Book Title
The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood–Youth–Dependency
Type
BookFiction
Author
Tove Ditlevnsen
The Scandinavians have a way of finding the drama within the banal and exposing the weak underbelly of what it means to be human. The final chapter was a challenging reminder of how fragile we can be.
A few years ago I read and was briefly infatuated with the first few books of My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgård so it was hard to refuse this translation of Danish Author Tove Ditlevsen’s mid century auto-fiction. A bitter and unhappy mother and wife. A passion and obsession for a craft that seems to thrive in the face of (or because of?) opposition. The suddenness and severity of destruction that addiction can wreak. A book that takes place around World War II without being about World War II. These are things that stood out to me.