I bought this on sale around 1997, and I didn’t get around to reading it until now. No particular reason, really — I’ve read about half of Solstad’s novels, and I’ve got some other unread books by Solstad in my to-be-read bookcase.
I guess Solstad is finally starting to be recognised outside of Norway?
It looks like most of his books are now available in English, for instance. Perhaps it’s because of the commercial success of Knausgaard’s books internationally, so there’s more curiosity about other Norwegian authors?
I think this one is a bit of a hard sell, though. I guess Solstad is considered to be a modernist author? And this one, despite having a “hook”, is mostly ruminations on surviving and enduring, so we get a lot of stuff about Ibsen and etc etc etc. (Oh, the plot — a professor sees (out of his window) a woman being strangled (yes yes Rear Window), and then he does nothing. He doesn’t report it, and he doesn’t know why.)
Looking at Goodreads, this book is among the lowest rated of his, and I can certainly understand why — but I liked it a lot.
Heh heh.
It’s not for Solstad beginners!
Professor Andersens natt (1996) by Dag Solstad (buy new, buy used, 3.39 on Goodreads)