Fixed Ideas, by Eline Lund Fjæren
Fixed Ideas, by Eline Lund Fjæren
Fixed Ideas, Eline Lund Fjæren //
Translated by Duncan J. Lewis //
Pages 144, paperback
Released April 29th, 2021 //
‘There is something delirious and feverish about Fjæren’s cerebral world, which I find enormously captivating… Eline Lund Fjæren reaches new heights of both ferocity and sharp human insight.’
Sindre Andersen, Klassekampen (Norway)
Fixed Ideas is the story of Espen and Emilie. He is a literary critic, she is a young, promising culture journalist, both for the same paper. They sleep with each other after a work party and from there, we follow the two of them and hear the relationship between Espen and Emilie told from two completely different viewpoints.
Fixed Ideas is a restless, effective story of desire, gender and longing, and is about the fundamental loneliness and constant, gnawing self-awareness which threaten our ability to let our masks slip.
The kitchen work surface was dappled with light, it was summer and he was not in love with her, that’s not what this is about. They had been at a party for the newspaper where they both work, the boss’s enormous garden was decorated beyond all reason, with lanterns and various drapes hanging from the trees, glass bowls of punch, like something from a film. She tried to pull him into the bathroom with her, she’s that type, without quite knowing what it is he means, but it surprised him; with her innocent appearance, the round face, big, blue eyes. She’s young, but her body is that of an adult, almost motherly, that is how he would describe her, even if the thought repels him.