Misfit in the Provinces

In Hus og Hjem (House and Home) Helle Helle tells a tale of the misfit thirty-something generation.

By : Annette Bach

Helle Helle made her literary debut in 1993 with the absurdist, minimalist prose anthology Eksempel på liv (Example of Life), and with her last book, the short-story collection Rester (Remnants), she established herself well and truly in the minimalist tradition. There are clear parallels with the work of Raymond Carver, and this particular style also works very well in Helle’s latest novel, House and Home.
   The narrator, the thirty-something Anne, has just moved back to the small town which she left as a young girl, following the death of both her parents. Anne moves in five weeks before her husband, Anders, intent on turning this new house into a home: a task which proves less than easy. She loses herself in all manner of displacement activity, while the packing cases remain unopened and the little white lies about how busy she is setting up their new home start to accumulate.
   House and Home is exceptional for the way in which it deviates from the standard suspense and confrontation pattern. In terms of action, incredibly little actually happens - a fact which is both surprising and strangely intriguing. There are no great dramatic displays here, instead the focus is on individuals in a variety of everyday situations, the way in which they cope with day-to-day events constituting the real and very immediate drama.
   The offsetting in the title of the two words ”house” and ”home” encapsulates Anne’s central dilemma, one which is worked through in the course of the novel. She has a house, but she longs desperately to build herself a home, an identity and a solid base in this world. A sense of belonging is, however, slow in coming.
   For company Anne has a couple elderly and mildly eccentric neighbours and her two schoolfriends, Anita and Charlotte – the first of whom has just become a mother, while the other is pretty fed up with provincial life and the shortage of men in the small town. During the first few weeks, Anne also makes friends with, then becomes romantically involved with, another neighbour, Jens, the local vicar: a flirtation which escalates into the main dramatic element in the novel, before quietly fizzling out.
   Despite Anne’s frustration and her inability to fit in, this is by no means a novel that leaves things hanging. On the contrary, there are signs by the end that Anne is beginning to face up to her fears, to her past and her grief, and that she is going to be able to move on from there. But, as with everything else in House and Home, this is effected without any overt pathos. In this lies the novel’s strength.
   The real pivotal point of House and Home is provided by the existential vaccum which its characters inhabit, and their struggle to escape from this. It is a beguiling novel which quietly, but indefatigably gets its hooks into the reader, to the point where one becomes totally immersed in it, tuning into its gentle pulse.

This article first appeared in Danish Literary Magazine 16, 1999