The greatness of Jon Fosse's rural and meditative literature

Come on, the new novel by Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature, immerses the reader in an atmosphere of introspection and silence, thanks to the writer's skill in constructing a universe where time seems to stand still and each moment dissolves into a spiral of emotions, both sordid and delicate. With this contemplative essence, the novel insists that life is a constant back and forth between presence and absence, between love and betrayal, and that, ultimately, everyone seeks a space where they can be accepted as they are, without masks or disguises.

The plot of Vaim—the first part of a trilogy—revolves around a character who searches for the meaning of life through their relationship with others. The dialogues, scarce and precise, without a script, stand out for their sincerity and the symbolic weight they exude. Fosse, with his skill in capturing fleeting moments, offers an exploration of the feeling of loss and the relentless search for connection. The world he creates is a reflection of human concerns, a window into relationships, where every interaction is a reminder of the fragility that defines us. As we read on, Come on It becomes a prose poem, a dance between being and non-being across a space that, like time, is a relative dimension.

To create an optimal atmosphere for meditation on the human condition, Fosse chooses a rural setting—a line of thought that has a tradition inaugurated by Horace and that has been followed by narrative beasts such as Thoreau, Wordsworth, and Knut Hamsun, among others—which, in addition to less noise, has much more noise; a man who lives in a fishing village with an invented name (Vaim), and who must travel to the neighboring island to buy thread and a needle, where he will meet Eline (his lifelong secret love and the name of his fishing boat). It will be she who, recently separated from Frank, a fisherman from Sund, will propose that they return together to Vaim. The love triangle is set. Jon Fosse not only reflects on the ramifications of human love, but adds, with sublime literary power, his love for the sea, boats, and the Norwegian landscape. Only in microscopic and distant territories can Fosse fully explore memory and vulnerability, allowing the chosen space to shed its role as terrain and become an interior and mystical experience not without anguish, doubt, and pain.

One of the many great things about Come on It's the triple narrative point of view. Each of the narrators recalls a situation related to the other two, and, consecutively, the sum of the narratives are connected by a common point: Vaim. It's curious that Eline never narrates her version of the events: she is the muse (and the wooden boat). Jatgeir does, in the first part; Elias, a neighbor of Jajeir who observes everything with perplexity, in the second part; and Frank, the woman's husband, in the third. Fosse portrays the men in this book as apathetic, lazy, passive, confused, withdrawn individuals, victims of uncertainty. In contrast, he empowers the woman, making her strong and determined, with a clear awareness of having two men by the balls.