Literature and Fiction2024 · 144 pp
Mr. Knapp’s Unfinished Business
Lars Saabye Christensen
Mr. Knapp had just discovered that his landline was dead. He hadn’t even been there when it happened. This was a telling example. When had he ever been present? Wasn’t he always blindsided, as they say? This was the end of an era, that much was certain. He felt depressed and significant.
Mr. Knapp is an old man. A lot of people prefer to use the phrase ‘getting up there’ when talking about old age: Mr. Knapp was getting up there. But old age was never something to which Mr. Knapp had tried to achieve. Quite the opposite. Who rushes toward something like that? He’s still dealing with his childhood. And his youth. And his family. And with people. And with love. Oh, to be in love! In Paris, the summer of 1959, visiting museums and galleries, or just walking along the streets, with his future wife, reading French poetry, especially Verlaine, “how did that poem go again, the one about rain in Paris and the heart?”
Why can’t he remember? The rain is still falling.
«Mr. Knapp's Unfinished Business is about becoming so old that one will soon die. [...] it's a mix of quiet realism, a twinkle in the eye and absurd elements. [...] It is strongest when the humour is contrasted against the very present pain.»ADRESSEAVISEN
Charming portrait of old age«Lars Saabye Christensen has written a charming novel about loneliness, old age and imminent death. [...] full of wit, paradoxes, puns and stinging remarks about life in its mundanity and old people in particular. During the novel, you'll want to laugh, but end up crying. [..] The cheerful, charming linguistic surface often hides dark secrets. [...] Mr. Knapp's Unfinished Business is Lars Saabye Christensen at his most engaging.»DAGSAVISEN
