She whose heart was like mine | Göran Greider

Göran Greider’s book is picturesque, engaging and educational, but somewhat uneven as a novel

Of: Teresa Eriksson

Published: September 16, 2020 kl. 03.30

Photo: word front

Göran Greider makes a novel of the captivating love story between poet Dan Andersson (right) and student Märta Larsson.

It’s twenty years then Joyce Carol Oates published his novel mammoth Blonde, and more and more I will think about it. Claim that Oates, with his novel about Marilyn monroes Life, just opened the dust hatches is wrong, but that the book had meaning for the many novels based on the lives of real people that we have seen since then is probably not an exaggeration. Blonde It is a masterpiece, it has certainly been inspiring, although not always stylistic.

While i read Göran Greiders documentary novel about the poet And andersson and his love story with Marta Larsson, She whose heart was like mine, Oates appears Blonde up. As a contrast. What sets Oate’s novel apart, and what made it a success, is that despite its investigative weight, its design is so free. Imagination and reality intertwine until they become inseparable, all that remains is a work of fiction. It is, in a way, uninhibited. And it may have to be a novel, so as not to get caught helplessly between fantasy and biography.

She whose heart was like mine it hangs there for a while and hangs up, like Greider doesn’t really know which foot to stand on. In her postscript, she also notes that the Dan and Märta story was originally intended to be an “ordinary non-fiction book”, but that imagination got in the way. Imagination and design are now not an obstacle for a biographical book as long as the author runs with open letters, and sometimes I wonder if not She whose heart was like mine It had been best suited as a bio sibling to Dan Andersson’s great Greider biography of 2008. It could have been an extraordinary non-fiction book.

The love story between that the poor poet Andersson and the young student Larsson from Östermalm, who meet at the popular high school in Brunnsvik, are captivating. Both because of the classic obstacles that stand in the way of their love (money, the discontent of Marta’s family), and because of the Sweden during the First World War that forms the background of their time together. Much is unknown about this love story that has left distinct traces in Andersson’s poetry, but Greider has a wealth of Dan Andersson’s knowledge to draw on. It is picturesque, attractive and educational.

Considered a novel, it is somewhat more uneven. Initially, the author’s debate voice is heard too clearly, Märta and Dan turn into a kind of dolls that speak Greider’s belly, but little by little they appear as literary figures in their own right. In those moments, the real models become secondary and the story the main one, and is that still the point where life will become fiction?

Novels with documentaries movements are now coming out in a stream of battle, whether it’s his own family (like Patrik lundbergs Fjärilsvägen and Elisabeth Åsbrinks Abandonment) or about historical people (like Agneta Pleijels Double portrait), and it’s a bit unfair to pit Greider against Oates. His writing has a more intimate relationship with, for example Aino Trosell or why not Anita salomonsson, who in work after play portrayed Västerbotten, historical life stories in a novel way. Novels such as the curiosity he feels about the reality behind, above all they are only novels.

If Göran Greider had not so loyally plowed himself into the skin of responsibility, if he had taken a little more liberties and a little less consideration, there would have been She whose heart was like mine it could become such a novel. Now he stands there and teeters between genders, rich in warmth and education, but a bit unsure of his identity.

Göran Greider participates in the cultural pages of Aftonbladet, so his book is reviewed by Therese Eriksson, critic of Svenska Dagbladet

Published: September 16, 2020 kl. 03.30

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