Jeg prøvde hardt å se forbindelsen til Andreas Doppler gjennom hele boka, men selv om det var enkelte elementer jeg kunne se en linje gjennom, fikk jeg det ikke helt til å stemme. Jeg fikk meg derfor en god latter da jeg fant ut at "Stille dager i Mixing Part" ikke var tredje bok i trilogien om Andreas Doppler, men derimot var sin egen frittstående roman. Vi følger en dramaturg og hans familie på ferie i Tyskland. Ikke alltid så spennende å følge handlingen, men en god del komiske scener redder boka. ( )

something is really rotten in the marriage that Loe writes about and it started way before the couple in question has left for vacation in South Germany.
he, a playwright, is obsessed with Nigella Lawson, she speaks German and has a knack for Germany and maybe strong German men,...or so it seems.
It erupts during vacation, the children remain pretty much in the background. ( )

Miluju automaticky prekladace. Mixing Part:-))))
Pribeh zajimave psany pouze za pomoci dialogu a to vcetne tech vnitrnich, predstav, fantazii. Diky forme kratkych vet, otazek a odpovedi to vse plyne rychle, ma to tah a svih. A vtip, te taky. Vse pusobi obycejne, ctyricatnici s trema detma jsou na dovolene u lidi, kteri neumi anglicky. Ale o to tam nejde, i kdyz vtip s Mixing Part se pripomina casto ("a nejmenuje se to tu Mixing Part"), jde o zivotni realitu, ktera se velmi slusne prehoupne do poradny manzelsky krize. ( )

http://msarki.tumblr.com/post/129350768253/lazy-days-by-erlend-loe

The title of this superb little tale should have remained and contained both the words Mixing Part. The title Lazy Days is unjust, inappropriate, and mediocre for a book this good and honest to the core. From the opening pages one can easily discern what I mean by this as the English translation for the German name of the town this family chooses to spend their holiday in is nothing less than tantalizing as it contains a humorously bad translation. Mixing Part Churches. It definitely set the tone for where the author meant to take me.

Having already raised a family of my own certainly helped me to understand and appreciate the humor and seriousness of this brilliant work. All relationships are absurd, and the reasons we remain in them are often questionable. Some call it love, others an arrangement. I have always termed all marriage alliances as deals no matter how much love is involved. And often, throughout a long life, the deal changes. New negotiations must incur and new agreements for any hope for the continued “love affair” to thrive. Often in these processes, relationships become devoid of any passion, and often love exits to far-off reaches, and is nowhere in the vicinity of where it was supposed to endure the coming tribulations. In other words, sometimes our lives do become theater, and this is what this novel details.

I cannot imagine this book being enjoyed, or being of much use to anyone not already subjected to a long and accomplished relationship. If deceit and cowardly behavior signifies what a marriage can be, then this bit of work by Erlend Loe would be too much for those of us to bear. Plus it is not conventional in its style. It is basically all dialogue and the reader must discern at all times who is actually doing the talking. There is little help given the reader except for the supreme craft of Loe always present on the page. The questions and conversation he employs keep the action steadily moving. Everything on the page is connected, and skillfully executed. I had absolutely no trouble in following the dialogue. It was as if my wife and I were the ones who actually wrote this book. It was if my own kids were present on the page. I like to think our family might too have been, at times, interesting, and this book was actually one I should have written myself. But alas, I did not. It was Erlend Loe who performed this miracle. It appears Loe has additionally much more to offer his reading public, as he has never repeated anything in the three books translated into English that I have read thus far. He obviously borrows from his life and his varied interests in it. It seems every question regarding his life he attempts to face honestly on the page. And we are rewarded consistently by his efforts. The sharp and biting dialogue prepares us for the route his wandering plot portrays. The results are magnificent in their clever and exquisite development.

