THE COPENHAGEN TRILOGY, by Tove Ditlevsen | Book Review | Modern Nordic Literature Series

Book review of Tove Ditlevsen's The Copenhagen Trilogy (trans. Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman).
/ travelstoriesyt

[@zenli1407]

I read this book after studying abroad in Copenhagen for one semester. Being able to remember the streets through her writing was extremely useful, the book really brings you back to the setting that she grew up in. It really brings to light the problems of mental illness and struggles of growing up in a working class household in the city. Great book that brings awareness to problems that still exist in society today.

[@madsdahlc]

Will I newer thought I would see the Day. That she would get her american breakthrough... Tove Ditllevsen is reqiured reading in danish schools... So I have read her works... She was born in 1917 and commited suicide in 1976... So she has been gone for 45 years.... But amazing to see her find a audience in 2021.. she is considered a national author and poet here in Denmark...

[@travelthroughstories]

I'm very pleased to have to opportunity to finally read her work. I can see why she's so popular in Denmark - absolutely incredible author!

[@SpringboardThought]

I’m looking forward to this one! Does seem like something I’d be interested in and get something out of.

[@travelthroughstories]

I still think about this book all the time - it's definitely one of my favorites of the year! Not too sure about this "review" of it, but the book is wonderful. I hope you get a chance to read it!

[@SpringboardThought]

@@travelthroughstories it’s at my library I’m pretty sure, so I think so!

[@yahaira_f]

I just left you a comment and then I go and find your video on it lol

[@travelthroughstories]

Hah! Now I want to remake this video in light of your comment on the connection to Linda Boström Knausgård's October Child...

[@yahaira_f]

@@travelthroughstories you might need an end of year review

[@tobinmoffatt3075]

Wow. Just finishing this one up now. Many muddled thoughts, but to offer one quasi-observation: the narrator/Tove seems to be driven by a more negative motivation or object/end than typically found in coming of age stories - in that from the beginning, the emotional distance and changeability of her parents seems to send her not seeking new, external surrogates but instead in the direction of bourgeois ("Pessoan" etc) aesthetic detachment, which she happens to be particularly ill-suited for given her gender-and-class circumstances. I found myself having to deliberately map this framing out, at the risk of being pedantic and overschematic, because of how resistant I found the second two books to spontaneous emotional engagement (ie, by way of good old 'relating to the main character' directly). To me, Tove's relationships tend to be characterized as part genuine and part necessity-based, in ways which exact an almost implausible degree of existential resignation from her at points, but this makes more sense with the periodic self-reminder that despite being the main subject matter of the plot, these relationships are paradoxically the subordinate grounding for Tove’s main ambition of writing - which she's always needing to desperately carve out space for, albeit in ways that cruelly create further dependence and traps and what she calls 'mess'. It’s ultimately part of the same ironically realistic quality that has World War 2 contingently in the background, only asserting itself now and then, like when the second husband wants “to play soldier” by joining the Danish resistance. Also, as far as the title goes, I'm interpreting 'Childhood/Youth/Dependency' to be sort of a dig at Tolstoy's 'Childhood/Boyhood/Youth': an aristocratic 'Boyhood' doesn't factor into Tove's narrative arc, so 'Youth', the stage of grabbing hold of what you can, comes four years early, and events curve full circle, outward success and vindication notwithstanding, back to the state of 'Dependency' that her creativity was formed as a response for. Anyway: a really good book, whatever category it belongs to, where much of what could be perceived at first glance as flaws in its construction, (eg, lack of invention, minimally drawn characters) are in all likelihood deliberate techniques.

[@travelthroughstories]

Wow, what a wonderful analysis. I think you're spot on in the characterization of Tove's relationships - they do seem to be purposefully...flat. Further, I didn't even think about Tolstoy - you must be right that she's referencing that and I love your analysis of why she's referencing it. I've appreciated this memoir more and more as time goes on since I've read it (no idea if I did it justice in this video or not - there's no way I'm rewatching my old videos!) and your comment has really added to that appreciation. Have you read any of her fiction? There's a new translated collection of short stories coming out from FSG in April. I think I'll pick that up. Thanks for the insightful comment, Tobin!

[@tobinmoffatt3075]

No - no familiarity with any of her other work, which I think factored into the problem I experienced while reading 'Youth' and 'Dependency' of somehow not quite understanding what Tove is about. I watched an English subtitled Danish TV documentary on her while I was somewhere in 'Childhood', but that even more than the books was very much to do with the externals: Stauning's poster, strategic marriages, drugs, her fluctuating public reputation (it seems she was actually a famous public figure from the 40s on). I think most non-Danish speaking readers of these books in English are basically dealing with this same limited point of view. I'd be up for ordering and reading the short story collection in April as well.

[@travelthroughstories]

@@tobinmoffatt3075 I'll have to find that documentary - I've heard from a few Danish friends that Ditlevsen is about as read over there as any author. Let's read the short story collection in April though!

[@tobinmoffatt3075]

@@travelthroughstories Sounds good. Here it is' kzbin.info/www/bejne/nX3XeHuFYquorac

[@tobinmoffatt3075]

@@travelthroughstories Hey - Do you have the name of the English short story collection handy? I was looking the possibility of pre-ordering it along with The Books of Jacob but weirdly couldn't find it using the obvious search terms.