Naive. Super - Softcover

Loe, Erlend

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841956724 ISBN 13: 9781841956725

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2005

Synopsis

Troubled by an inability to find any meaning in his life, the 25-year-old narrator of this deceptively simple novel quits university and eventually arrives at his brother's New York apartment.

In a bid to discover what life is all about, he writes lists. He becomes obsessed by time and whether it actually matters. He faxes his meteorologist friend. He endlessly bounces a ball against the wall. He befriends a small boy who lives next door.

He yearns to get to the bottom of life and how best to live it.

Funny, friendly, enigmatic and frequently poignant - superbly naive.

About this title

Review:

Erlend Loe's cult novel Naïve. Super, about a 25-year old who is unable to find any meaning in his life, was a huge success in his native Norway, and a bestseller throughout Europe--and it isn't difficult to see why.

The narrator has given up on doing his Masters and gone to stay at his brother's house. His brother is away on business and needs his mail redirecting via fax. Aside from that there is nothing to do. So he makes lists, worries about time, befriends a small boy who lives next door, worries about his good friend and his bad friend and tries to understand what being, and being here and now, means. In mostly very short, sometimes elliptical, wry but never ironic chapters Loe works at his character's fear of the meaningless and works meaning into the slightest of material. There is a lovely moment toward the end of the novel when the narrator's brother picks up and plays with the child's toy he has previously berated the narrator for holding on to. Sometimes, we feel, imputing meaning to the simpler things may well be the only route to understanding the more complex ones.

The novel is reminiscent of "60s" writer Richard Brautigan at his best, has the knowing artlessness of Douglas Coupland and shares a love of lists with Nick Hornby but Loe has bagfuls of his own unique charm. This is a beautifully unaffected, funny book, refreshingly free of cynicism, which manages to raise serious existential questions while retaining throughout the lightest of touches and the quirkiest of observations.--Mark Thwaite

Review:

"Loe certainly has some of Salinger's lightness of touch, and often comic voice of his unnamed narrator recalls Salinger's Holden Caulfield. A charming debut novel." (The Times)

"it displays a canny lightness of touch and a great deal of charm. An effortlessly hip and savvy antidote to the rainy day blues." (Sleazenation)

"It is fascinating, how much depth this young author can convey in a simple language - a major talent." (Oldenburgische Volkzeitung, Germany)

"A book overflowing with creative talent on just about every page. Well calculated naivety." (Dagbladet, Norway)

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1841956724
• ISBN 13: 9781841956725
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208