On the Calculation of Volume I, by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Barbara Haveland
"There is someone in the house."
I read this book thanks to the magic of the bookstore experience. I went in looking for something that they didn’t end up having, but started browsing and came across this book that I had never heard of, but that had a pull quote on the front from my favorite writer ever, Karl Ove Knausgaard. Sold. It’s the kind of book buying experience you can only have inside an actual brick and mortar bookstore, and I think one of the reasons they still exist. It’s such a magical moment when you buy and later love a book that you had never heard of, simply because it was well displayed at a local bookstore.
**
Unfortunately, I can’t say that I loved this book. I liked it fine. It was fine. But it wasn’t my favorite, despite Knausgaard saying it was “absolutely, absolutely incredible” on the cover.
The story in some ways reminded me of The Wall — a much, much better book in my opinion — in that a woman is confronted with an inexplicable and catastrophic event, and the book is her writing about her experience after the event occurs.
But, well, and I am not giving away too much here, the catastrophic event in this book is the same as the one in the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day. In that the main character is forced to live the same day over and over and over again and — like Bill Murray — she is the only one aware that it is happening.
The book — unlike the movie — is a study on grief and loneliness and mortality — but it still took me at least 50 or so pages to get over the fact that the plot was lifted from a Harold Ramis movie. You know, the guy who made Caddyshack and played Egon in Ghostbusters.
And then it kind of fell into a groove of gray, European coziness — or, truly, I think the Germans have the right work as usual: the book became the epitome of Gemütlichkeit. It’s a warm and agreeable, almost light and airy, read as the main character — Tara — tries to figure out why she is being forced to repeat each day, while also trying to get through each day. But the author — who has chops, don’t get me wrong — can’t seem to sustain the coziness and the book starts to really drag and become, well, ironically, rather repetitive and tedious and not a lot of fun. When it was over, I was ready for it to be over.
But, sadly, it’s not over, as this is just book one of a SEVEN volume series. And the second book is already available in English. So as of this moment I am in the middle of reading three different multi-book series, and I have to say I am not that happy about it, as it makes me feel like it’s being dictated what I should read next. And, yeah, I will read more books in this series. I am invested enough. I am curious enough. And Balle, the author, who I had never heard of before, is definitely a writer with talent. (Apparently she went into exile on an island for 20 years in order to write this series. That feels apocryphal, but intriguing nonetheless.) But SEVEN volumes? Yeesh. I guess we’ll take it one book at a time.
**
Should you read this book? It probably seems like I am saying you shouldn’t. But, I don’t know. It’s a slim volume, great to travel with. And the story — despite its dark undertones — is pleasant in a funny kind of way, while also being a deeply melancholic study on what it means to mourn. I by no means hated it. And it is a bit of an international sensation. So I kind of want to keep going. You might too. I also have the feeling that more I think back on this book, the more I am going to like it. We’ll see.
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Next up: not sure yet! I have the whole week of Christmas off so I might be able to squeeze one more review in before the end of the year. And then sometime on the 30th or 31st, look for a special “year in review” newsletter.
After which I have two long-ish books that I want to dive into in January, so newsletters might be a little sparse for the first few weeks of the year.
Thanks for reading!