A Fairy Tale by Jonas BengtssonGenre: Literature and Fiction, Literary
My rating: 4.5 stars
DESCRIPTION: From one of Denmark’s rising stars, a powerful and profound novel about a young boy and his father who live at the margins of society, until one day their adventure takes an unpredictable turn.
It is 1986. Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme has been assassinated, and a young boy and his father are on the move again. Travelling from Sweden to the outskirts of Denmark and into the heart of Copenhagen, the two live an unconventional life, constantly on the move and living on the margins of society. The father, an eccentric, restless man, takes a series of odd jobs, from making antique furniture, to landscaping, to working as a bouncer at a strip club. By day he home-schools his young son. At night he weaves a fairy tale about a prince and a king who are on a mission to kill the wicked White Queen, while running from the White Men who hide in plain sight.
One day, their adventure takes a dark, unpredictable turn. Ten years later, when the boy is just entering adulthood, questions about his father’s murky past can no longer remain unanswered. An unforgettable novel about the profound love between a father and son.
REVIEW: On May 2/14, I wrote, "Just finished A Fairy Tale by Jonas Bengtsson. Profoundly moving. Had to remind myself to breathe after turning the last page."
May 4/14: The story was too fresh for me two days ago, the feelings too raw, to write more then...
The events that unfold in the story are told from the son's point of view, from the time he is six through (I am guessing) 19 or 20. Later parts in the novel gave me the sense of the story going nowhere, and I think that was the point; to portray a life only borne and as if in a thick envelope of fog. Not a life lived. Other parts of the story, from earlier in the boy's life, are joyful, playful, adventurous for both father and son.
The bond between the two seems unbreakable, no matter what may come or what may try to wrench them apart.
No book before this has helped me understand how powerful and crucial can be the connection between a father and his son. The love and protection this father feels for his little boy moved me the most. But the son's love for and tremendous pride in his father, while less fierce in intensity, is no less evident, nor any less steadfast and pure.
Did later events, and the life the two led once seen from a now adult perspective, tarnish the son's affection and pride for his father? In my view, no, and nothing that happened subsequent to those intense, early, crucial, formative years of their relationship could have done so.
Due to that early, loving bond, as the father protected his son, so would the son protect his father. An absolutely beautiful tale, one I highly recommend.
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