Having been confused from time to time over which direction my own life should take, and wondering if I ever could be the person I often imagined myself to be, it is refreshing to read of the same consternation the narrator Telemann has for his own life. By reviewing his own sexual fantasies happening outside his marriage bed it helps the reader to understand why Telemann’s wife Nina might actually stray herself from the so-called sanctity of marriage. After his wife’s Nina’s gift of a popular cookbook to him, Telemann obsesses daily over the author Nigella Lawson and her buxom body. Telemann extends his obsession to hating the art collector Charles Saatchi who she was presently married to. The concept that Life is always theater is not difficult to accept when confronted with it so aggressively as Loe is wont to do. By also involving the couple’s later attempt at viewing together the great seven and a half hour Hungarian film Sátántangó by Béla Tarr the absurdness grows amidst the reality of their creative adulteries. Having been myself subjected to this film twice already, the haunting soundtrack composed by Mihály Víg, by default, as well saturates the Loe narrative for me. Sátántangó was based on one of the great novels written by László Krasznahorkai, who is a regular collaborator in most Béla Tarr directed films.

Contrary to the mostly lukewarm reviews of Lazy Days, I found this title to be fresh and invigorating, and one of the best reads of the year so far for me. ( )

I denne lille boka møter vi familien Telemann som reiser på ferie til Garmisch-Partenkirchen, eller Mixing Part som Bror Telemann liker å kalle det. Han hater for øvrig tyskere, mens kona Nina elsker alt det tyske. Bror Telemann er dramaturg ved teateret, mens Nina Telemann er norsklærer i den videregående skolen.

Det meste av boka består av rene dialoger mellom Bror Telemann og kona, mens barna - tre i alt - befinner seg i bakgrunnen. Stilen er helt umiskjennelig for Erlend Loe. En stil jeg egentlig begynner å bli litt lei, men som jeg likevel dras mot. Jeg "må" liksom få med meg Loes bøker okke som ...

Familien skal altså feriere i Mixing Part i hele juli, men nokså fort begynner det å skjære seg mellom ektefellene. Med en rekke urkomiske dialoger krangler de seg gjennom ferien, og i god fellesferiestil er de underveis nærmest på skilsmissens rand, uvant som de er av tilbringe så mye tid sammen. Mens Telemann fantaserer om kokebokforfatteren Nigellas fristende kropp, tar Nina det hele ut litt lenger. Hun innleder en affære med en tysker ...

Mange ganger ble jeg sittende og humre og le underveis. Som denne dialogen på side 18:

"Det skjer forresten ganske ofte at jeg opplever at jeg er alene i et rom og så viser det seg at du også er her. Du er en stille type.
Det er du også.
Du mener vi er stille typer begge to?
Ja."

Eller når Bror Telemann bekymrer seg for deres åtte år gamle sønn (side 38):

"Han er en sjeldent fjern åtteåring som flyter rundt i sine egne tanker og ikke bekymrer seg over at andre ikke når inn til ham. Flere år etter at barn flest har sluttet å si rare og søte ting, gjør Berthold det fortsatt. Nina og Telemann lurer på om de vil makte å gjøre ham til et levedyktig og handlekraftig individ."

Eller når han forklarer hvordan de to byene Garmisch og Partenkirchen ble ett (s. 82):

" ... så ble de slått sammen før vinterolympiaden i 1936.
Jeg skjønner.
Men det ville ikke innbyggerne.
Ok.
Hitler bare bestemte det.
Typisk Hitler."

Boka er for det meste veldig morsom, men av og til også innmari irriterende. Akkurat det tror jeg også har vært forfatterens hensikt. Han kunne utvilsomt ha dratt det hele enda lenger, og muligens kunne det da ha blitt en enda mer interessant roman av det. Slik som han har valgt å skrive "Stille dager i Mixing Part", ble det morsomt nok der og da, uten at han er i nærheten av å skrive stor litteratur. Egentlig var det enkelte sekvenser som kunne minne om "Tatt av kvinnen", hvor han presenterte vrengebildet av den moderne kvinnen. For Bror Telemanns kone Nina er virkelig ikke helt god, der hun manipulerer mannen sin gjennom å sette opp ikke rent få listige feller for ham. Men på samme måte som i "Tatt av kvinnen", tar Bror Telemann igjen til slutt. Og først når han blir ordentlig slem, blir Nina interessert i ham som ektemann igjen ...

Alt i alt en bok litt over middels - og som fortjener terningkast fire. Uten Erlend Loes oppleserstemme kan det tenkes at boka ikke hadde fått mer enn terningkast tre ... ( )