Wait, Blink

Wait, Blink: a perfect picure of inner life / Gunnhild Oyehaug
trans. from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson
NY: FSG,c2018.
277 p.

I'm not sure how to describe this book -- it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Literary, wry, feminist, modern, imaginative; it was a wonderful read.

There are 3 women in this novel: Sigrid, a young student falling in love with an older author via his book jacket photo; Trine, an edgy performance artist unsettled by motherhood; and Linnea, a film director longing for an old lover who has forgotten her. 

They are each lonely in their own ways, and are forging a path into changed lives thanks to this strong emotion. Each is at a different stage of life as well, and their internal lives have, therefore, different concerns. I found Sigrid, who we begin with, to have the strongest storyline, but I enjoyed all of this book and each character too. 

Here is where the title comes from:

She looks at the cursor that's blinking. She identifies with the cursor! Waiting, blinking, and without any real existence in the world, just on and off between blink and blink. Is this her light in the world?

The style is nearly as important as the story here -- it's as if we're watching a film with a narrator, the first sentence is "Here we see Sigrid." and this formula is repeated with other characters later in the book as well. Surroundings and actions are described by an outside eye, and there is a quirky feel of a 19th C. narrator when we learn something about a character's fate that they don't know themselves. The chapters are short and move between characters, the three main ones and a handful of others, even ones who only appear accidentally, so to speak. There are little asides in some of the brief chapters, looking at nature or literature or historical sites; I found it all charming. 

Because it feels like a camera eye swinging between scenes, it's probably best to read this in as short a time as possible so you don't lose track of where you are. There are some plot lines that have a more traditional structure, but most of the book as a whole is more focused on moments and impressions. That said, the reader does find the connecting threads between all these stories, something the characters aren't really able to do.

There is a heavy reliance on the film "Lost in Translation" in much of Sigrid's sections. I did see that film years and years ago and didn't like it much, so the near idolization of it that Sigrid holds is a bit over the top, but then she is a young college student.  And it does seem to symbolize the disconnect she feels with nearly everything and everyone in the outside world. 

But this also brings up one of the funniest things about the book, to me. Sigrid is writing an essay on the phenomenon of women wandering around barelegged in oversized men's shirts. She points to her filmic examples, to poems and writing that show this trope of  "windswept women" via the male gaze. It's entertaining and amusing, and now I'll never be able to see that common image again without thinking of this book.

This was a clever, literary, sharp story. I loved the structure of it, the lightness, intellect, references and mix of characters with their overlapping storylines. It is fresh, current, and enjoyable. A great one to start of my Women in Translation Month!