Wilful disregard/Egenmäktigt förfarande by Lena Andersson,

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This book was a forced meme here in Sweden a couple of years ago, and now I finally got around to reading it. To be honest, I read it because I fell in love with a girl who talked about it, so hey, why the fuck not.

The book isn't that good, but it's got some good points. I think the idea is good, but then again, I'm in the mood for relationship novels right now. The execution, however, is terrible. As it is, the book just seems as if though no editor has read it.

First of all, phrases are repeated a lot, in a bad way. Words kick in again and again. The most common metaphor for sex is "their bodies met." Don't know how that sounds to native speakers of English, but the Swedish variety (deras kroppar möttes) sounds fucking terrible, especially after getting forced down the reader's throat.

I don't find Ester to be insane, which has been a point of critizism, especially after the book started getting praise from every fucking paper in this country. I think everyone on /lit/ can relate to the feeling of longing for someone so much that you take a detour just to walk through their neighbourhood in order to catch a glimpse of them. It gets a little too much towards the end of the book, but being madly in love for a year is nothing I find strange.

Andersson tells instead of showing, and, again, not in a good way. Especially during the second half of the book, stuff pops up with shit explanations, like "she remembered thing X he told her during that dinner" or "He had left a DVD in her apartment and now she thought of returning it" or some shit, instead of letting Hugo leave the DVD at page 40 and then not mention it until page 140 when Ester wants to return it.

The speech of the characters is unnatural, but I think that's in part because Andersson normally writes articles for Dagens Nyheter regarding culture, politics, and shit, and inserts her ideas in a rough way.

On the positive side, these ideas can be great food for thought. Not always, or even often, but often enough. It's got a lot to do with power within human relationships - unsurprising, since that's what the book deals with.

I've got some other things to say about it, but I also want to hear what you think, if you've read it.

Also, Swedish literature general.