Ragde is on a cabin trip this time, in a novel a taste of autumn more than summer, full of sadness and turmoil and all the anxiety a mother’s heart can hold.
It’s been two years since Rajdi’s previous novel, the daughter”, when it concluded in 2019 the great saga about the Neschof in Bennett in Trondheim, which had been published over a period of 15 years.
Many have been waiting and asking themselves – what is to come now?
The answer is now here: a sympathetic novel, which in few places could have so easily ended in farce, let alone mentioned in the swamp, but was preserved literally on the shore, by an author who knows his craft.
The novel is a balance between the trivial and the refined, between flat and simplistic Ragde language and good environmental perceptions. For Raghed, family relationships can be fragile and difficult.
Junita is on summer vacation for three weeks away from people. She loves the quiet life in the simple summer cabin, swimming in the pool, hair loss trip, loose crossword puzzles and shower from the plastic tank on the cabin wall.
But then there will be no relaxing holiday anyway. Adult son Ragnar with his mother on summer vacation, not cutting his fingers to create a cozy and holiday atmosphere. On the contrary, in the eyes of his mother, he became a lazy and wet man, snatching the best bedroom in the cabin, controlling the remote control, hardly bothering to answer and turning the clock. Entire bed orgasms in one set.
Ragde on the adult men who live in the house: Just get rid of them!
He has no job, bills are piling up, and Lånekassen calls to study. The depiction of the mother is disturbingly negative at first, washing away stained, stiff sheets and serving Ragnar in one go.
She misses the little boy who disappeared into the “hell” of puberty.
Now he shuts it down with a grunt and has a lot of alcohol under the bed.
But then it is Ragnar and his life that gives the novel a turning point, as Junita agrees to be a babysitter for a weekend in town, while Ragnar wants to be with Grandma in the cabin.
Meeting two young children, with hugs, hugs, wish-reads and good food, stimulates great energy and livelihoods at Junita. But then the weekend turns in a sudden direction, and here we almost have to pause so as not to spoil the reader.
Quite simply, the reader somewhere wonders if we end up in a crime novel, until we slowly enter the mother-son relationship and into life itself. It is all wrapped up in a series of photos of a mother forcibly cleaning bed sheets and carpets, swimming in puddles and walking on swamps, making simple food at home and demonstrating completely irrational behavior in a tragic situation.
Ann B Ragdy has captured a large audience over her 30 years as a prolific writer. Believers will likely love this book, too. But it is most likely an “intermediate book”.
“The Heartbreaker” is Ragde’s first release at Strawberry Publishing. This reviewer has little confidence in Jonetta as a companion. But the book triggered a lot of thinking about family relationships.
Rajdi knows how to do it.
reviewed by: Jouri Health
“Infuriatingly humble web fan. Writer. Alcohol geek. Passionate explorer. Evil problem solver. Incurable zombie expert.”
