Vi skulle älska om vi bara kunde by Hanna Wallsten

June 11th, 2008

Vi skulle älska om vi bara kunde
Hanna Wallsten
221 p

Normal Förlag, 2007

Back cover blurb:

En dag dmpar Ingela flickvännen Susanne för den vackra prästen Katarina.

Susanne drar förtvivlad till Paris för att försonas med sin tvillingsyster som hon inte sett på tio år. Det blir en resa som förändrar flera personers liv - deras öden flätas in i varandra: vi följer Ingela, Anders - Susannes ex - och outsidern Sergej som får en oväntat central roll i allas liv.

När Susanne återvänder hem från Paris har allt förändrats. Ska hon förlåta Ingela? Eller ska hon bejaka den förbjudna känslan, som drar henne till rivalen Katarina…

I must admit that I was very intrigued by the title of this novel, roughly We Would Love If We Only Could, but was unable to decide if it was a grand title or just really pretentious. Unfortunately, it is pretentious. Why? Because the concept of the title is never explored in the novel. What’s the deal with that? I was expecting lesbian anguish, but all I got was boring relations and unimpressive characters laid forth with a drab language.

I wanted it to be a good book, but it wasn’t. It didn’t intrigue me and I wasn’t moved. I felt that I didn’t care if the main character’s father killed himself - why should I care? And he was, after all, the most sympathetic of the characters. Most of the characters lacked any sympathetic character, because all the other characters think about how stupid or shallow or annoying the characters are. It wasn’t a very strategic move. And it made it so very boring.

Entry Filed under: Fiction, LGBT-related, Swedish