It’s an infatuation that sets in instantly, that doesn’t hesitate or need to develop. You just have to love the first-person narrator in Stine Pilgaard’s bestselling Danish novel. At the latest when she explains on page two why the offspring still hasn’t been named after a year and a half, you’re addicted to the woman. She is nameless like her “son” and her “friend” or “dearest”, as she also calls him.
The young family ended up in Velling in West Jutland. Her better half found a job there as a teacher at the adult education center, a kind of temporary boarding school for young people and an important institution in Denmark. The first-person narrator tries to gain a foothold in the rural idyll. In Velling there is a natural kindergarten, a driving school and a local newspaper – all important stations in the life of the main character. “We want something in Velling” is written on the town sign – only what is not written there. Understood? I agree. The first-person narrator also has her problems understanding what the people from Velling mean. As is often the case in the countryside, village life proves to be a world unto itself. It is no different with the residents and their peculiarities. Which doesn’t make communication easy, especially since the protagonist imagines herself in the “land of short sentences” because of the monosyllabic nature of the Jutlanders.
The main character really shines in her role as the suggestion box aunt in the local newspaper. Between the short chapters there are text sequences of question and answer, in which topics that everyone knows but which nobody would openly address are treated with disarming frankness – because one important aspect is not preserved: anonymity.
In addition, the relationship counselor tries to cope with the challenges of motherhood and after 87 driving lessons finally pass the driver’s license test. Together with the less talented student driver and the unnerved driving instructor, the reader takes to the streets. An unparalleled pleasure to read, like the book as a whole, which sparkles with wit without ever being banal.
Everyday life has never read more refreshingly, which is why the translation into German by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel cannot be appreciated enough. Language artists were at work here. “Meter per Second” is Pilgaard’s third work overall and her first novel in German. More please!
Source: Nachrichten
