| Norwegian title: | Når jeg drikker |
| Author: | Martin Svedman |
| Binding: | Innbundet |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Publisher: | Cappelen Damm |
| Språk: | Bokmål |
| ISBN/EAN: | 9788202611873 |
11-year-old Henrik stretches out on the bathroom floor after drinking vodka. He laughs, he cries, he discovers that he has a talent for ecstasy. When he as a young man starts his MBA his parents have been trying to deal with his alcoholism for years. He has been to rehab and in therapy. Henrik can stop drinking for a while. The problem is that he always starts drinking again. As a student he meets Sofie. Henrik likes that Sofie has a sense for numbers and complex calculations, and that she knows the piano concertos by Mozart. And he loves that she can drink just as much as he can. But when Henrik and Sofie move in together, Sofie changes personality. She stops drinking.
When I drink is a poetry collection that portrays an alcoholic through sad, euphoric, painful, hopeful, absurd, and pathetic episodes. Henrik becomes just as sick when he does not drink as when he drinks. In a precise, specific and at times playfully poetic language the author shows us the otherness and pain of the alcoholic, and the way that they react both mentally and physically in a different way to a substance that most of us have a relationship to - alcohol.
Inspired by the prose of Charles Baudelaire and talkative, narrative poets like Frank O´Hara, the author started writing poetry after being submitted to detox. He has not had a drink for 8 years.
This book is solid. A long time will pass between each time a poetry collection of this calibre is published in Norway.
DAGBLADET
When I drink is in every way an unusual collection of poems. Not just unusually good. First and foremost, the collection is a rarity because it wants to do more than to mirror its originator.
ADRESSEAVISEN
The first print run was sold out in less than 2 weeks when the book was launched in Norway in January of 2019.
Martin Svedman
«Resultatet er helstøpt. Det går lang tid mellom hver gang det utgis en diktdebut av dette kaliberet på norsk.»
«Når jeg drikker er i det hele tatt en uvanlig diktsamling. Ikke bare uvanlig godt diktet. Først og fremst er dette en sjeldenhet i kraft av at den vil noe mer enn å speile sin opphavsmann.»
«Lik ein Pentti Saarikoski stupar Martin Svedman inn i den litterære offentlegheita med ei utgiving som tematisk dunstar av sprit.»
Margunn Vikingstad, Morgenbladet«Enkelt, rått og effektivt om å vere avhengig av alkohol»Sindre Ekrheim, Dag og Tid
«På trikken hjem leser jeg de korte, konsise og helst minimalistiske diktene, og merker at jeg blir både grepet og berørt. Dette er sjelden vare. Kraftig kost som kryper en stille under huden.»
Anders Neraal, BOK365«(...) skildringene av rusen, de brutte forholdene, det tilbakevendende mismotet når avrusningen mislykkes, alt sammen vitner om omfattende kunnskap om avhengighet, og i denne sammenhengen ikke mindre viktig, et grep om poesien som trekker tankene til Charles Bukowski, men uten at diktene er holdt i samme skitne estetikk, hvilket er en grøft som ligger snublende nær.»
Fartein Horgar, LegekunstenDet var en sterk leseopplevelse som rørte ved hele mitt følelsesregister. En meget god skriveprestasjon fra en sterk debutant.
Shantelle-Lee Knaplund Høgmoen, Hadeland«En diktsamling jeg anbefaler på det aller sterkeste!»
Beathe Solberg, Beathesbibliotek