Rock, Paper, Scissors (Danish Women Writers Series)

This was an excellent read. It is a very dark story. Thomas and Jenny's father died while in prison. They have been estranged from him for a while. Jenny romanticizes their childhood but Thomas remembers all the bad stuff. Jenny takes a toaster from the father's apartment as she has fond memories. WhenThomas fixes it for her and finds a large amount of money hidden, his life starts to get out of control. He becomes reconnected with some of his family at the same time that he starts to get paranoid about people from his father's life. At times you will feel pity for him and at others you will loathe him.The writing is excellent. The author is a poet and it shows in her wonderful debut novel.

This debut novel written by Danish poet Naja Marie Aidt features an intriguing plot filled with mysteries at the same time that it is highly literary and philosophical. In the opening scene, Thomas and his sister Jenny must deal with the death of their abusive father in a jail cell where he has been awaiting trial on some unknown charge. When they later go to their father’s apartment, neither of them wants anything from him as a memento, but Jenny eventually takes his toaster, simply because hers is broken and she has little money to buy a new one. Later, when the toaster does not work, Thomas takes it apart for her and finds something surprising inside. Throughout these beginning pages, the novel moves back and forth in time as Thomas, forced to think about his estranged father, obsesses about death – that of his father, of family members, and even of the unknown people he sees in the supermarket - and it is through this introspection that many of the details about his family background are revealed.Now financially comfortable, Thomas is ego-driven, impatient, and calculating, and his insistence that he does not want to have children has driven a wedge between him and Patricia, his long-time love. At times, especially when he is drunk, he has visions and feels threatened, and occasionally his shockingly violent thoughts rise to the surface. When Thomas’s stationery shop is ransacked and trashed, shortly after his visit to his father’s apartment, Thomas becomes more fully developed, though not more admirable. A new character, Luc/Luke, who was mentored by Thomas’s father, adds to the complications as Luke ingratiates himself with the family and with Thomas’s acquaintances. Eventually, one of the novel’s female characters is assaulted, and another receives a strange, anonymous message. Thomas becomes convinced all these events originate with whoever destroyed his shop.As compelling as the plot and Thomas’s psychology may be, the novel’s philosophical underpinnings and the universal themes which emerge from the conflicts are even more provocative. Who we are as human beings and how much our futures as individuals evolve from our actions; how much we are affected by the actions of others upon us; and how we may be drawn into problems by mere chance are ideas which underlie the entire novel, and as the author shows Thomas dealing (or not dealing) with his own life, the reader also sees him in relation to others. Eventually, his long-time lover Patricia, his sister Jennie, Luc/Luke who was close to Thomas’s abusive father, and other family members all meet to spend a weekend in the countryside together. During this weekend, the great importance of literature in the lives of these characters is stressed, further emphasizing the idea of the imagined life vs reality.Filled with smart, crisp language; carefully described and introduced imagery, often of death; and occasionally lyrical passages, the novel owes much of its appeal in English to translator K. E. Semmel, who must have been challenged by the metaphysical aspects which parallel the narrative lines. With contrasting themes of life and death, love and hate, accident and design, strength and weakness, selfishness and altruism, and reality and invention, the novel offers much to ponder on many levels. Ultimately, one is even forced to consider the question of whether the existence of an alterego is real or a protective fiction created by a damaged ego.

This is a respectable debut novel from a first-class debut writer.It is a translation and a good one at that. Bravo to K. Semmel. A fine job. Some of the prose is inspired and to a certain degree, poetic and quite philosophical.Death is a major theme as is Life; it questions the nature of our actions and how it affects our lives in the future; there's also love, selflessness, hatred and countless more powerful themes.I am not going to divulge any of the story because it is worth experiencing it all as a surprise. I did and loved every minute.You only have to read the opening of the book to see how terse the writing is.This is an author to look out for in the future.I am glad I came across her so early on.Sergiu Pobereznic (author)

This is a respectable debut novel from a first-class debut writer.It is a translation and a good one at that. Bravo to K. Semmel. A fine job. Some of the prose is inspired and to a certain degree, poetic and quite philosophical.Death is a major theme as is Life; it questions the nature of our actions and how it affects our lives in the future; there's also love, selflessness, hatred and countless more powerful themes.I am not going to divulge any of the story because it is worth experiencing it all as a surprise. I did and loved every minute.You only have to read the opening of the book to see how terse the writing is.This is an author to look out for in the future.I am glad I came across her so early on.Sergiu Pobereznic (author)