| Norwegian title: | Positurene |
| Author: | Heidi Sævareid |
| Binding: | Innbundet |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Publisher: | Flamme Forlag |
| Språk: | Bokmål |
| Originaltittel: | Positurene |
| Series: | Fº |
| Serienummer: | 528 |
| ISBN/EAN: | 9788282885546 |
| Kategori: | Literature and Fiction |
Sunniva travels from Norway to the United States to reunite with Michael and Kelly, two friends from her time spent in a yoga community during the 2010s. One decade later, much has changed. Both in society and in their three lives.
A road trip from San Francisco to Portland outlines the story of their shared friendship: a journey backwards in time, to the how and when of their first meeting, to what later happened between them, and the things they either confronted or left unsaid in the past. Their years spent at a yoga school, as students of the charismatic and boundless teacher Jasper, has left them all affected and changed. Yet each of them remembers the experience very differently.
Poses delves into questions surrounding the trauma and lasting effects of physical and psychological violations. It draws inspiration from recent revelations about well-known yoga gurus and the communities surrounding them, such as Bikram and Ashtanga. Importantly, the novel also explores the group dynamics that arise in spiritual communities with strong, charismatic leaders - and within friendships that are not quite what they once were.
... Poses brings something new to the last years’ elegant and intelligent first-person narratives on trauma.
MORGENBLADET
Poses by Heidi Sævareid sees right through the social masks [we wear] in an almost provocatively realistic manner. … Sævareid effectively describes how and why yoga communities are particularly susceptible to systematic sexual abuse …
But Sævareid also depicts how the language and worldview of yoga can calcify in the body and mind. ... When things get hard, [the three friends] keep searching for knots and blocks in their own muscles, rather than in the expressions and emotions of their friends’ faces. … They haven’t just been manipulated and abused by Jasper. The years in his practice have also stripped them of a language where they can find each other, outside of his worldview.
AFTENPOSTEN
Sævareid is skilled at describing the external landscape and the inner dynamics of friendship. (...) Sævareid's sensitive treatment of unhealthy body control is masterful. The descriptions of pain and resistance in the body are palpable. (...) As a reader familiar with yoga postures and Sanskrit terms, I appreciate how concrete Sævareid is in these depictions. At the same time, she takes care of readers without the same background with her steady and sensual approach to language. Describing bodily movements and postures in writing is indeed not an easy task.
VÅRT LAND
Fº / Heidi Sævareid
«Yogafreaks i alle land, sett dere på lesematten med Positurene, for nå er den ultimate yogaromanen her! (...) Veldig spennende og aktuell tematikk om hvor grensene går mellom normal sunnhet og ekstrem overdrivelse, pluss presise skildringer av gammelt vennskap som gnisser i sammenføyningene gjør at denne er vanskelig å legge fra seg. Perfekt reisefølge!»
Mari Grydeland, Costume«Sævareid er god på beskrivelser av det ytre landskapet og vennskapets indre dynamikk. (...) Sævareids ømfintlige behandling av sykelig kroppskontroll er mesterlig. Også beskrivelsene av smerte og motstand i kroppen er til å ta og kjenne på. (...) Som en leser med kjennskap til yogapositurer og begreper på sanskrit, setter jeg pris på hvor konkret Sævareid er i disse skildringene. Hun ivaretar samtidig lesere uten samme bakgrunn med sin stødige og sanselige tilnærming til språket.»
Sigrid Elise Strømmen, Vårt Land«Når det ytre er det indre, når lidelse skrives frem som uavgrenset, bevegelig og ubegripelig, anes et radikalt åpent og fysisk smertebegrep. Hos Sævareid finnes ingen grense mellom verden og selvet, biologien og bevisstheten. Slik tilfører Positurene noe annet enn de siste årenes elegante og intelligente jeg-fortellinger om traumer.»
Maria Olerud, Morgenbladet«Sævareid skildrer effektivt hvorfor yogamiljøer er særlig utsatt for systematisk seksuelt misbruk. (...) Sævareid viser også hvordan yogaens språk og verdensforståelse kan bli sementert i kroppen og sinnet.»
