The story of a marriage: a novel

Readers know the end of the story from the start of Norwegian poet and novelist Gulliksen's Nordic Prize-nominated U.S. debut: a marriage has ended. The novel's narrator is Jon, a writer married to Timmy, a doctor he first met while married to another woman. Two decades and two sons later, they delight in a happy home and still indulge one another's deepest desires. A man who approaches Timmy after a speaking gig, admiring her work, turns out to be a neighbor and a fellow exercise enthusiast. Their friendship seems natural, and Jon always insists that Timmy feel unconstrained in their marriage, and even fantasized about her with another man. But the idea of freedom and the thing itself are perhaps unequal, after all. It isn't clear how Jon has such access to Timmy's experiences, or if he actually does, but he shows her growing and diminishing passions and reveals what she must have perceived in him, too. Gulliksen, who edits Karl Ove Knausgaard's books, distills love's dissolution in this precisely evoked, intimate, yet expansive tale.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2010 Booklist

Gulliksen's U.S. debut chronicles the end of a marriage, a story that is at times gripping but often feels familiar. The novel is narrated by Jon, a Norwegian writer, as he tries to piece together the events that led to his wife, Timmy, falling for another man. It opens with the now-separated couple discussing what went wrong. From here, Jon backtracks to spotlight the first encounter between Timmy, a doctor working for the Department of Health, and her new partner, Gunnar, at a talk on public health. Timmy and Gunnar become friends through their shared love of athletics, and begin running, skiing, and horseback riding together, all while Jon stays home with their two boys. He expresses his desire to see Timmy with another man and encourages her to take Gunnar on as a romantic partner, but as time passes and Timmy tests his proposal, he fears she will leave him. Though the book is well structured and unafraid to explore the darkness of a crumbling marriage, there's little that distinguishes it from other domestic novels. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

In this U.S. debut from the Nordic Prize-nominated Gulliksen, Jon painfully resurrects the past, trying to grasp what he lost when his wife left him for another man; he concedes that they're no longer the people they were as a married couple. Jon was already married when he met decisive powerhouse Timmy, a young doctor to whom he took his sick daughter; he abandoned his first wife just as he's now been abandoned and has been working as a freelance journalist (and family caretaker) while Timmy pursues a high-level job in social services. Jon (and, by extension, Gulliksen) is less interested in the why of the marital breakup than the how, detailing the couple's intimacy and descent into betrayal in increasingly drilled-down scenes that can feel like the real-time collapse of a relationship. -VERDICT Not for the plot-hungry, this deeply interior meditation will reward serious-minded readers. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

If you love someone, they say, set them free. A couple decides to test the idea. It goes poorly.This short, emotionally taut novel by veteran Norwegian author Gulliksen is narrated by Jon, whose marriage to Timmy has cratered. We know the end of their story from the very beginning: Timmy grows increasingly enchanted with a man she met at a presentation she gave, and though Jon doesn't stand in the way of their early platonic outings (indeed, he gets a bit of an erotic charge from their relationship), he grows resentful once his wife's emotions intensify. "It's easier than you'd think to slip through the gaps, to go from one life to another," he laments. It's hard to direct much sympathy toward Jon, though: After all, he abandoned his first wife for Timmy in an ugly breakup. ("I hope you'll experience this yourself one day," his ex fumed/foreshadowed.) But the novel sustains itself not so much on relationship drama but on Jon's narration, which is nakedly unreliable, full of envious judgments and rash projections upon Timmy regarding her emotions and actions. ("She thought of the man she'd started to know. His neck, his arms, imagined him leaning over her.") Jon concedes he often presumes too much, but by denying the reader any sense of Timmy's feelings except filtered through a heartbroken ex, Gulliksen suggests that much of any relationship is built on our imagining what goes on in others' heads. His prose (via Dawkin's translation) isn't designed to set off sparks: Gulliksen served as Karl Ove Knausgaard's editor, and they share an affinity for flat, undramatic exposition. But as Jon careers from his own head to his estranged wife's, Gulliksen reveals plenty of emotional storms.An interior but engagingly complex study of a relationship hitting the skids. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Readers know the end of the story from the start of Norwegian poet and novelist Gulliksen's Nordic Prize–nominated U.S. debut: a marriage has ended. The novel's narrator is Jon, a writer married to Timmy, a doctor he first met while married to another woman. Two decades and two sons later, they delight in a happy home and still indulge one another's deepest desires. A man who approaches Timmy after a speaking gig, admiring her work, turns out to be a neighbor and a fellow exercise enthusiast. Their friendship seems natural, and Jon always insists that Timmy feel unconstrained in their marriage, and even fantasized about her with another man. But the idea of freedom and the thing itself are perhaps unequal, after all. It isn't clear how Jon has such access to Timmy's experiences, or if he actually does, but he shows her growing and diminishing passions and reveals what she must have perceived in him, too. Gulliksen, who edits Karl Ove Knausgaard's books, distills love's dissolution in this precisely evoked, intimate, yet expansive tale. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

In this U.S. debut from the Nordic Prize-nominated Gulliksen, Jon painfully resurrects the past, trying to grasp what he lost when his wife left him for another man; he concedes that they're no longer the people they were as a married couple. Jon was already married when he met decisive powerhouse Timmy, a young doctor to whom he took his sick daughter; he abandoned his first wife just as he's now been abandoned and has been working as a freelance journalist (and family caretaker) while Timmy pursues a high-level job in social services. Jon (and, by extension, Gulliksen) is less interested in the why of the marital breakup than the how, detailing the couple's intimacy and descent into betrayal in increasingly drilled-down scenes that can feel like the real-time collapse of a relationship. VERDICT Not for the plot-hungry, this deeply interior meditation will reward serious-minded readers.

Gulliksen's U.S. debut chronicles the end of a marriage, a story that is at times gripping but often feels familiar. The novel is narrated by Jon, a Norwegian writer, as he tries to piece together the events that led to his wife, Timmy, falling for another man. It opens with the now-separated couple discussing what went wrong. From here, Jon backtracks to spotlight the first encounter between Timmy, a doctor working for the Department of Health, and her new partner, Gunnar, at a talk on public health. Timmy and Gunnar become friends through their shared love of athletics, and begin running, skiing, and horseback riding together, all while Jon stays home with their two boys. He expresses his desire to see Timmy with another man and encourages her to take Gunnar on as a romantic partner, but as time passes and Timmy tests his proposal, he fears she will leave him. Though the book is well structured and unafraid to explore the darkness of a crumbling marriage, there's little that distinguishes it from other domestic novels. (July)