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Deras ryggar luktade så gott
Det här är berättelsen om Jenny och hennes uppväxt under 70- och 80-talet. Med burkköttfärssås, Kamratposten och kyrkans barntimmar. Med en mamma som alltid behöver tröstas, och en pappa som lämnar rummet så fort det blir jobbigt.
Vad händer när ett barns alla känslor försvinner i ett vakuum? När enda vägen till föräldrarnas hjärtan går genom att hålla sig ur vägen? Och vad händer när det barnet växer upp och får egna barn det vill älska och trösta?
Deras ryggar luktade så gott är en föräldrauppgörelse, en kritik mot heliga blodsband och en kärleksförklaring till det barn som faktiskt har all rätt i världen att gråta en skvätt.
Vad händer när ett barns alla känslor försvinner i ett vakuum? När enda vägen till föräldrarnas hjärtan går genom att hålla sig ur vägen? Och vad händer när det barnet växer upp och får egna barn det vill älska och trösta?
Deras ryggar luktade så gott är en föräldrauppgörelse, en kritik mot heliga blodsband och en kärleksförklaring till det barn som faktiskt har all rätt i världen att gråta en skvätt.
190 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4, 2014
1 person is currently reading
150 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 29, 2016
Men åh den där rutan när man förstår titeln!
August 13, 2020
Jag har aldrig blivit så djupt berörd av en bok som denna! Känner mig helt skakad och jag tror på dig Åsa.
March 26, 2017
Det gör ont att läsa det här och jag förstår inte hur man inte kan låta sitt barn visa känslor, lyssna, trösta, hålla om och skratta. Som författaren skriver finna det säkert en anledning, men den får vi inte del av här. Många rutor är extra jobbiga att läsa, som den där titeln förklaras eller där vi får läsa om rivmärken på spjälsängen.
April 7, 2017
Okej, jag är jättepartisk här. Men en lurig mamma och en god men liiite speciell pappa så slår den här serieboken an massor av känslor. Jag kan faktiskt inte bedöma hur bra boken är egentligen. Den handlar om Jenny som växer upp med föräldrar som inte ser henne och som bara tycker att hon är till besvär. När hon blir vuxen går hon med på allt för att bli älskad. När hon gör testet "skulle någon sakna mig om jag dog" så går det två månader (utom jobbet) och ingen saknar henne.
Älskar den här boken. Men som sagt jag är partisk. Eller som min mamma sa" tur att jag inte fick några barnbarn det är så besvärligt med barn".
Älskar den här boken. Men som sagt jag är partisk. Eller som min mamma sa" tur att jag inte fick några barnbarn det är så besvärligt med barn".
May 29, 2015
En otroligt stark och viktig bok som tydligt visar på att blod inte är tjockare än vatten.
June 9, 2017
Fantastiskt träffande. Rakt in i magen.
Read
March 8, 2024Fyy fan vilken ångest
July 1, 2025
En serieroman för vuxna om ensamhet. En fascinerande men skrämmande beskrivning av verkligheten,; hur den ter sig för någon som aldrig fått uppleva kärlek, närhet, omtanke och uppskattning från sina föräldrar.
February 15, 2023
This graphic novel is gawd damn punch to the gut... When you understand the title, it starts to hurt... and when you see the explanation for the scratch marks on the crib bed, then your heart breaks.
There's many different forms of abuse. This is one of the more sinister ones, because you can't see it. The main character, Jenny, has a good life if you look at the surface. But her parents don't see her. They don't care. Doesn't show her any love or affection. Not even when she was a baby or tiny. And in this, she grows up with constant anxiety. It's not until she gets her own children that she starts dealing with her childhood.
It's just... so so heartbreaking to read this, especially when I have a kid of my own. I can't for the life of me understand Jenny's parents. And we don't get an answer either. As a reader we're told there's probably a reason, but we never find out.
Heart-frenching book everyone should read. HIGHLY recommended.
There's many different forms of abuse. This is one of the more sinister ones, because you can't see it. The main character, Jenny, has a good life if you look at the surface. But her parents don't see her. They don't care. Doesn't show her any love or affection. Not even when she was a baby or tiny. And in this, she grows up with constant anxiety. It's not until she gets her own children that she starts dealing with her childhood.
