Reviews about Villy Sørensen

"Elegant and assured, Villy Sørensen - previously unknown to us - jumps into the ring and starts his conjuring tricks right in front of his astonished readers. And he can conjure, he can probably do a bit of magic too, and spin his imagination like a whipping-top and dream up like a nightmare. Where has he learnt all these artful practices, on the quiet as it were? Just 24 years old. (...) Among their many refinements, his Sære historier (Strange Stories) also have to their advantage that they really are strange. He teases us, he hides his young, photogenic, earnest face behind weird and wonderful masks, and (...) seems not in the least burdened by his youth. (...) Super-logic is Villy Sørensen´s magic wand, and imagination his pointed hat. In his Strange Stories we can admire his artistic dexterity, but we also observe that he is not merely nimble with his fingers. He´s intelligent too - a shining light."

Ove Abildgaard, Socialdemokraten, October 31 1953

"Villy Sørensen´s tales contain no preaching and have no ethical or religious message. Many readers will find them perplexing, some will call them obscure and crazy, even though they are clear and intelligent. They deal with the problems which occupy our thoughts at this time: the H-bomb, the individual versus the majority, propaganda and mass suggestion, the divided self etc., but there are no wagging fingers and there is no ´this is right, this is wrong´. What, then, does Villy Sørensen achieve with his ingenious pulling out of all the stops? To stand the problems on their head? To show them to us in a concave mirror? Well, no, not exactly, because if it occasionally seems so, it is just the ripples on the surface. But he reveals new, surprising perspectives by restoring the ironic question mark to its old Socratic rights and by playing on the serious keyboard with his right hand and on the joke keyboard with his left hand, but in such a way that it is not always possible to make out which notes come from the right and which from the left."

Carl Johan Elmquist, Politiken, October 26 1955

"Every rational person knows that power corrupts, even a little bit of power, and sometimes it is given to the very people with power and guardianship to make this observation, this painful self-awareness. The critic is overwhelmed by anxiety. The reader is overwhelmed by anxiety. The one who makes the decisions is overwhelmed by anxiety.
It is easy enough for the downtrodden to be frightened and wretched. To be at the mercy of good people is so bitter a humiliation that black marks are left on the brow for all to see. But for the guardian and the good tutor to see the mark of Judas - that is a far harder and far more burdensome matter.
Villy Sørensen has done it. His book does not prod and flog the times - however witty it might frequently be - it is an acknowledgement of an ambivalent and desperate position of strength. It is as if he approaches us with his power and knowledge and desperately cries for help (...)
Villy Sørensen starts his book in rather severe mode, with the most heavily-constructed of the stories. It is about the impossibility of truth, we have to live sighted even though we are blind. It is dreadful and, curiously, it is the most tormented of the stories in terms of style, it is more allegoric than realistic.
But as one reads on through the book, it becomes apparent that what has happened with Villy Sørensen is that intention and structure and thus the allegory have yielded ground to paradox of literary composition.
This is a spellbinding and awesome book, writing we cannot live without.
Speculation about Villy Sørensen can rest. His philosophical and psychological background must be what it will. Now it is only a question of whether or not his intensity will be just as warmly soul-stirring as Ole Sarvig´s and just as nourishingly direct as Peter Seeberg.
The answer is yes. Suddenly we are in the presence of a writer, that writer being Villy Sørensen."

Jens Kruse, Jyllands Posten, November 25 1964

"Villy Sørensen´s prose is air-borne, carried along by something as absurd as the dream of ´the big bang´. And the thing about dreams is that once you have them you will inevitably wake up again.
Another Metamorphosis and Other Fictions is a magnificent book, made to be read aloud at dinner parties where the game is usually a free-for-all, and an admirable introduction to an intensely fascinating body of work encompassing many more facets than I have touched on here, but which always concern humanity: ´...one does not always love the divine, but it is always divine to love´."

Jens Andersen, Kristeligt Dagblad, October 14 1986