There's just one sentence that describes the plot adequately (at least with my skills): the story involves around the death of an American girl called Eddie de Wire. The events and characters form a puzzle, where sometimes the pieces seem to fit together, but the picture isn't what it's supposed to be. This wasn't exactly a hard read, but concentration is still a key here. At first I didn't get a hold on anything, not the text, or the characters, or the plot, but then I just allowed to be led by a string and walked through a spiral following flashes of various things.

Fagerholm's style may not necessarily be for everyone, because the events constantly move forwards and backwards and upside down. Lovely images create an atmospheric mood, where Eddie's red coated spirit hovers. You feel like being underwater, from where you see only part of the events, and only in twisted shapes and colors. Clarity would not fit this story at all, and if you try to keep up to date with the time span, you will surely sink into a swamp (or a pond).

I finished the book quite fast, but I wasn't blown away though. In addition to not always getting a hold on the text, the length and the excessive repetition bothered me. Especially on the very first page I kind of sighed, because the prose seemed clunky and just overall the kind of prose I don't like that much. For the most part the language was beautiful in an unusual way (almost quirky) and dreamlike, but the book could have benefited from condensing to make the atmosphere last. Sometimes particular sentences seemed random and orphaned, like they didn't belong anywhere, the least in the place they were. However, Fagerholm's approach in handling the story and the lives of her characters was unusual and fresh enough to make me continue reading her books. I can't deny myself a good challenge.

Before writing this review, I did something I’ve never done before. I read other reviews of the book. Not because I wanted to get an idea of what to say in my review…but because this book left me so confused that I was hoping for some insight as to what happened. Even who I had been reading about, for that matter.

I’m not a reader who requires closure, or an ending all tied up with a pretty bow. Give me an unreliable narrator and I’m good. Most of the time. I love guessing, and not knowing EXACTLY what happened. But I have to have some idea that SOMETHING happened.

The other reviews that I read didn’t give me any big clues, but they did confirm something I suspected…that something was lost in the translation. Some of the confusion in the narrative and certainly some of the repetitive phrases (“so to speak”) must come from the translation that was done.

That said, “The American Girl” is not for the faint of heart. The character names, actions, realities are more than a bit ambiguous. Much of the work is left for the reader to do as s/he experiences life in “The District”. The author has a neat trick of turning the lens as well as turning the hands of the clock either backwards or forwards so that without breaking stride, the reader learns what another character felt or did in conjunction with an event. Which can be illuminating…or confusing.

I think this is a story about human emotion, at its core. There is a mystery surrounding the American girl that came to The District years ago…but that may be just the center point around which all the other characters lives pivot. It’s about the feelings involved in trying to find one’s way in the world, especially when one is emotionally damaged.
In growing up, in discovering sexuality and maintaining relationships with others.

“Because what did this mean now? Was this the step into adulthood? The moment when everything changed at once and became something else? The moment when the story about Doris and Sandra took another road? But in that case, then which one? Was it the road toward the definite and limited, which also had a name? That which was not so open to all possibilities like the winding road they were now on?”

There are some amazing insights into this book, complex thoughts summed up in such a simple way that they strike right to the heart of the matter. One is repeated throughout the book and stayed with me after finishing it:

“Belonged to the kind of hard things in the soul from which stories cannot be woven.”

I just wish I understood more about what happened in “The American Girl”. I know there are so many things I missed…and not for lack of description or detail. I can’t believe it’s all a function of the translation. And I know part of it must be me…but…

I don’t know what was truth in this book. I do think the author got so far into the characters minds to make us understand that there is no one truth, and that even to a person who experienced an event, there is no one version as to what happened. Too much is colored by what happened before…and as time passes, gets colored even further by what happens later. Too much is interpreted in different ways by who we are. And that, I suppose, is the message in this book.

“But there are also storytellers, a special kind of mythomaniac who can serve versions of, above all, their own life stories, stories completely unlike each other, all just as false. And yet not lie.”

ETA: This book sucked. There is such a thing as fiction that is too abstract. Here you go.

I am moving this book back to my to-read pile because I think I'd rather get a root canal than pick it up. Describing this as David Lynch meets Joyce Carol Oates is a disservice to both of those artists...and I am not a fan of JCO's fiction.

Vapid. Multiple times and perspectives. Finnish-swedish.

Story: Eddie deWire is the American Girl, who recorded a song at Coney Island in New York and later drowned in a marsh in Finland. Bengt saw it. Doris heard it. And Doris and Sandra became obsessed with her after her death.

Language: This is a very linguistically twisted book. The times change from past to present, from one character to the next over paragraphs. Yes, it all connects and wraps up at the end. If the reader has the patience to get through over 450 pages. Most of the dialogue is artificial drivel. Quotes from songs, abstract meaningless and lies, hurt and naivete. At least one of the characters is a drama filled diva, so anything she says must be read with skepticism. That's a lot of skepticism for a 500 page book.

Characters: Eddie is the american girl, who is not actually American. She drowns, others witness her drowning, do nothing about it, which creates a big mystery to others, especially two young teenage girls. This is not a traditional book with main characters and side characters, but more of a cast ensemble production. Relatives, friends, neighbors, most one dimensional and most disturbed.

If you like Donna tartt, you'll love this. I couldn't stand it and am so glad it's over. I only finished it because it's for a book club. Wheres my next read, please?

It looks like many people on goodreads didn't like this book- I absolutely LOVED it but only after I'd pushed through to about page 100. At that point, I was completely entranced- I love her writing style, it really spoke to me. Yes, it is very confusing in places, and the ending still leaves me with questions- I honestly don't know what actually happened.

The things others have pointed out- unique writing style, repetition, dark and moody- are the things I really loved.

That being said, what I love are words, not plots. This book is beautifully written.

Book club average: 3,7/5.

helt och fullkomligt strålande briljant