12/21/2015
In this slender novel of psychological and romantic obsession, winner of Sweden’s August Prize, Ester Nilsson is a Swedish poet of eight slim volumes who lives in Stockholm with her lover of seven years, Per. A woman who inhabits a seriously self-regulated world, Ester is happy to be invited to give a lecture on Hugo Rask, an artist. At the event, for which he is in attendance, Ester finds herself instantly taken with Hugo. Next, she is asked to write an article about the artist, which brings her further into his orbit and causes her breakup with Per. She and Hugo begin spending time together and having sex on a few separate occasions. Throughout it all, Hugo retains his emotional distance from Ester, who becomes more and more obsessed with him. In fact, the more indifferently he treats her, the more Ester convinces herself that she is totally in love with him. Over the course of 15 months, we see Ester repeatedly try to reach out to a distant Hugo. He, in turn, thoughtlessly responds to her just enough to give her the hope that one day her love for him will be returned. Andersson’s stainless steel prose and forensic dissection of Ester’s helplessness almost render her story dramatically pointless—and it will be enjoyable only to the reader who relishes spending time with a character embroiled in such unending masochistic misery. (Feb.)
"Gripped me like an airport read...Perfect." —Lena Dunham, Lenny Letters
"Willful Disregard is lacerating in its intelligence and honesty; it makes you waver between loathing and compassion for basically all humans." —New Yorker, Page-Turner
“It’s observational precision that makes [Andersson’s] writing so startling . . . It’s almost scary how relatable her books is . . . It’s the kind of novel that forces you to remember every stupid thing you’ve done in the name of love.”—Vice
“The thoroughness and precision of each scene and feeling Andersson depicts see, as Virginia Woolf intended, every atom saturated. Every moment is heavy with significance . . . there is no better time for a story like Willful Disregard than in an age marked by overthinking the way cellphones enable people to do . . . panoramically realized, witheringly exacted, as stunning as a bright, cold Scandinavian morning.”—Full Stop
"Lean and compulsively readable...Andersson's sketching of the lovesick Ester and the preoccupied Hugo is so well done that every incensed text she sends him is another little piece of our collective heart as we follow a struggle that has existed for as long as human life: the lover and the loved." —Kirkus Reviews
"Few novels about misconstrued emotion are as clear-eyed as Swedish journalist/novelist Andersson’s 2013August Prize winner...A telling portrait of how we can misunderstand others—and ourselves." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Acutely observed." —Booklist
"A compelling read, a deeply philosophical book that attempts to make sense of love in the modern world." —Irish Examiner
“This is a slim volume, but every word packs a punch; every other sentence is so wise and funny that it begs to be quoted. Andersson’s gift for conjuring atmosphere and emotion out of small quotidian mishaps is extraordinary.” —The Guardian
“Dry wit and sharp insight . . . If [Andersson] sees an intellectual pretension, she pricks it.” —The Economist
"Speaking of intelligence. I’ll be damned if it isn’t Lena Andersson's middle name. She is known as the public's sharpest analysts in politics and cultural phenomena, but her new novel Arbitrary Conduct is about love - a subject so conventional that in this context it appears to be ingenious .. . Her novel is a creepy lucid dissection of the tangled psychology of love." —M Magazine
“Alas, most women have lived this story. Though few will have told it so well. Compelling and keenly observant.” —Lionel Shriver, author of We Need to Talk About Kevin
“Andersson writes smart, sharp-eyed, and often witheringly funny prose; nobody gets out of this situation with their pride, or their public persona, intact. Which is what makes it such addictive reading.” —Belinda McKeon, author of Solace and Tender
“Lena Andersson’s Willful Disregard is a story of the heart written with bracing intellectual rigor. It is a stunner, pure and simple.” —Alice Sebold, bestselling author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky
“A marvelously droll primer that, if handed out as part of middle-school curriculum, could prevent decades of dating headaches all over the world . . . wry.”
—Pasatiempo
“Casts a sharp eye and wields a biting wit . . . clear-eyed.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books
01/01/2016
Few novels about misconstrued emotion are as clear-eyed as Swedish journalist/novelist Andersson's 2013 August Prize winner. Her protagonist, precise, rational Ester Nilsson, is dedicated to bridging "the dreadful gulf between thoughts and words" in her poems and essays and keeps her life uncluttered by maintaining a soothing relationship with a man who pretty much leaves her alone. Then, when she gives a lecture on celebrated artist Hugo Rask, the great man himself rises from the audience to praise her obvious understanding of his work. Invited to visit him in the studio, Ester puffs up their pleasant affinity, imagining a soulmate-like passion between them. The result is a telling portrait of how we can misunderstand others—and ourselves. VERDICT In quietly modulated prose, Andersson keeps both herself and Ester in check, refreshingly avoiding scenes or sentimentality to give us down-to-the-bone bad thinking about love.
2015-11-17
An intellectual young woman falls for a prominent artist in this story of obsessive love. In plain, unsparing prose, Swedish author Andersson (this is her first novel to be translated into English) tells the story of Ester Nilsson, a woman who loses her bearings over a man. Ester is a sensible scholar and freelance writer when the book starts; she lives with her unexciting but reliable boyfriend, Per, and is contentedly devoted to intellectual pursuits. Then she's asked to give a talk on renowned artist Hugo Rask, with whom she immediately develops a fascination. She's determined to dazzle him with her lecture, thinking men like him were "receptive to the power of formulations and their erotic potential." She succeeds, is enthralled by his attention, and the stage is set for a relationship defined by her hero-worship and his passive acceptance of it. Ester notices the power imbalance early on: "Hugo never followed up anything Ester said. Ester always followed up what Hugo said. Neither of them was really interested in her but they were both interested in him." But, as will seem horribly familiar to some readers, this indifference doesn't deter her; instead it's fuel to the fire. Ester leaves Per and throws herself into a love that starts to guide all her waking movements. With classic, torturous uncertainty, she puzzles over the meaning of every encounter and the crushing blank of Hugo's frequent absences. Andersson's cleareyed depiction of this abject state is merciless, her writing clean to the point of starkness. But that harsh style is suited to the subject matter—the book asks, are human beings responsible for vulnerabilities in others? And can a woman win a man solely with intellectual firepower? The book is lean and compulsively readable as Ester finds increasingly improbable reasons to cling to hope. Andersson's sketching of the lovesick Ester and the preoccupied Hugo is so well done that every incensed text she sends him is another little piece of our collective heart as we follow a struggle that has existed for as long as human life: the lover and the loved.
