Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Other Name
The Other Name: Septology I-II | Jon Fosse
9 posts | 7 read | 10 to read
"Fosse's fusing of the commonplace and the existential, together with his dramatic forays into the past, make for a relentlessly consuming work: alreadySeptology feels momentous."--The Guardian The Other Name follows the lives of two men living close to each other on the west coast of Norway. The year is coming to a close and Asle, an aging painter and widower, is reminiscing about his life. He lives alone, his only friends being his neighbor, ...sleik, a bachelor and traditional Norwegian fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in Bj ?rgvin, a couple hours' drive south of Dylgja, where he lives. There, in Bj ?rgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter. He and the narrator are doppelgangers--two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life. Written in hypnotic prose that shifts between the first and third person,The Other Name calls into question concrete notions around subjectivity and the self. What makes us who we are? And why do we lead one life and not another? Through flashbacks, Fosse deftly explores the convergences and divergences in the lives of both Asles, slowly building towards a decisive encounter between them both. A writer at the zenith of his career, withThe Other Name, the first two volumes in hisSeptology, Fosse presents us with an indelible and poignant exploration of the human condition that will endure as his masterpiece.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
IuliaC
post image
Pickpick

Two painters, both called Asle, live on the West coast of Norway; one of them is the narrator. They look identical and their lives seem two different versions of the same life.
The novel is written in stream of consciousness but the prose is slow and flows so beautifully. Their story is very intriguing, they interact with each other and it feels like one of them is a sort of an alter ego. It makes the reader wonder if both lives are real.

review
Leftcoastzen
post image
Pickpick

Absolutely beautiful .A stream of consciousness novel , it reads melodically like poetry.About caring , art , memory, & forgetting. It is made up of the stuff of life .I wasn‘t expecting to love it as much as I did , bring on the next part .

Buechersuechtling Oh, how I love your review and now want to read that book‼️ Thank you. 🙇🏽‍♀️ 4y
Buechersuechtling I did a quick research. There are seven or eight in total, so five or six yet to come❓ Really❓ 4y
Leftcoastzen @Buechersuechtling I want to read more of his books too! There are other more descriptive reviews here on Litsy for this book.Frizcarraldo Editons seems ahead of Transit books here in US.as far as publishing translations.I read all of Knausgaards Stuggle & his seasons, hoping I keep up with Fosse too. 4y
See All 6 Comments
Tamra I just discovered this title via short list for NBA for translation. I‘m happy to see you loved it! Going to order it now. Did you read others in the series? (edited) 2y
Leftcoastzen @Tamra true to form , I ordered the 2nd book soon after finishing the first , but of course still sitting on my TBR.😁 2y
Tamra @Leftcoastzen 😆 Naturally! 2y
60 likes1 stack add6 comments
blurb
Leftcoastzen
post image

One of my cats didn‘t eat breakfast and I feel cruddy so the schedule for today changed.I‘m glad I feel well enough to read.

LeahBergen I hope you both feel better soon! 4y
Lcsmcat I‘m sorry you and kitty are feeling poorly. I hope you both feel better soon. 4y
catiewithac Love this mug! 🕶 4y
See All 11 Comments
ValerieAndBooks That mug! I live near the DE border, 15 minutes from where his home is, and keep hoping for a sighting 😂. Some people I know have seen him around randomly. 4y
Leftcoastzen @catiewithac thx ! Donated to the Dems early & got this great mug! 4y
Leftcoastzen @ValerieAndBooks wow, would love a sighting!😄 4y
Leftcoastzen @LeahBergen I slept a lot! 4y
Leftcoastzen @Lcsmcat Thx!we both rested a lot , kitty got his appetite back. 4y
Lcsmcat Good to hear. 4y
dearb00kshelves Love The Fifth Season! 4y
staci.reads Great mug! 😁 4y
70 likes1 stack add11 comments
blurb
batsy
post image

Thanks for the tag @tournevis 😘 Sorry for the delay as it's already Thursday!

1. My nephew sent me this photo recently of my niece, Daisy 🐶 They live in Sydney so it's been awhile since I've seen her! Girl knows how to strike a pose.
2. Valancy Stirling in L. M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle. The ultimate fantasy of life is shit but all your dreams can come true if you're good & who doesn't need that?
3. Tagged book

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

Cathythoughts Daisy ! 💝Yes she is quite the poser ❤️. I have tagged book stacked already 👍🏻 4y
Cathythoughts And number 2. Yes we all need that X 4y
Tanisha_A How photogenic, Miss Daisy! 😁 4y
See All 13 Comments
Reggie Daisy looks so happy! 4y
tournevis 😘 4y
effani I don't know...before signing up to be Valancy for a day I would want to get some clarification on exactly where in the story that day is! I agree with everything you said, but she has some pretty rough days that I wouldn't want to sign up to live through 😅 😂 4y
Eggs Great pic 🐕!!! Thanks for joining in 👏🏻📚❤️ 4y
batsy @effani Haha, that's true! She goes througb quite a bit, our Valancy. 4y
TheAromaofBooks I would be completely on board with being Valancy during her island days!! I'm always a smidge jealous of her when I read that book - where can I buy my own island?! 4y
impramod follow me 4y
LeahBergen Oh, Daisy! ❤️ 4y
batsy @LeahBergen She's a cutie and she knows it 😁 4y
88 likes13 comments
review
batsy
post image
Pickpick

I lost myself in this meandering, reflective novel by Norwegian author Jon Fosse (trans. Damion Searls). The first of a 3-volume septet, this is a book "about" two elderly men, both painters, both named Asle, living near each other on the Norwegian coast. Doppelgangers, pairings, repetition; there's a theme running through it but no plot. The stream of consciousness prose grabbed me the most at its most ecstatic & poetic. Strangely captivating.

hilded Glad you enjoyed it, I didn‘t know it was translated until now 😊 4y
batsy @hilded It was really captivating, even if some parts worked better for me than others. The language was a glorious ebb and flow. Have you read it in the original? 🙂 4y
hilded I haven‘t read this one, but I‘ve read others by him, and would intuitively think he would be hard to translate well. So glad to hear that the translation flew well and that you enjoyed it😊 4y
See All 7 Comments
batsy @hilded Oh, nice! I hope more of his work will be translated (or maybe it has and I'm not aware!) Yes, I think the translator deserves immense credit for this one... The style and the poetics of it must have been a challenge :) 4y
nathandrake1997 My favorite book of the year so far 😄 4y
batsy @nathandrake1997 It's good to know that! I enjoyed your review 👍🏽 4y
nathandrake1997 @batsy Thanks 😄 I enjoyed your review as well 😊👍 4y
93 likes4 stack adds7 comments
review
Emilymdxn
post image
Mehso-so

This was... fine. Nice writing albeit very wordy, I don‘t feel like I ‘got‘ it really and I get frustrated by books that seem to want you to have fourteen degrees to keep on top of what‘s happening (if anything). I read it slowly and despite some lovely sections it didn‘t feel like the writing was in service of anything bigger really, I found it forgettable.

#bookerinternational2020