Literature and Fiction2011 · 176 pp
Fvonk
Erlend Loe
Just as Fvonk is contemplating life in general, a large, shiny, very clean car of a German make glides up the drive and stops without cutting the engine. It is black, has darkened windows and looks official. Fvonk resents all interference by the authorities and this one in particular. A few seconds later, the rear door on the right opens and a woman in her fifties climbs out. Irritatingly, the door makes a hollow, thumping noise – boom, boom, boom – a signal alerting everyone to the fact that it is open. The woman slams the door and checks her surroundings, making sure that she isn't observed by anyone except Fvonk. But there are just the two of them present – this woman and Fvonk. At the time when the Norway Hiking & Exercise Association was going through a rough patch, Fvonk was an employee. He can testify to the financial mess. Fvonk is deeply uninterested in culture. Then a lodger moves into his place, but not a Nobody. On the contrary, quite a Somebody. As it happens, his name is Jens and, as it happens, he is the Prime Minister.
‘With a bubbling joy of telling a story Erlend Loe creates a room where the country’s most powerful man can finally be himself. … Fvonk is first and foremost a highly entertaining book about a friendship out of the ordinary.’Vårt Land
‘Loe creates several entertaining situations with this cartoonish universe. Both on and between the lines a clear critique of The Norwegian Social Democracy’s ways of understanding and behavior can be found.’VG
‘Like most of Erlend Loe’s books, this too is a light read, light philosophy, lightly consummated. But it is not necessarily simple as a result. Because if you liked Naiv.Super. or Tatt av kvinnen, you will like this one too.’Sandefjords Blad
‘It is hard to imagine why Jens Stoltenberg felt offended by Loe’s story, because it is sensitive, sympathetic and wonderfully naïve, in best Loe style. The narrative is a stream of consciousness – often, stretching over entire pages as thoughts, separated only by commas, are reeled off at a headlong pace. It gives the novel and its language an authentic and overflowing tone that suits the two protagonists.’ Jyllands-Posten, DK
‘Laugh and have your heartstrings tugged by Erlend Loe’s new novel about Fvonk … Fvonk is filled with warmth, craziness and tiny, precise detail; it is one of the kind of stories that one swallows whole in a great gulp, despite its mad, unbelievable plot.’ Weekendavisen, DK
‘A true Loe book.’ Elle, DK
‘Yet another funny novel by Loe about the role-playing we do in our daily lives and about the need to be oneself that goes along with it, despite everything – also, one hopes, true of the powerful in the land.’ Politiken, DK
‘Erlend Loe has got a grip on both the Prime Minister and ordinary people in his ironically affectionate novel full of social criticism. Behind the power there is always a human being. Behind every book there is an author. Erlend Loe is one of those able to see through all the trappings in a way that elicits both smiles and tears, but never a malicious laugh. Which is very well done.’ Fyens Stiftstidende, DK
