Written by Tore Renberg

Publisher: Cappelen Damm
Pages: 176
Genre: Contemporary, Norwegian
Published: 2020-09-03
Original Language: Norwegian

Dei kallar han Tollak til Ingeborg. Den gamle stabukken som bur oppe ved sagplassen. Alle veit at han har gjort ting på sin eigen måte. Alle veit kva han gjorde med dei gutane. Alle veit at ungane hans ikke kjem heim så ofte. Alle veit han tok til seg han dei kalla Oddotosken. Og alle hugsar den gode kona hans, Ingeborg. Men det er noko folk ikkje veit. Det er på tide å fortelje.

Read from 2020-09-10 to 2020-09-15
Read in Norwegian
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: Tollak til Ingeborg is the first book I’ve read by Tore Renberg since I read Mannen som Elsket Yngve back in school. That’s not for a lack of wanting to read his book, I keep meaning to get around to starting his Teksas series, but as every new publication by him lately has been a new book in a series I haven’t read, I jumped at the chance to read Tollak til Ingeborg, which is both a series-less book, and absolutely nothing like what I expected it to be.

The book is the internal monologue of an elderly man who lives an isolated life in a little village, some distance from the closest town, and who has refused to do what the rest of us would call “keeping up with normal society”.

It’s hard to know what to write about this book, as I felt that gradually realizing what it was about was so much of my experience of reading it, and it is certainly unlike any other book I can remember reading. We’re essentially, in real time, witnessing a man come to terms with things in his life that he has to come to terms with.

I think I’ll leave it there, as reading this book is more about the experience of reading it that about the story it’s telling. Tollak til Ingeborg is a book that some people will love, and some people will hate. For some it will be a visceral experience, and for others it will be one long pretentious ramble. I loved it.