The Quiet Girl

Reading The Quiet Girl  was absolutely thrilling.  I don’t think I have been as involved, or had as much fun, reading a novel for quite some time.  The reviews have not all been good, and I can even understand why, but I loved it nonetheless.  Reading this book is something of a roller-coaster ride, filled with thrills and chills, and a blindingly furiously clamoring abundance of ideas, disassociated thoughts, and actions.  There are many references to music which made sense to me, but might not to some.  The writing is very sharp, with short staccato sentences that echo the overwhelmingly furious pace.  And yet it is also very thoughtful.  Sometimes sentences jar the mind.  The characters are not always pleasant and their thoughts and actions not always comprehensible.  But the book is incredibly witty and incredibly fun.  It is rather addictive as well.

I actually cannot begin to simply tell you what the book is about.  Is it a mystery? I was asked on the train.  Yes it is.  But it is not a mystery either, although it will keep you guessing until the very end.  Is it an exploration of love and life?  Yes, but not overtly so.  Is it an adventure novel.  It is very fast paced, blindingly so at times, and yet it is far too contemplative for most adventure fiction. 

It will probably drive many people crazy.  The short phrases, the long expositions of the protagonist’s thoughts.  The way ideas and observations come out of nowhere and don’t seem to connect.

Sentences like this:
    "It was beef soup; it tasted of eternal life and of the fact that all living beings consume one another."
Will drive many people crazy.   But in the context of this novel, and in the context of Kasper Krone they make sense.  They make sense to me anyway.  A lot of this novel wraps itself around the story the way a curious, intellectual, introspective person might lets his or her mind wander around thoughts and ideas, seemingly random, but all connecting in the end.

I think it is rare that one finds a novel that really challenges one’s assumptions, makes one think and is also such pure addictive pleasure.  I don’t think it is possible to fully absorb this novel in one reading.  I will be reading it again.  I may even start tomorrow, although perhaps, a little distance will be better.

Obviously this is not a normal review.

I have now read 4 of Hoeg’s novels and I think this one might surpass Smilla’s Sense of Snow as my favorite.  I can concede however, that for many, Smilla might be more popular; it is certainly more accessible.