Welcome to Litsy!

Addiction:

I ❤️ the (German) title.
It says “Just right”. And that‘s what the title is – just right.

The various meanings of this are mirrored in the text. And I like that❣️

An okay, rather short read that didn‘t impress me as much as I thought at first. Even though it‘s short, there are passages that feel “unready”. Some things are too sketched others didn‘t really raise my interest. I wanted to know how it ends but I didn‘t really root for the protagonist.

But I like the trick the side-characters apply on the protagonist in the end.

Summary: Obviously no more fan-girling for Mr. Gaarder from my side. 🤷🏽‍♀️

“Living focused on the future inevitably means a certain indecisiveness, a wandering gaze; otherwise it is easy to lose sight of important opportunities and possibilities. You therefore look around in all directions and have to make improvised decisions again and again and again.

With hindsight, it's different. The gaze isn‘t wandering there. The memories only roam along the path of life as it has developed.” (page 19)

“We are so immeasurable, so inexhaustibly rich in life impressions, in insights, memories and mutual bonds. And when we have to leave, everything dissolves and disappears, is forgotten.

The world has wounds, it bleeds and now it's my turn. This day had to come one day. It came like a slap in the face. Or like a brutal blow to the nose.“

⬆️⬆️⬆️ Page 10, and I already get an idea what drew me to this book.

I can hardly believe it, I stumbled across the brand-new Jostein-Gaarder-novel at my online library. 😯

In my late teens, early 20s, I was huge Gaarder-reader, but then suddenly with 🇩🇪 „Die Frau mit dem roten Tuch“ and 🇩🇪 „Maya“, he lost me. And he did in a way that from those books on, I didn‘t touch his new releases and only re-read “Vita brevis” a decade ago.

But now I am very curious to learn about “a short story of a long night”.