Describe your new book: This book is the story of my life — the ups, the downs, and the music. If someone were to write your biography, what...
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I picked up this book at the library today while my daughter was at story time. What started as an idle flip-through to kill time became something I _had_ to finish before we left.
Laid out with graceful, deliberate precision, Nilsson spins a tale that has happened to everyone who has ever been in love and had it fall apart, and does an unprecedented job in capturing the feeling of love lost. As a former teenaged boy myself, I could feel every emotion, every flash back, every shard of the nameless boy's broken heart. Even though I knew (or at least thought I knew) how it was all going to end, Nilsson writes with such devious skill and cutting insight that stopping was just not an option.
But, like the other review notes, even if this is ground that practically everyone has walked, Nilsson writes with such poignancy and believability that there is no clich? here. While not an everyman, the nameless boy?s experiences are presented as they come to him, making them unique and fresh to the reader. Despite never having been to Sweden, Nilsson focuses the narrative on the boy and his heart?s delight and thereby renders the background a background. We live in the nameless boy?s world of days marked by his interactions with his love and are able to transpose that world onto our own personal worlds and experiences. That dual internalization is what gives this book its power.
As an adult reader, I never shook my head at the nameless boy's actions or thoughts or rolled my eyes at his raw, teenaged emotions; I was simply too engrossed in the minute-by-minute account of events. This, I think, is the best sign that Nilsson's book will be well received by its target audience.
Finally, Tara Chance does an amazing job at translating Nilsson's words. I still want to learn Swedish, however, so I can enjoy this in the original!
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WHR has commented on (1) product.
Heart's Delight
WHR, June 24, 2006
I picked up this book at the library today while my daughter was at story time. What started as an idle flip-through to kill time became something I _had_ to finish before we left.Laid out with graceful, deliberate precision, Nilsson spins a tale that has happened to everyone who has ever been in love and had it fall apart, and does an unprecedented job in capturing the feeling of love lost. As a former teenaged boy myself, I could feel every emotion, every flash back, every shard of the nameless boy's broken heart. Even though I knew (or at least thought I knew) how it was all going to end, Nilsson writes with such devious skill and cutting insight that stopping was just not an option.
But, like the other review notes, even if this is ground that practically everyone has walked, Nilsson writes with such poignancy and believability that there is no clich? here. While not an everyman, the nameless boy?s experiences are presented as they come to him, making them unique and fresh to the reader. Despite never having been to Sweden, Nilsson focuses the narrative on the boy and his heart?s delight and thereby renders the background a background. We live in the nameless boy?s world of days marked by his interactions with his love and are able to transpose that world onto our own personal worlds and experiences. That dual internalization is what gives this book its power.
As an adult reader, I never shook my head at the nameless boy's actions or thoughts or rolled my eyes at his raw, teenaged emotions; I was simply too engrossed in the minute-by-minute account of events. This, I think, is the best sign that Nilsson's book will be well received by its target audience.
Finally, Tara Chance does an amazing job at translating Nilsson's words. I still want to learn Swedish, however, so I can enjoy this in the original!
(7 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)