Powderhouse (B) - Softcover

Bjørneboe, Jens

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1909408387 ISBN 13: 9781909408388

Publisher: Norvik Pr, 2017

Synopsis

Powderhouse is a novel which is set in an asylum for the criminally insane, where the narrator functions as a kind of porter, observing and commenting on the foibles of inmates and keepers alike. The patients are a motley collection, and their treatment is unorthodox to say the least; part of their treatment consists of composing and delivering a series of lectures on subjects dear to their hearts, such as the history of witchhunting and the most humane methods of execution. The doctors themselves have their own troubled history; and the narrator finds rich material amongst both for his study of the follies and evil of which mankind is capable. Yet he is not just a gloomy philosopher, but also a sensualist, and the novel is relieved by passages of lyrical beauty as he enjoys the velvety summer nights, the taste of black bread and white wine, and the gentle caresses of his lover.

This is the first English translation of this novel from 1969 by the controversial Norwegian author Jens Bjørneboe, a man whose irreverent provocations of the sacred cows of his society several times landed him in a court of law. Powderhouse forms the second volume of a trilogy dedicated to exploring "The history of bestiality," following Moment of Freedom (1966), though it stands on its own with a different setting and narrator from the other two.

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Norwegian

From Publishers Weekly

La Poudri re, or the Powderhouse, is an old munitions storehouse in Alsace that has been converted into a private mental hospital. Ivan/Jean/Jochanaan, narrator of this polemical novel (his name varies according to the nationality of the person speaking to him) is, apparently, employed at the hospital as a janitor, on hiatus from a more cosmopolitan world; he may also be a patient. The hospital is run by Doctor Lef vre, whose methods--he drops acid with Ivan, for instance--are unorthodox but plausible in the late 1960s. Lef vre's patients include a Russian diplomat's wife who howls like a wolf; an American general who is a racist and a psychotic killer; and a Belgian executioner, Lacroix. Another patient, a Hungarian mercenary, is found hanging from a tree on the grounds. Though at first it seems he has committed suicide, it later becomes clear that he was murdered, but the murderer's identity is never revealed. Instead of focusing on plot, Bjirneboe structures the book around three lectures. Ivan's lecture is a chapter from his work in progress, the History of Bestiality, which takes witch hunts as an example of the legitimization of atrocities in the modern era, identifying a strain of authoritarianism common to Luther, Calvin and Lenin. More interesting than Ivan's easy nihilism is Lacroix's speech, in which he describes the difficulty of executing humans painlessly. Even the guillotine, according to Lacroix, can't guarantee the immediate cessation of sentience. In the third lecture, Lefevre examines the nature of heresy. Ivan's dark worldview is lightened, just barely, by his affair with Christine, a nurse. Originally published in Norway in 1969, the novel, the second in a trilogy built loosely around the narrator, exudes the intermittently charming hippie disaffection of the '60s.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Norvik Pr
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1909408387
• ISBN 13: 9781909408388
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 208