Reviews about Ib Michael
|
On
Kilroy Kilroy
|
|
Two of the major figures of modern Danish literature - J.V.
Jensen and Tom Kristensen - showed how, in one´s own
generation, it is possible to rediscover the contemporary soul in
ancient China. Ib Michael, with at least as much artistic
dexterity, shows how this encounter works today. How
history creates new people, how it is possible to talk about a
soul in modern times.
|
|
Erik Svendsen , Politiken, August 11 1989
|
| |
|
On
The Vanilla Girl
|
|
The family has its skeleton in the cupboard and just under the
surface there is - maybe - a dead man lying in wait. But the
family also has adventure coursing through its veins and love in
its bones, and these dynamic powers are set free when the time
is right. Like here and now, so many years later, in this book
with its sweet aroma of vanilla.
Ib Michael has written an absolutely wonderful fantasy
reminiscence, loyal to the family bond, the childhood home and
his own mellow prose.
|
|
Henrik Wivel, Berlingske Tidende, October 15 1991
|
| |
|
On
The Midnight Soldier
|
|
It is effected by a disconcertingly accurate portrayal of
adolescence which, as a kind of inversion of the finale to Klaus
Rifbjerg´s classic Den kroniske uskyld (Chronic Innocence),
gives the narrator the opportunity to put his whole weight
behind the name which he had previously, in Vanillepigen
(The Vanilla Girl), pinned to his father: Willy!
It´s here, right here, that the hunt for the family´s hidden
treasure troves comes to an end. The naked truth can only be
found concealed in the completely personal traumas of
childhood and adolescence. And it has no voice, just silence.
But it also provides a beginning. A source for all of Ib
Michael´s books, and this one too. It is from this point that the
author can dispatch the novel´s twelve horsemen along the
escape route of the fantasy. Open up retrospective
perspectives and the family´s collective memory, and dream,
dream in Ib Michael´s unique voice and with his awe-inspiring
linguistic vitality. This is a fine book, moving in its substance,
entertaining in its particulars.
|
|
Henrik Wivel, Berlingske Tidende, April 2 1993
|
| |
|
On
Letter to the Moon
|
|
He waited until he was fifty to write these deeply personal and
yet tremendously all-embracing books. In Per Højholt´s
words, an author begins to "take from the top table" when he
visits the original scenes of his life and work, and such is the
case with this trilogy. The wise author waits, waits and waits
again before taking from the top table. When Ib Michael
finally did it, the result was a masterpiece. A water-born and
wonderful letter to the moon, written by Pierrot - who did not
utter a word until he could say what he wanted to say.
|
|
Bjørn Bredal, Politiken, October 1 1995
|
| |
|
On
Letter to the Moon
|
|
Achieved with a mature and sensitive breadth of perspective, in
which a personal reminiscence is connected to the
current-carrying fantasies of an epoch in such a way that the
two are vividly, persuasively narrated and entwined one with
the other, as is always the case with time and people. In this
novel Tørsleff´s vanilla girl is finally revealed to be a man, not
only to the reader who has known it all along, but also to the
narrator who has told the story whilst unaware of many things.
The realm of childhood is no more. As reality, but not as the
painful and craving basis for everything. This good book
included.
|
|
Henrik Wivel, Berlingske Tidende, October 1 1995
|
| |
|
|
