Bent Haller’s
oeuvre started with a bang in 1976, when he won Borgen Publishers’ children’s
book competition with the controversial Katamaranen
(The Catamaran). The book led to a fierce debate, not least on account of its
unvarnished account of the upbringing of a group of children in a North Jutland
concrete jungle. The book reached the pages of the tabloid press, the
philosopher K.E. Løgstrup accused Haller of trying to enlist “child soldiers in
the class struggle”, and attempts were made to ban the book in schools and
libraries in several parts of Denmark. It was in this way that one of the most
important post-war oeuvres for children was launched.
Haller’s work
is uncompromising, His novels and stories for children and young people are
borne of desperation and a criticism of society that has gradually developed
into a criticism of civilisation. He is merciless in his criticism of the
conditions to which children are subjected. One of his novels for children
indeed is entitled Forbudt for børn
(Unsuitable for Children, 1989) – implying the conditions in which children
live. In Man smider ikke børn i
skraldespanden (You Don’t Put Children in the dustbin, 1984), two children
so to speak live without any contact with grown-ups in a world filled with fear
and misanthropy and almost devoid of human beings. As the title suggests, the
children find a baby that the grown-ups have thrown away. The children come to
represent responsibility, care and the ethic that the adults have generally
speaking renounced in a hysterical striving for material goods. This is in
general one of Haller’s constant themes.
The oeuvre has
a very broad compass. The grim realistic novels were accompanied with and
especially followed by allegorical adventure novels such as Kaskelotternes sang (The
Song of the
Sperm Whales, 1981) and long historical novels like Brage Kongesøns saga
(The Saga of Brage the King’s Son, 1993)
about the Teutons’ tempestuous expedition to the South of Europe. Then there
was Lille Lucifer (Little Lucifer, 1996), portraying a child’s journey
through the Danish countryside, history
and cultural history, a book inspired by Selma Lagerlöf’s Niels Holgersons
underbara resa genom Sverige (Niels Holgerson’s
Wonderful Journey through Sweden). For
adults there were novels such as Det
romanske hus (The Roman House, 1990). There is also the melancholy and
beautiful love story Balladen om Janne og
Valde (The Ballad of Janne and Valde, 1982) and the wild, intense and
ironical novels for young people, including
Hjertebogen
(The Heart Book, 1990).
Haller writes
at once pungently and with the wry humour for which Jutland is known. And he writes gently and poetically. He is a great storyteller – a Danish Homer. His
main characters are often outsiders, loners, if they are not directly redeemer
figures with visions and contacts with gods and devils. One thing, however, is
certain – you can never be sure of what Haller will do next.