It's just... so so heartbreaking to read this, especially when I have a kid of my own. I can't for the life of me understand Jenny's parents. And we don't get an answer either. As a reader we're told there's probably a reason, but we never find out.
Heart-frenching book everyone should read. HIGHLY recommended.
February 7, 2015
My review in swedish ---> Romeoandjuliet
May 16, 2021
This was a book I found out by chance and can't really describe the amount of feelings I got when I read it. Not easy to read but important in the same stretch as it's complex to process. Significant work and an act of courage to put it out in the world.
June 3, 2017
Är ovan vid serier men gillade mycket. Sträckläste och blev berörd.
April 19, 2020
Det är så härligt med igenkänning, även när den är sorglig. Fin.
February 20, 2021
Aj. Länge sedan jag läste något som gjorde såhär ont. En handbok i hur man INTE ska vara som förälder.
December 7, 2024
I want to read every single book of this author
November 18, 2019
Vill att alla (alla!!) ska läsa den här boken. Tänker på den ofta. Får ont i magen och hjärtat. Åh den är så bra!
February 23, 2023
Rakt in i hjärtat. Ömt, hårt och rakt om barndom och ensamhet. Läs!
October 19, 2020
Det var vackert att läsa om barnens känslor. Och veta att det här barnet är alltid i oss.
August 1, 2014
A real feel-bad graphic novel, about being ignored by your parents until you become numb and emotionally impaired, unable to relate to other people and full of self-loathing. A disturbing tale that leaves you emotionally drained, and pretty angry at the parents in the story.
Story:
Jenny, a grown-up woman with family and kids, tells the story of her growing up, and how her parents never, ever showed any emotions, never expressed any love towards her or even touched her, giving her emotional scars for the rest of her life. We get to follow her growing up, hear her inner voice as she tries to make sense of this strange situation, and finally figure out how to deal with it as she understands how she became the way she became and why her parents acted as they did.
Art:
Grennvall has drawn more or less the same way ever since she made her debut with the critically acclaimed Det känns som hundra år (It Feels Like A Hundred Years), another harsh story about abusive, dysfunctional parents. Her art is a bit crude, naïvistic even, always in black and white and very apt for the dark, anxiety-ridden stories Grennvall tells. If anything has changed, I feel that it's mostly about the visual storytelling, which has gotten smoother and more nuanced over the years.
Critique:
This book really got to me. Grennvall is the queen of feel-bad comics in Sweden, and here she really hits the spot. This is not straight autobiography, as some of Grennvall's earlier books, but it is quite evidently based on real-life experiences, as indicated by interviews she's done concerning the book. Some parts of the main character Jenny's life also corresponds to Grennvall's, or at least to the way she has shown her life in earlier books that were presented as more straight autobiographical.
Anyway, autobiographical or not, the story is harrowing and told in a cool, almost cold manner, which adds to the feeling of alienation and suits the emotionally scarred main character. Grennvall manages to evoke the feeling of being rejected by the parents rather well. If anything feels a bit strange about this story, it's the fact that the end is rather abrupt and that the solution and happy ending comes seemingly rather quickly, at least compared to the elongated way in which the journey there is shown, where she stacks up the offences by the parents, almost like in a mental list. But I guess this is very much intended, as it gives an indication of how the main character experienced the whole story.
There's no way to not associate this book with another Swedish contemporary comic artist, Malin Biller, and her critically acclaimed masterpiece Om någon vrålar i skogen (If Someone Screams In The Forest). Grennvall's character has not been sexually abused, as had Biller's character; she states this very matter-of-factly in the book. Rather the exact opposite: she has never been touched at all. The story starts with her installing her old baby crib from her parent's house for her own child and finding that it was full of strange scratch marks, and ends with her realising that this was most probably done by herself, screaming for attention and trying to climb out of the crib where she was left alone for far too long periods of time.
