Knut Faldbakken

[Stewart]

Today, while talking to the bookseller in Waterstone's, he asked if I'd heard of a Norwegian writer by the name of Knut Faldbakken, which I hadn't.

Here's the minimal Wikipedia entry:



Knut Faldbakken (born Hamar, 31 August 1941) is a Norwegian novelist.

Faldbakken studied psychology at Oslo University, and then worked as a journalist. He visited a number of countries, working variously as a bookkeeper, sailor, and factory worker, and began writing books in 1967 while living in Paris.

He was editor of the literary magazine Vinduet (The Window) between 1975 and 1979.

His sons Stefan Faldbakken and Matias Faldbakken have also gotten recognition as a film director and a novelist respectively.

His books have been published in 21 countries, translated to 18 languages and have sold two million copies worldwide.Searching around on sites like Amazon, it seems like his heydey, as regards English translation, was in the 1980s, with books like Adam's Diary and The Sleeping Prince.

Has anyone read him, or can add more information about him?

[Eric]

I seem to remember reading a couple of essays by Faldbakken years ago. Since the year 2000, he seems to have gone in for thrillers, instead of the more general novels he used to do. The Norwegian Wikipedia article is no more informative than the English-language one, I'm afraid.

Here's a bit of a reverse order bibliography up to 2000 (roman = novel; skuespill = play):

Fr?ken Snehvit (roman) 2000
Alt hva hjertet begj?rer (roman) 1999
Eksil (roman) 1997
N?r jeg ser deg (roman) 1996
T?r du v?re kreativ (essays) 1994
Ormens ?r (roman) 1993
Til verdens ende (roman) 1991
Evig din (roman) 1990
Bad boy (roman) 1988
Livet med Marilyn (skuespill) 1987
Glahn (roman) 1985
Bryllupsreisen (roman) 1982
To skuespill (skuespill) 1981
E 18 (roman) 1980
Adams dagbok (roman) 1978
Tyren og jomfruen (skuespill) 1976
Sweetwater (U?r) (roman) 1976
Aftenlandet (roman) 1974
Insektsommer (roman) 1972
Maude danser (roman) 1971
Eventyr (noveller) 1970
Sin mors hus (roman) 1969
Den gr? regnbuen (roman) 1967

"Sweetwater" rings a bell, but I'm not sure what it's about.

I've only got one of his novels (unread): "Maude danser" (1971). The blurb says it's as exciting as a crime novel, and that his previous novel "His Mother's House" (aka "Sin mors hus") was about incest, while "Maude danser" is the portrait of a middle-aged woman, hungering for love, her general confusion and her erotic fantasies.

The information on one Norwegian website says that Faldbakken studied psychology, travelled a lot in France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Denmark, Britain and Germany. Published his first novel in the 1960s, the editorship of "Vinduet" (as already mentioned by Stewart). His 1985 novel is called "Glahn", so it must in some way refer to Hamsun's "Pan". He seems always to have been near the borderline between general novels and thrillers. He also seems to get a lot of eros into his books.

"Vinduet" is perhaps the most prestigious Norwegian quarterly literary magazine, like "Parnasso" and "Horisont" in Finland, "BLM" [now defunct] in Sweden, and so on. "Vinduet" is still going strong. Its website was updated in December 2008. In 4/2008 there was an article with an English title: "Lost in translation" about "that impossible art".

[obooki]

I have two novels by him, The Sleeping Prince and Insect Summer. They're both published by Peter Owen - which makes me think, without reading him, that he's like Tarjei Vesaas (which no doubt he isn't). I'll read one and get back to you.