Erlend Loe is a Norwegian novelist. He worked at a psychiatric clinic, and was later a freelance journalist for Norwegian newspaper Adresseavisen. Loe now lives and works in Oslo where in 1998 he co-founded Screenwriters Oslo - an office community for screenwriters.
In 1993 he debuted with the book Tatt av kvinnen, and a year later published a children's book, Fisken, about a forklift operator named Kurt. Loe has a distinctive style of writing which is often likened to na茂ve art. He often uses irony, exaggeration and humor.
Rating may be a little generous because I am so pleased at having read my first book in Norwegian! That being said, I thought the book was quite funny and clever. I found myself laughing and smiling a lot while I was reading. Kurt and his family are great characters and the dialog was very entertaining. I look forward to tackling the next 'Kurt' book. :)
The best thing I can say about this book is that I could easily imagine the liberal, well meaning and ultimately deeply insufferable version of this and how awful it could be. Loe鈥檚 satire isn鈥檛 wildly complicated, because of the book鈥檚 audience, but it makes the point about absolute wealth corrupting very well, mainly because he makes it so absurd and juggles Kurt鈥檚 lust for power nicely with his lust for power drills and breaking things. It鈥檚 also helped by having his small, ludicrous child as his sidekick so kids can easily see how childish the behaviour is without Loe ever feeling the need to spell it out
The real highlight is Hiorth酶y鈥檚 art which is spidery, manic and very, very funny. It feels like stills from the best sort of anarchic animation and complements Kurt鈥檚 descent into madness beautifully
Selv om denne boken er for barn, anbefaler jeg den til alle. Det handler om en mann som plutselig blir den rikeste personen i byen, og det gj酶r ham til den mest forferdelige personen i byen. Jeg anbefaler ogs氓 denne boken til alle som l忙rer norsk, som meg. Den er for B-niv氓.
Skv臎l媒, skv臎l媒, skv臎l媒! Naivn臎 trivi谩ln铆, kouzeln媒, mil媒. Dybych si spl茅tala v臎ne膷ek z kv臎tin a m臎la pudl铆ka jm茅nem Dane膷ek, 艡ekla bych n臎co o pohlazen铆 po du拧i, ale nic takov媒ho na拧t臎st铆 nem谩m. Nejmilej拧铆 postava: jednozna膷n臎 Tlust谩 Helena. D艡铆v se j铆 艡铆kalo Huben谩 Helena, ale sn臎dla moc ryb, tak u啪 je z n铆 Tlust谩 Helena. 艊谩k se v n铆 vidim. Haha. A ty ilustrace.... Hmmm!
Interesting idea, but didn't quite work for me. That Kurt is a nice guy before he gets the money isn't really shown, so when he changes to Mr Nasty, the effect isn't as powerful as it could be. Really wanted to like this book more!