships, reminded me a lot of Rachel Cusk. Bold, personal, just a little off, but always interesting, the narrator here literally writing in a fever. That sense changed or faded at the end of the Niki section, the second, where I felt the book took a turn, and the four parts became to me a lot more meaningful and cohesive.

There is a lot of searching and not finding, just searching and searching elsewhere, and some losing. She tell us, "All my writing efforts were a vain attempt to reach for something that was forever lost." It’s a messy, unstructured, unstable life, but a tolerant one. She gives lots of details, per the title, things and personal characteristics, but they are part of the narrative. She tells us she has a "melancholic eye for detail". Often, they just seem to mainly tell the reader to slow down and look around.

I enjoyed these characters and their relationships, and their ongoing conversations that never end. They live, they're individual, wonderfully tangible and also unreachable. A fun book. It's maybe too short, and maybe reads too fast. I had to make myself slow down. Recommended to the whimsical reader.

2024
https://www.librarything.com/topic/358760#8488118 ( )

The Details is very much a thoughtful, ruminative book about a woman coming to terms with her past. There are no hugely dramatic reveals or scenes; instead the unnamed narrator focuses on describing four characters who played pivotal roles in her life. This allows her to build both a portrait of the person as she saw them and to assess them at a remove years later.

I was not surprised to find out that Ia Genberg was born around the same time I was, based on the many Gen X touchstones mentioned by the narrator. So many people my age could recount similar memories of the rock-band boyfriend, the punkish best friend rebelling against a middle-class background, the parent distracted by her own past experiences, the frenzy over the arrival of the year 2000. The book is aptly titled. Genberg excels at providing small details that add up to a vivid characterization, so when the reader arrives at the revelation of the effect on the narrator, it feels natural and earned. Genberg's writing is gently lovely, a quiet surface that both hides and reveals deep emotions underneath. I especially appreciated her use of literary references, even though some of the authors she referenced don't seem to be available in English translation, unfortunately. I wish I could read them! I will definitely look for more work by Ia Genberg. ( )

Quarante ans dans la vie d’une femme, la narratrice, ses amours, ses amitiés, ses errances. Un roman sous forme de monologue intérieur en quatre époques, représentées par quatre personnes qui les ont marquées. Un texte déroutant mais brillant, introspectif, attaché aux détails de l’existence et des sentiments, et aux accents générationnels. ( )

Nadat ik een paar dagen met het virus in mijn lijf heb rondgelopen krijg ik koorts en kom ik op het idee een speciale roman te herlezen, maar pas als ik in bed ga zitten en het boek opensla, begrijp ik waarom.