Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
According
to my Goodreads account, I had read this novel before, but I had no
memory of it at all, and as I was re-reading, nothing rang a bell, so
it must be one of those books that you think you have read
because you should have. I believe I had it in my book shelf once
upon a time, and I am pretty sure it was on the syllabus when I
studied Swedish literature.
Per
Anders Fogelström is a very prominent Swedish
20th-century writer, and his most famous series of novels depicts
several generations of working-class people living in Stockholm from 1860s to 1968.
By serendipity – or maybe not a all – one of my recent walks took
me exactly to the place where City of My Dreams is
set, Åsöberget on Södermalm. At that time, it was slums where
harbour workers and prostitutes lived. A small part of it has been
preserved as a cultural monument and looks rather idyllic today.
It was illuminating to have seen the place just before I read the
novel. The characters also take strolls in the city, just like I do,
and visit places that I have recently visited. So the setting was
very vivid, even though I had to rewind the clock one hundred and
sixty years back.
Apart
from the fascination of the place, the book was excruciatingly
boring. The plot was minimal, and the characters totally flat,
without any appeal. It is obvious that the point was to paint a
picture of the misery of the working class, the hopeless struggle. So
I guess as a document of its time – written with a century gap –
it is of interest, but I couldn't make myself care about the
characters. The style was this conventional ”And then he did this…
and then she thought that… and many months had passed...” It just
doesn't work. I conscientiously read the first 150 pages carefully,
but skim-read the second half because life is too short to read
boring books.
When
I was looking up this book in the library catalogue, most editions
were abridged. Perhaps whoever decides still thinks this is a classic
every Swede should have read, but realises that no reader today can
endure this kind of fiction. I wish I could say there were at least
some passages I enjoyed, but I didn't.
Anyway,
Per Anders Fogelström's sign is, appropriately, on Per Anders
Fogelström Terrace, with the best view of Stockholm.
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