Literature and Fiction2013 · 208 pp
I'm Coming!
Selma Lønning Aarø
Is there anything more dangerous than a horny woman? That question was surely asked a hundred years ago, when ladies who were up for it were told Oh-shame-on-you – at least officially. Now, we react the other way round. We live at a time when lusting for someone is obligatory. Old and young alike. All the bonking time. We can hardly pass a newsagent without the tabloids bombarding us, on a more or less daily basis, with hints about how to practice our orgasms, breathe or eat the right way to get them, or talk dirty until we have one. Is it so odd if our heroine asks herself: I don’t come, so is there something wrong with me?
The leading lady in Jeg kommer snart is a rather ordinary woman who lies down one day to find out – on her own, or, better, by her own hand – if she can do orgasms or not. And while she lies there, the reader is allowed to sneak into her head and listen to her thoughts and find out about whom she is thinking while she tries to come. This is how Jeg kommer snart becomes something as unusual as a kind of sexual biography, or sexual catalogue, in which we follow what our masturbating heroine is thinking about, like who she has been with and what it was like, and why, to this very day, she hasn’t managed to get a decent orgasm out of it all. Meanwhile, her family is buzzing about on the other side of her bedroom door, forever knocking on it and wondering why she isn’t coming (out) soon.
Selma Lønning Aarø’s new novel is about the acute and very real panic that can spread throughout a sexually frustrated woman’s body. Jeg kommer snart is wise, sensitive, funny and, as an existential diagnosis of our time – and our media – almost too close to the bone.
‘Daring and direct writing about a woman’s inability to orgasm, with great satirical subtext. ... In this book, sex is associated with destructive forces such as violence, crime and death. Lønning Aarø has written a book about something rarely discussed nowadays, a frigid woman (as they were referred to way back when), through which she has a nice ironic go at contemporary trends.’BERGENS TIDENDE
‘Funny, smart and important novel about the last sexual taboo – why do women fake it?’DAGBLADET
‘The structure of this novel is delightfully simple… Here Aarø is given the opportunity to talk nonsense about things that many people have observed and will relate to. … How do routines become established in a relationship? How long do the batteries last in a vibrator? There is also a hint of ice-cold darkness in Jeg kommer snart … It takes a while for the reader to understand that this does not belong to the light, chicklit genre they initially thought they’d delved into.’DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV
‘Five years have passed since Selma Lønning Aarø’s last novel. Her distinctive mixture of comedy and seriousness remains intact. This is quite simply enjoyable reading.’KK
‘A serious enough theme can be found at the heart of this novel, connected to society’s expectations of a woman, her expectations of herself, and not least of sexuality. But Lønning Aarø portrays this with a playful elegance and linguistic devices which make this highly entertaining reading.’HAMAR ARBEIDERBLAD
‘Aarø uses humour to approach a theme which is darker and more important than sex: all the stress we go through in trying to be someone worth loving. And she succeeds in being both funny and serious.’DAG OG TID
‘Jeg kommer snart offers a lot in the way of entertainment, this is light-hearted and quickly-read satire of our often self-centred endeavours to achieve perfect lives and sex lives.’DAGBLADET
‘Selma Lønning Aarø writes very pointedly about sex, lust and shame. The story of Julie’s enduring efforts to achieve sexual release makes for entertaining literature. Even though she is intimate with others, she avoids being too private and this also makes it relevant outside of the main character’s bedroom.’AVISA SUNNHORDLAND
