Sweden will be poor without Carl-Henning Wijkmark

Carl-Henning Wijkmark has been my literary and intellectual guide since the early 1970s. Without him, Sweden would be much poorer. I have often wondered why more people did not follow in his footsteps as a novelist, translator, and essayist.

For me he was our “good European”. – morally critical, stylistically superb, and deeply educated in 20th century literature and history. When he toured the literature of others or his own, it was always in an encouraging framework of cultural criticism that human dignity was put to the test. Especially in a twentieth century whose totalitarian forces transformed man as an individual into a source of raw materials for a utilitarian policy.

I met him for the first time as a translator of Walter Benjamin in a magnificent selection in “Imagen y dialectica” (1969). I travel with him constantly. At that time he had also translated Nietzsche into a selection. In addition, he had written a brilliant and exciting novel that dropped the pants of the Swedish moral command: “The Hunters of Karinhall” (1972), which is about a British agent who enters the hunting castle of Göring.

Then followed “Red and Black: Criticism and Presentations 1958-76” about all the Germans and French in which Wijkmark was a specialist. In 1968, Wijkmark ended his presentation of JMG Le Clézio with the words: so young years. “

Wijkmark’s essay writing continued in “Literature and Human Value” (1988) and “The Time Behind Us” (2005). “The Modern Death” (1978) plays a special role, a black-clawed satire on a symposium on euthanasia.

In addition to this highly valued criticism, Wijkmark’s authorship followed in seven novels that took the form of fueled existential thrillers and stories rarely found in other Swedish literatures. At Wijkmark, there was no contradiction between eroticism and politics, between revolution and reaction, or between the passion for reading and the formation of ideas.

He did not repeat previous hits, but instead changed tracks. Just look at “The Dress” (1977), which depicts a decayed Belgian monk who is beginning to believe more in science than in God. From a station in the Congo, he crosses the Atlantic with dressage and the company of three monkeys. We obtain a cross section through the theory of evolution.

In the novels that followed, he dealt with themes where historical fact traverses lost Europeans in search of themselves. “Last Days” (1986) described the assassination conspiracy against De Gaulle in 1962. “Dacapo” (1994) took place during the fall of the wall in 1989. “You Who Do Not Exist” (1997) recounts the possible past during the Finnish Continuation War in 1944.

One of the favorites is “The Black Wall” (2002), which is about a future in Sweden where people wear face masks. Another is Wijkmark’s latest novel, “See you in the next dream” (2013), where he goes around in time. Is the main character his own father? It is the double, but also death, the main themes of Wijkmark. For “The Moment of the Night” he received the August 2007 Award.

Carl-Henning Wijkmark’s exceptional novels are full of creeping shadows and sudden adventures. It is about chance and destiny and how finitude cuts the human silhouette. That is why I will always travel with your books as provisions, they are food.