Ari Behn's Bakgard: The Latest Contribution from a Bohemian Tradition in Norway
2005; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 77; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2163-8195
Autores Tópico(s)American Political and Social Dynamics
ResumoARI BEHN, a contemporary Norwegian author in his early thirties, fashions himself as a latter-day Beat poet. In so doing, he is positioning himself as the most recent in a sequence of Norwegian bohemians who have ventured into the exotic world in the spirit of the American Beat Generation. What sets Behn apart, however, from previous Beat-like authors such as Axel Jensen in the 1950s are a heightened self-consciousness and a new appreciation for the postmodern state of life with its post-industrial economy and popular culture. (1) Behn is a peculiar cultural phenomenon: a bohemian despite the settled comfort of his lifestyle as the husband of princess Martha Louise and the father of the one-year old Maud Angelica. He gained critical acclaim for his first book, the short story collection Trist som faen (1999; Sad as Hell), which was described in terms of the American school of dirty realism, a cynical, disillusioned stark fiction portraying the underbelly of a postmodern society. Then he won the hearts of all young girls when he courted the princess. However, he received mostly disapproval for the book they wrote together, Fra hjerte til hjerte (2002; From Heart to Heart), which pays homage to their pilgrimage to the cathedral in Trondheim, Nidarosdomen. Critics were in particular dismayed by Behn's cliches using big words such as love and God (Hverven). (2) Critics had also chastised Behn's first novel Bakgard (2003; Backyard) for its use of cliches (e.g. Bentzrud, Schaffer). But several reviews have been positive (e.g. Norheim, Ottesen) and the book's sales numbers have been strong. The Swedish publisher Thomas Lindelow refused to publish the book, however, dismissing it as one-dimensional and lacking in critical distance from the sexual practices and drug culture it portrays (Waerhaug). On the other hand, the editor of Bokklubben Nye Boker, Tuva Orbeck Sorheim, praised the novel's free and daring capacity to challenge the reader and her view on sexuality (Andersen, --Utfordrer vart syn pa sex). Bakgard introduces Andreas Aakerlid, who is in his early twenties, has long blond hair, and is out and about backpacking in his khakis. He is on his way to visit his girlfriend Selma, who is on a Peace Corps mission in Burkina Faso, south of the Sahara desert. (3) He has refused to fly down and instead intends to get some life experiences traveling by train, bus, truck, camel, or jeep: whatever it takes (9). His plans are interrupted, however, by Antonio Valderon, a gay Spanish designer, who stalks Andreas from Madrid to Tangier. Valderon is the prototype of a decadent gay dressed in a tight white suit and pointed white shoes, carrying a red polka dotted silk handkerchief in his chest pocket. He tells Andreas that the Sahara is his backyard and markets himself as the ideal traveling companion for someone who intends to cross the desert (11). Upon their arrival in Tangier, Valderon soon has Andreas ensnared in the city's cynical upper-class community of decadent gay men and art collectors from the United States and Europe. They are the remnants of the Beat community. Fittingly, Andreas ends up staying in Hotel El Muniria where Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg lived in their time. They in turn were following in the footsteps of Paul Bowles, an attraction in Tangier. Andreas visits him on his second day there. Norwegians' love-hate relationship with Behn--either castigating him for his cliches or saluting him as a breath of fresh air without whom Norway would be a boring place to live (e.g. Anne Sandvik Lindmo, host of a television program featuring contemporary culture [see Larsen])--resembles the attitude toward earlier vagabonds, in particular Axel Jensen who passed away on February 13, 2003. Jensen was in his time well connected in the international community of the Beat poets. He knew both William Burroughs and the eccentric John Star Cook, who had a great impact on the Beat Generation. …
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