A Review of The Room by Jonas Karlsson
The Room by Jonas Karlsson
A review by Matt Butcher
Literary fiction is not dead--it just needed a wake up call.
Most casual readers think that literary fiction is so hard to read, that it's not like popular fiction. That is true in some cases. I defy real, regular people to explain to me that James Joyce is nice Saturday afternoon's read. It doesn't have to be like that at all, and Jonas Karlsson proves that.
The story of a regular office worker who discovers a "room" into which he can disappear can be read at face value and be read as an oddly comic commentary of modern life. Or it can be read as a metaphor of the human condition, much like Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener," if you want an esoteric literary reference. The point is that it can be read. It can be read and discussed and enjoyed and discussed in many different ways with many different people.
I love its quick pacing and the simple mystery of "the room." I love the fact that I actually want to dive back into it and dissect it a bit, as any English major loves to do with a good read.
About the author: Sven Bert Jonas Karlsson is a Swedish actor and author. He won a Guldbagge Award for Best Actor in 2004 for the movie Details. He published his first book, a collection of short stories, in 2007.
I received this book from bloggingforbooks.org for an honest review.
A review by Matt Butcher
Literary fiction is not dead--it just needed a wake up call.
Most casual readers think that literary fiction is so hard to read, that it's not like popular fiction. That is true in some cases. I defy real, regular people to explain to me that James Joyce is nice Saturday afternoon's read. It doesn't have to be like that at all, and Jonas Karlsson proves that.
The story of a regular office worker who discovers a "room" into which he can disappear can be read at face value and be read as an oddly comic commentary of modern life. Or it can be read as a metaphor of the human condition, much like Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener," if you want an esoteric literary reference. The point is that it can be read. It can be read and discussed and enjoyed and discussed in many different ways with many different people.
I love its quick pacing and the simple mystery of "the room." I love the fact that I actually want to dive back into it and dissect it a bit, as any English major loves to do with a good read.
About the author: Sven Bert Jonas Karlsson is a Swedish actor and author. He won a Guldbagge Award for Best Actor in 2004 for the movie Details. He published his first book, a collection of short stories, in 2007.
I received this book from bloggingforbooks.org for an honest review.
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