[REVIEW]: Small Comfort by Ia Genberg; translated by Kira Josefsson

 

"Small Comfort" is the first collection of short to medium stories Long Listed for the International Booker Prize. Short stories collections are definitely not a genre I seek out, but usually a quite welcomed one when end up reading it.

The work of Ia Genberg focuses primarily on the strong themes: wealth, power and privilege. How does one behave differently when offered an advantageous amount of wealth? What is the human relation to something to abstract as money?

Do we end up believing we deserve it?

Success Greger ⭐⭐⭐

"Success Greger" exploits the genre of interview transcripts, to allow us to meet the twisted and complex Greger. He is a failed child actor, who recently found himself involved in a car theft, which left the authority puzzled as well the interviewer, Ia herself. The original aim of the interview would be to investigate in the actor's memory to remember and commemorate a famous Swedish screenwriter, who wrote the character for his only movie. However, Greger appears scattered: he talks about beauty privilege, wealth differences and his personal and singular ambition, becoming awfully rich.

Although surely certain conversations reflect well modernity, for example I found especially interesting Greger's obsession with being attractive, and the deep belief that there is a level of physical appeal secluded to him and thus making him an inferior person compared to his peers; I did feel at times that they coarseness and bad temper of the main character were exasperating. 

Often reminiscent of "Brief interviews with Hideous Men" it lacks however the undeniable charm and irony of Wallace, and I found hard to smile with the author at certain behaviors exemplified by Greger. Still a solid piece of literature.

Penance ⭐⭐

In this second short story, we are reading a long, convoluted  letter sent by an unknown men to us, to inform us about the mysterious fate of "Weilder", a corrupted employee for the communications and public image department of a big pharmaceutical company.

The life of Weilder oscillates between glorious dinner parties with his boss, obsessed with Korean cuisine, and unethical actions to hide the corporate's malicious testing on human beings. One evening, however, the car with which he showed up to one of these dinners is stolen, and with it an important briefcase containing secret data. The car will be found by the police, however the documents will not be recovered.

This situation spirals Weilder, who naturally manages to control the situation, but begins questioning the morality of his conduct, and even his place in the world. Weilder will attempt revealing the truth and cleaning his conscience- but will this be enough? Will he manage before his own actions catch up to him?

I enjoyed quite a lot the ambience of mystery surrounding this short story: who is the narrator? Who are we? What happens to the main character? Is this the car from Greger's case? However, the jist the narration: the reflection on the amorality of corporate, of the influence wealth can have on one's compass, is not amongst the most original takes of this century. Still, a very entertaining tale.

Speech at Wedding ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Am I banal and boring for enjoying this one the most? It was incredibly brief, punchy, direct to the point and brilliantly constructed.

A woman stands up during a private and intimate wedding, and starts reading from an odd speech. As the plot unravels, it becomes more apparent who sent her and what her final goal is, but it might be too late. The story reads like an actor's screenplay, and highlights the social injustice and many have to accept while living in a world shared with billionaires, able even to buy impunity from heinous crimes.

Perhaps didactic, but a fun read indeed.

The Loser's Claustrophobia ⭐⭐⭐

This short story immediately stood out to me for its incredibly original take on narration: the entire structure is based on notes for an experiment’s creation, observation, and possible paper definition. However, at each experiment study, we also get a section written by the researcher themselves, which describes their thoughts and life during the writing of this research.

From my understanding this is where Paul Piff's work, from the University of California, Berkley comes into play. Paul Piff argues that when human's are being presented with a disproportionate amount of wealth and privilege, they will turn more arrogant, selfish and overall a worse person. 

The experiment used is simple: in a rigged game of monopoly two players are asked to face each other. One is given double the starting capital and is allowed to throw 2 dices, the other one is forced to play with 1 dice and one 500 note. In the most of the experiment, certain subjects are asked to join a coach, to improve their performance. At the end of the experiment they are questioned about the experience, what they learnt from it and how they felt about it.

And this research takes off we observe the unnamed scholar, first meeting one of the participants at a bar, entranced by her beauty and confidence, til eventually leaving the project and town, becoming one of those they were studying- the winners.

It took me a while to understand, to see the link between the experiment and the real life character, but it made me re-evaluate the story. I liked a lot also the use of the PHD notes as a literary genre, it was at times tedious but still fun and challenging.  

Small Comfort ⭐⭐

Although the strongest in matters of writings style and narrative structure, I cannot help but believe it overstayed its welcome, without defining its goal.

The main characters are a separated couple, which every summer, pretends to be back together in an idyllic marriage to satisfy the despotic Grandmother, who happens to hold hostage the inheritance of the family.

The scene in front of the reader is borderline pathetic: from ensuring that slippers are put back visibly cleaned to father-and-sons time carefully crafted to satisfy the mother-in-law. I believe it was apparent, quite early into the story, the absolute ridiculousness of it all, and the children's realization of the importance of truth over wealth could have been anticipated.

Due to this slowness, that did not feel necessary to truly take in the ambiance, but rather quite dull and repetitive, I cannot say I have enjoyed it as much as I could have!

Overall this is a solid collection, with a couple of lows, but a strong and actual wish to represent the modern human's connection to money and privilege, with the ambition to use different literary devices to convey its message!

A 2.5 star read from me, closer to 3!