Besøket

by Stig Sæterbakken

Advokat Sigmund Winther synes tilfreds med en ikke altfor utfordrende karriere og en velordnet tilværelse sammen med sin kone, museumskonservatoren Cecilie. Men om kvelden på sin 42-årsdag blir han oppsøkt av en gammel treogtyve år er da gått siden han og Gunnar Samuelsen sist så hverandre. Gunnar har med seg et kassettopptak fra gymnasdagene som han vil at vennen skal høre. På opptaket, som ble gjort under en debatt i en anarkistgruppe de begge var med i, hører Sigmund sin egen stemme for første gang. Opplevelsen blir et sjokk for ham og tvinger ham til å revurdere det selvbildet han har levd med, såvel som forholdet han har til menneskene rundt seg.

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Stig Sæterbakken was a Norwegian author. He published his first book at the age of 18, a collection of poems called Floating Umbrellas, while still attending Lillehammer Senior High School. In 1991, Sæterbakken released his first novel, Incubus, followed by The New Testament in 1993. Aestethic Bliss (1994) collected five years of work as an essayist.

Sæterbakken returned to prose in 1997 with the novel Siamese, which marks a significant departure in his style. The following year saw the release of Self-Control. And in 1999, he published Sauermugg. The three books, the S-trilogy—as they are often called—were published in a collected edition in 2000.

In February 2001, Sæterbakken's second collection of essays, The Evil Eye was released. As with Aestethic Bliss this book also represents a summing up and a closing of a new phase in the authorship. In many ways the essays throw light on Sæterbakken's own prose over the last years, the S-trilogy in particular.

Siamese was released in Sweden by Vertigo. Vertigo followed up with a translation of Sauermugg in April 2007. This edition, however, was different from the Norwegian original. It included some of the later published Sauermugg-monologues, together with left overs from the time the book was written, about 50 pages of new material all together. The expanded edition was entitled Sauermugg Redux. Siamese has since been translated into Danish, Czech and English.

Sæterbakken's last books were the novels The Visit, Invisible Hands, and Don't Leave Me. He was awarded the Osloprisen (Oslo Prize) in 2006 for The Visit. Invisible Hands was nominated for both the P2-listener's Novel prize and Youth's Critics' Prize in 2007. The same year he was awarded the Critics Prize and Bokklubbene's Translationprize for his translation of Nikanor Teratologen's Eldreomsorgen i Øvre Kågedalen.

Sæterbakken was artistic director of The Norwegian Festival of Literature from 2006 until October 2008, when he resigned owing to the controversy which arose when David Irving was invited to the festival in 2009.

Sæterbakken's books were released and translated in several countries, among them Russia and US. April 2009 Flamme Forlag released an essay by Sæterbakken, in their series of book-singles, called Yes. No. Yes.

Sæterbakken committed suicide on January 24, 2012, aged 46.

Reviews

[John Hatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A school friend he hasn’t seen for over 20 years turns up on Sigmund Winther’s 42nd birthday. With him Gunnar has an old cassette from school days and plays it for Sigmund. When he hears his own voice for the first time, Sigmund begins to reevaluate the view he had of himself and the world around him. In several almost surreal scenes, author Stig Sæterbakken describes the alienation from himself that Sigmund experiences.

[Harald Nordbø · Rating 4 out of 5]

leste denne i et trekk, som en gal, og begynner å lure på om Sæterbakken noen gang skrev en dårlig roman

det eneste jeg har å utsette er de vanvittig irriterende ellipsene, som tok Satans lang tid å venne seg til

les Sæterbakken, gutta

[Svein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mitt første forsøk på Sæterbakken dette her. Jeg har blitt anbefalt han av flere, men dette var litt ufullendt synes jeg. Det var lite fremgang og enda mindre forløsning. Samtidig var det et godt språk og jeg kommer nok til å gi Sæterbakken flere sjanser.

[Han Far · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Vi er mennesker, skapt av vår angst for det som når som helst kan slumpe til å tilstøte oss"

[Magnus Trætteberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ikke en personlig favoritt av en forfatter jeg ellers har satt pris på så langt. Et langt besøk av en gammel kamerat som dukker opp og ikke forsvinner gjør hovedpersonen forstyrret og mister seg selv og sin vante hverdag.

[Anki · Rating 3 out of 5]

God bok, samtidig som jeg irriterte meg grenseløst over besøket. Fikk ikke helt tak i hovedpersonen.

[Helge Astad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likte godt denne, rar stemning med besøket. Skikkelig uggen stemning faktisk. Og hovedpersonen takler alt på flott komplisert og idiotiske måter. Men slutten blei litt kort.