Literature and Fiction · Paperback

Siamese

Norwegian title: Siamesisk

Stig Sæterbakken

"The light had gone out in the bathroom when I entered this morning. He had of course not noticed. He was sitting there in the pitch dark and chewing gum, like he always does, when I opened the door and the light from the hallway that fell sideways into the room cut him in two - I could see the back of the chair and the back of his head, nothing more - silver gum paper sparkling like valuable, swirling silently around his chair."

In a typical suburban apartment lives Erna and Edwin, an elderly couple. He is blind and paralyzed from the waist down, and spends all the hours of the day in a chair in the bathroom. He thinks, chews gum and is tended by his wife. They have little or no contact with the world around them, and keep terrorizing each other in old and habitual patterns. They are both the "I" in this gloomy and absurd chamber play.