Review by M
The story is about Dorte who has just moved in to a little house near a railway station not too far from Copenhagen where she is at university. From the first few pages, the tone is cosily friendly but boom, it throws a few jaggedy bits in and the reader is left questioning exactly what has or has not happened, or even is happening, and lots of whats and whys steer the novel. This is not sci-fi or fantasy, but much more about inner psychologies.
This short novel follows the everyday details of Dorte's unexciting life and I found it strangely compelling - perhaps because her life seemed so at odds with everything I expected she would do. Personally, I'm not sure if this is because of the writing or because of differences between continental Europe and Britain. My engagement with this novel was similar to my responses to some quietly gritty/raw French cinema.
This Should Be Written In the Present Tense definitely lived up to my expectations; it's a quiet and strangely surprising novel that mostly made me smile.
Publication details: Harvill Secker, 2014, London
This copy: digital review copy from the publisher
I just finished reading this a few weeks ago. I had high expectations for it, and I'm not sure it *quite* lived up to them, though I found I got more into it during the second half. (Maybe because I was a bit distracted during the first half when the only 'Dorte' mentioned was her aunt and I kept thinking but the main character is supposed to be called Dorte, not the aunt - then of course I realised they had the same name!). I do love a bit of minimalist style and this delivered on that front, but I think it was a bit 'style' over 'substance'
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