Lars Gustafsson

[kpjayan]

Few prolific writers are yet to find their space in our thread and I thought will add a few of them. Lars Gustafsson is one such writer, who did not have a separate thread on his name. After reading 'A tiler's afternoon' (http://www.amazon.com/Tilers-Afternoon-New-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811212408) and 'Death of a beekeeper' (http://www.amazon.com/Death-Beekeeper-Lars-Gustafsson/dp/0811208109)I have become an admirer of his writing.

Born in 1936 , Lars Gustafsson is a Swedish novelist and poet. He also have many of non-fiction books to his credit. He lived in Austin, Texas until recently , where he taught in University of Texas, before returning to Sweden. His name was figuring in the Nobel speculations often, including this years nominations.

Complete Review says 'Despite living and working in the United States for a long time, Lars Gustafsson remains relatively unknown to English-speaking readers'. They add ' Gustafsson is the rare writer who seems equally adept at writing fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. He has a philosophy background, and often deals with complex concepts, but effectively and -- more importantly -- unobtrusively integrates theory and ideas into his work '

Selected works (from wiki)
Truth and Lie
The Tennis Players
Wool Clothings
Family Meeting
Sigismund
The Death of a Beekeeper
Stillness of the World Before Bach
The Tale of a Dog
Bernard Foy's Third Castling
A Tiler's Afternoon
Stories of Happy People
Elegies and Other Poems
Few Links

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Gustafsson)

Lars Gustafsson (http://www.literaturfestival.com/bios1_3_6_144.html)

I wonder if any other members here have read his works..

[Mirabell]

why do you admire his writing?

[Eric]

Before someone asks me why I admire Lars Gustafsson's writing, I will say that I have hardly read anything at all by him. But when I borrowed some of his poetry today, and saw the sheer volume of what he has written by way of novels, essays, poems, etc., I did get the feeling that, as I mentioned on the Nobel speculation thread, that he might just qualify as a Nobel laureate, as long as they jury doesn't agonise about his being Swedish. For some reason, I have ignored Gustafsson's writings over the years, but now that he's getting on in years, it does strike me that he is surely one of the most erudite and international authors that Sweden has produced over the past half-century. Is he pretentious, narcissistic, cerebral? I simply do not know as I've not read enough.

[Ziggurat]

I like Lars Gustafsson's books. He is (in my opinion at least) cerebral but not really pretentious, or perhaps, pretentious in a good way :-). The novels I have read have been rather breezy and humorous, but intelligent. Narcissistic? Perhaps, I wouldn't really know. He managed to write a good science fiction book (Det sällsamma djuret från norr) which is rare for "regular" (non-SciFi) authors. There are people who don't agree with that assessment (http://www.wonderfulcomics.com/comics01/djuret.html) - this reviewer slams the book and calls Gustafsson "surely the most conceited/smug [självgod] author in the world".

[hdw]

Before someone asks me why I admire Lars Gustafsson's writing, I will say that I have hardly read anything at all by him. But when I borrowed some of his poetry today, and saw the sheer volume of what he has written by way of novels, essays, poems, etc., I did get the feeling that, as I mentioned on the Nobel speculation thread, that he might just qualify as a Nobel laureate, as long as they jury doesn't agonise about his being Swedish. For some reason, I have ignored Gustafsson's writings over the years, but now that he's getting on in years, it does strike me that he is surely one of the most erudite and international authors that Sweden has produced over the past half-century. Is he pretentious, narcissistic, cerebral? I simply do not know as I've not read enough.

One of many Swedish writers I've heard of but never read.

Another famous Lars was Lars Gyllensten, highly-regarded in his homeland but barely translated -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article675592.ece

Gyllensten was a distinguished doctor, and so was P.C. Jersild, whose Babels hus I have read. It caused an uproar in Sweden with its depiction of a major teaching hospital not a million miles removed from the world-famous Karolinska Institute -

http://kirjasto.sci.fi/jersild.htm

One more name - I used to like the grumpy-old-man-trying-to-cope-in-a-world-gone-crazy novels of Stig Claesson, and in fact the reviews editor of Swedish Book Review used to send me copies of his novels as they came out, to review. I don't think many if any of his books were translated into English, and just look at the length of this bibliography.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stig_Claesson

Harry

[Eric]

I have similar authors I simply haven't read to the ones Harry mentions. When we studied Swedish at university, no one really inspired us to read contemporary Swedish authors (ones that were contemporary in the early 1970s, that is). The best teacher in the Scandinavian departement specialised in Norwegian literature, as did the professor who was mostly on sabbatical when I was there. So Gyllensten, Jersild, and Gustafsson are, sadly, some of my eternally unread authors. And unlike Harry, I never tackled Claesson either. So, if I ever find the time, I may have to remedy that.

Jersild seems to have disappeared from the literary scene, and Claesson is dead. If you look up Claesson on the English Wikipedia, you find a massive bibliography. But it does not tell you whether the entries are novels, short-stories, essays, poems or the length.

So for Nobel speculation purposes, it still looks as if Lars Gustafsson is perhaps the best Swedish contender. I'm glad that Ziggurat has read him. Maybe Ziggurat has some recommendations of specific books beyond that one sci-fi one.

[kpjayan]

I have read two of his novels quite long time back. If I could, I suggest "Death of a Beekeeper". I haven't read any of his poetry, hence can't comment.