When a journalist asked Bjarne Reuter what
he would be were he not an author, he replied: “Unhappy!” But an author he
certainly is, having written numerous books, which have been read in great
quantities by children, young people and adults. Since the 1980s Reuter has
been one of Denmark’s most popular authors.
It began in 1975 with Kidnapning (Kidnapping), the first of six
books about the hard-up Bertram family and their trials and tribulations. The
typical Reuter themes were already evident in his first book: solidarity with
the child and those “at the bottom of the social barrel”, intense desire for
liberation from all ties and, above all, the particular Reuteresque humour,
which provokes the reader to tears and laughter, often at the same time.
Reuter stays “at the bottom of the social barrel” for the Buster-books,
in which the most vigorous ‘loser’ in Danish literature moves from one
outrageous situation to the other - not least at school, where ambitious
parents and an insufferable maths teacher do their best to make him throw in
the towel. The highlight of this series, based on the author’s own experiences,
is Månen over Bella Bio (The Moon over Bella Bio, 1988), in which
we follow a boy growing up in the Copenhagen suburb of Brønshøj. We are privy
to childhood as lived beyond the control of parents and school: the first kiss,
young boys’ down-to-earth discussions about “life and supper”.
One should not underestimate Reuter. He is not merely an at times
sentimental humorist. He is also a penetrating observer of a world in which
society does not bother about its people, and in which far too many people do
not bother about society. His critique, which starts out as social criticism,
develops into a more existential critique of civilisation. This is evident in
his trilogy about Bjørn, which also takes place in Brønshøj. The first book in
the trilogy is Zappa (Zappa), written in 1977. Bjørn is a
constantly adaptable “ducker-and-diver” who gets by very well from his
inimitable sense of occasion, but who one day faces a crisis and in the final
book, Vi der valgte Mælkevejen (We Who Chose the Milky Way, 1989),
has to make the necessary and decisive choice. The three volumes
comprise one of recent Danish literature’s most compelling coming-of-age
novels.
Reuter has written for every age group, in numerous genres dealing with
a variety of themes. He has re-worked fairy tales, written texts for picture
books, realistic novels for children and young people, short stories, plays and
film scripts, plus fiction for adults. His canon also includes the major
fantasy novel Shamran (Shamran, 1985), about a little boy facing
death, but at the very moment of death the boy is given the opportunity to take
up the fight for life against evil itself, in a fantasy- universe with dwarves,
black knights and a sword in a stone. The boy of course wins the battle for
life – one of Reuter’s most beautiful studies.
In his fiction written for adults, Reuter has concentrated on a genre that walks
the line between crime novel and thriller - often with an unambiguous element
of social criticism, coloured by a certain misanthropy. This is true of, for
example, Den cubanske kabale (The Cuban Cabal, 1988), Langebro
med løbende figurer (Long Bridge with Running Figures, 1995) and Mordet
på Leon Culman (The Murder of Leon Culman, 1999). The crucial point
in Reuter’s writing, however, is that this misanthropy is always reined in by
hope. Reuter is a very forgiving author in relation to his characters. We see
them - including the most cynical, “the many men behind big desks” - immersed
in moments of inner calm, opening a window to light and dreams.
But above all is the sense of yearning – identified as both “craving”
and “enticing”. The call comes from “a beach far, far away”, like “a greeting
from distant shells” – for that is where Reuter’s “country on the other side”
is to be found, and the country always turns out to be the land of childhood.
In Reuter’s universe there is no loss greater than the loss of childhood: not
just the childhood of each individual, but also a childhood when children
played in backyards and on the streets - before television sets assumed their
status in the home. It is therefore hardly surprising that Peter Pan frequently
appears in Reuter’s World.
(2001)
