Iben Melbye (born in 1943) worked as a children's librarian until 1975. Since then she has made her living from writing, debating engagements and giving talks. Amongst other things she has also written for children's radio and worked as a freelance TV producer. A strong social commitment and a moral view of humanity run right through her writing and as such her work constitutes a literature of critical social comment. Throughout her writing career she has stayed true to her humanist roots, without following any literary fashions. Iben Melbye is "a slow writer", understood in its most positive interpretation, who does painstaking research in breadth and depth before she releases her work. Her background research is particularly apparent in Moonie (Moonie, 1988), a novel about the incantations of the Moon movement, and Ramt (Afflicted, 1997), which considers the psychological effects of a bank robbery, but thorough preparation is characteristic of all her writing.
Afflictions are a common theme in Melbye's books, as in Afflicted, but also in Mooniez, Elskede Annie (Darling Annie, 1982, a novel for adults) and in Fange nr. 198 (Prisoner 198, 1985). Iben Melbye made her debut in 1974 with the children's book Uro i Lammekøbing (Trouble in Lammekøbing), which is the first volume in the Scorpion Club Series (written by a variety of writers, three titles from Melbye's pen). In the early days she was pigeon-holed - not unjustifiably - as a children's author, but her later works, which have made more of a mark, have broad appeal for young and old. They are in the true sense literature for all.
Melbye's writing is mostly of a fictional nature and includes short stories; it often has a documentary style and is frequently set in prison or working class milieus, which become structural elements of the fiction. Her characters are for the main part vulnerable individuals who for one reason or another have got themselves into a predicament, either in society at large or in their own social network. Melbye is a kind of spokesperson for those individuals who have no real say: prisoners (Darling Annie, Prisoner no. 198, Afflicted), victims (Afflicted), striking workers (Det begyndte på havnen (It All Began at the Docks, 1985) and dustmen (Skraldemændene Per, Palle og Olfert, Dustmen Per, Palle and Olfert, Stine og Skraldemændene (Stine and the Dustmen, both from 1979).
Taken as a whole, Iben Melbye's literary works can be said to belong to psychological realism. Her style is varied and visual in relation to the overall themes. It is entirely in keeping that Melbye's ideas are subordinate to the delineation of her characters. Melbye's stories are above all about people. A major feature of her writing is her use of narrative styles in combination with narrative structure, using devices such as parallelism and shifting points of view. This stylistic control creates space and flow in her stories, it allows her writing to have different levels and a variety of tones, which is especially noticeable in Moonie, probably the best known of all Melbye's novels.
One can never classify Iben Melbye's writing as simply pure social criticism, although it is also that. The full picture emerges when one begins to include the poetry, the warmth, the gentleness and the strange brand of restrained humour. In the tight narrative control of Melbye's stories emotions are at a premium.
(2003)
