Supporting Act by Agnes Lidbeck
Swedish Fiction
Original title –Finna sig
Translator Nichola Smalley
Source – Subscription book
I have long been a fan of the books published by Peirene Press over the years, even though they are now in different hands. The concept of novellas that can be read in the time it takes to watch a film remains the same. Another of their years had miniature epics, and this book would fit in that selection of books. It is a small epic. One Woman’s Life is told over the span of this book. I find it amazing that this was the debut novel; the narrative and arc of the book feel like they are from a far more experienced writer. Agnes Lidbeck had worked for the Swedish Institute while writing this book and has since been a cultural commentator for a Swedish newspaper. Her father is a well-known Swedish director, and her half-sister is an actress.
When a woman becomes a mother, the unit of measurement for her worth shifts from that denoting her power to attract to that denoting her body’s durability.
Motherhood can be likened to the wearing of religiously coded clothing. The flesh becomes anonymous, suited for things other than desire.
The mother must not be an individual who – through the force of her unique proportions, waistline to nail length – can be distinguished from others.
For that reason, she must no longer be called by a name or by some onomatopoeic metaphor. Instead, she must, like all tools, be named for her function.
One of the quotes from what must be old gudies to motherhood!
The book follows Anna, whom we meet as she has become a mother, and how her life changes as a result of motherhood, as well as her connection with her husband, Jens. This is a book about what it is to be a mother. Still, it also has a sprinkling of what looks like old guides to being a mother and over the years, the relationship between her and Jens becomes flat, and she is now just the mother of his kids. She and Jens grab moments, but there is a sense it isn’t enough. The kids are growing and in time theystart having there own lives this is when the book sees whether Jens and Anna can spark there marriage back but when in the latter part of the book by chance she meet the writer Ivan she falls fr this older man, but this leads to her having another female role as soon after she gets a divocrce and they get together Ivan and Anna he starts to have dementia and with his kids she becomes a caregiver.
Lying beside the person you know so well and still trying to creep imperceptibly closer: as though rejection would be less painful if it were not spoken out loud.o.
She curves her back but still Jens does not press himself against her. She breathes as though she is sleeping and he soon drifts off. She lies awake, tense so as to be as clear as possible: here are my arse and thighs, there is no belly here, here are my breasts, where a hand might land as if by accident. Jens will not wake; she feels her construction crumble: her arse and thighs suddenly insignificant, her stomach bearing the traces of two children, her breasts too, they are used up and have no further meaning. What gives him the right to respond or not respond as he wants?
What is this mechanism that gives him this right to have other thoughts in his head?
The cracks appear when she wonders what Jens is thinking ?
I loved the arc of this book, it is one woman’s life. It may be, in a way, the female version of Stoner, a life in a book. Anna’s life seems on a course, and always when the light is there for it to get better, it disappears. But it also captures the traditional female role. I laughed at the interchapter quotes from what seemed to be old motherhood books and later about being single and a caregiver. Showed how the female role is viewed. I was also thinking of the before trilogy just as I had watched a video of that selection of film this is like a few glimpses of a life the passion of early mortherhood, then the mother role, then the empoty nest and what happens next and finally what happens when love dies and temption gets in the way. I said it feel like it is a book that is written by a writer that had written a lot if books it flows in Nichola translation, I have loved all the books she has translated in recent years. For me this should be on next years international booked it is high on books that will be on my books of the year. Do you have a favourite book you’d call a small epic?
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