The title Deras ryggar luktade så gott (Their Backs Smelled so Good), by the way, is a reference to a heart-wrenching scene where Jenny sneaks into her parents' bed at night and lies between them while they are sleeping, to be able to at least get some kind of closeness from them. And the art on the cover, depicting this very scene, is needlework by the artist, who also does embroidery art.
Comments:
This is the ninth graphic novel by Grennvall since her debut in 1999, but the very first one published by her own brand new, co-owned publishing house Syster förlag (Sister Publisher). Seeing that this hard-hitting graphic novel was their debut book, I'm really looking forward to seeing what they will publish next.
Story:
Jenny, a grown-up woman with family and kids, tells the story of her growing up, and how her parents never, ever showed any emotions, never expressed any love towards her or even touched her, giving her emotional scars for the rest of her life. We get to follow her growing up, hear her inner voice as she tries to make sense of this strange situation, and finally figure out how to deal with it as she understands how she became the way she became and why her parents acted as they did.
Art:
Grennvall has drawn more or less the same way ever since she made her debut with the critically acclaimed Det känns som hundra år (It Feels Like A Hundred Years), another harsh story about abusive, dysfunctional parents. Her art is a bit crude, naïvistic even, always in black and white and very apt for the dark, anxiety-ridden stories Grennvall tells. If anything has changed, I feel that it's mostly about the visual storytelling, which has gotten smoother and more nuanced over the years.
Critique:
This book really got to me. Grennvall is the queen of feel-bad comics in Sweden, and here she really hits the spot. This is not straight autobiography, as some of Grennvall's earlier books, but it is quite evidently based on real-life experiences, as indicated by interviews she's done concerning the book. Some parts of the main character Jenny's life also corresponds to Grennvall's, or at least to the way she has shown her life in earlier books that were presented as more straight autobiographical.
Anyway, autobiographical or not, the story is harrowing and told in a cool, almost cold manner, which adds to the feeling of alienation and suits the emotionally scarred main character. Grennvall manages to evoke the feeling of being rejected by the parents rather well. If anything feels a bit strange about this story, it's the fact that the end is rather abrupt and that the solution and happy ending comes seemingly rather quickly, at least compared to the elongated way in which the journey there is shown, where she stacks up the offences by the parents, almost like in a mental list. But I guess this is very much intended, as it gives an indication of how the main character experienced the whole story.
There's no way to not associate this book with another Swedish contemporary comic artist, Malin Biller, and her critically acclaimed masterpiece Om någon vrålar i skogen (If Someone Screams In The Forest). Grennvall's character has not been sexually abused, as had Biller's character; she states this very matter-of-factly in the book. Rather the exact opposite: she has never been touched at all. The story starts with her installing her old baby crib from her parent's house for her own child and finding that it was full of strange scratch marks, and ends with her realising that this was most probably done by herself, screaming for attention and trying to climb out of the crib where she was left alone for far too long periods of time.
The title Deras ryggar luktade så gott (Their Backs Smelled so Good), by the way, is a reference to a heart-wrenching scene where Jenny sneaks into her parents' bed at night and lies between them while they are sleeping, to be able to at least get some kind of closeness from them. And the art on the cover, depicting this very scene, is needlework by the artist, who also does embroidery art.
Comments:
This is the ninth graphic novel by Grennvall since her debut in 1999, but the very first one published by her own brand new, co-owned publishing house Syster förlag (Sister Publisher). Seeing that this hard-hitting graphic novel was their debut book, I'm really looking forward to seeing what they will publish next.
April 22, 2022
MYCKET bra!!!!!!!!
December 5, 2015
En drabbande berättelse om ett barn som växer upp i en familj där relationerna är så skeva att hon till slut lär sig att det inte ens är någon ide att berätta för andra om hur det verkligen är. Ingen tror henne ändå. Mycket läsvärd.
July 1, 2016
Igenkännande, samma uppväxttid. Men ändå så olikt. Vilken destruktiv och hemsk situation. Man vill ingripa och försöka rädda denna stackars flicka.
Want to read
September 3, 2015Toivottavasti kirja suomennetaan pian.
August 20, 2018
Text på bloggen: http://annzah.com/2017/november/deras...
April 18, 2017
Självbiografiska rysningar.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews