The Details

Moody compelling character study from Sweden. Works for me!

I'm not sure how to adequately review The Details. I stumbled upon it on netgalley and was intrigued by the synopsis of this tiny book. Figured if I didn't like it, well, at least it was short. But I ended up liking it a lot.

In this story, a woman gets malaria, and the subsequent fever takes her mind back to four people who have played major roles over the course of her life-- literally with Johanna, for whom she claims "She was my main character."

The narrator draws each character vividly, making me feel drawn into their intimate world. Johanna, Niki, Alejandro, and her mother, Birgitte, felt real, fleshed out and alive. Through each, the narrator captures something of herself, revealing her own life through her connection to others, as well as exploring themes of love, friendship and mental illness.

The synopsis asks "Who is the real subject of a portrait, the person being painted or the one holding the brush?" And it is the key question here. Because while this book paints a portrait of four different people, the real story being told is that of the narrator. It illuminates the fact that any one person's story is merely an amalgamation of the people who've shaped their lives.

Ia Genberg’s The Details sees a woman confined to bed by a mild fever recalling four people who have influenced her life, beginning with her ex-lover Johanna who had showered her with generosity, occasionally revealing a shockingly cold, judgemental side to her character, switched on and off as easily as her lavish praise. Several years before she met Johanna, our narrator had shared a flat with Niki, mercurial and passionate with mood swings that no therapist seemed capable of curbing. Just before the millennium, there had been a brief and passionate affair with the charismatic Alejandro. All three have left an indelible mark on our narrator but it's her mother Birgette who perhaps holds the key to her character.
In her translator’s note, Kira Josefsson mentions Karl Ove Knaussgaard, drawing a parallel between Knausgaard’s prodigious output and Genberg’s concision from which I deduced that her novella is to some extent autobiographical. As Joseffson observes, the narrator’s life is revealed to us refracted through her relationships with others rather than documenting her every action, a style which I find very much more appealing, conveying a great deal with admirable brevity, a tribute to both Genberg and Josefsson’s skills. I found it riveting - accomplished, thoughtful and absorbing.

I had no idea what to expect from this one and what a surprise and a delight this book was, my only criticism is that I wish I could have read it in Swedish ( no complaints on the translation, it was seamless)

The book opens with a woman struck down with a fever and she remembers four people who had a strong influence on her life. Each chapter is dedicated to each of these four people. I loved how we learned about this woman through her relationships with these people. I loved how each chapter meandered and flowed and then ended with devastating clarity.

A surprising joy of a book with wonderful characters and original storytelling.