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God's Widow
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16273 |
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BOOK WORLD
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3 / 1989 |
3,905 Words |
| Author
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Frank Gado
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ANKAN
The Widow
by Sven Delblanc
Sweden: Roman Bonniers, 1988
(Available in Swedish only)
A relatively tiny population that has produced few writers of international reputation has not greatly hindered Sweden in the competition for the Nobel Prize in literature. Sweden has accumulated almost as many as the United States, which has about thirty times more people; among European nations, it has been outdone only by France. Every quarter-century period has seen the Swedish Academy honor at least one countryman. It is highly likely, therefore, that King Carl Gustav XVI will be awarding a medal to a Swedish writer before the end of the next decade. But who? Unless the Academy smashes tradition to give the prize to Ingmar Bergman--a much rumored possibility--the odds favor a shy, 57-year old elf with a Vandyke beard who has made pessimistic prognoses for humanity his specialty.
Sven Delblanc remains little known beyond Scandinavia's borders, despite translations of his books into eighteen languages. Within Sweden, he is generally acknowledged as the nation's outstanding man of letters. That eminence partly owes to his position on the humanistic faculty of the University of Uppsala (a well-regarded scholar, he is one of the two principal editors of a multivolume history of Swedish literature currently being issued), but it has chiefly been won through a marvelously inventive body of fiction that he has been building with better than biennial regularity since 1963, when he made his novelistic debut with Eremikraftan (The Hermit crab).
The Widow
In 1988 as in past years, press reports hinting at the subject of his new novel began enticing readers months prior to its appearance. When Ankan (the Widow) met the public in mid-November, it instantly became the literary season's central topic. But not all critics shouted huzzahs. One erstwhile admirer went so far as to state that only a writer who had ascended so high could have executed such a bellyflop. Yet, even if one were to concede the worst that has been said about it, the novel remains impressive. It is unquestionably a work of major ambition by an uncommonly intriguing intellect.
Narrated by its protagonist, Maria Spore, the novel begins with the death and funeral of her husband, a candidate for the Noble Prize in medicine. Justus' discovery of a cure for AIDS has cast him in the role of humanity's savior, but to his wife he has presented iron rectitude, inhuman self-sufficiency, and emotional remoteness. Poor Maria. After being raised by a domineering father, she entered into a marriage that meant submission to another male. Widowhood at the age of fifty-five brings no sorrow: On the contrary, it promises rebirth and the exhilarating freedom to release impulses long blocked within. Ironically, however, the new chance at life also introduces a new terror. When her self indulgent children plunder the family home of its rich collection of modern art (as well as other valuables) and treat her as though she has already ceased to exist, she vengefully dedicates herself to overcoming the futility inherent in death's certainty.
Magic in the form of a medical miracle intervenes during this time of
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