“But listen now, don’t look at the clock, you have to be awake, ‘cause I want to see you pale. My story is about blood. Not poetic blood with beauty in it. No. Ugly. Awful. Blood and slime and pus. Yes? You’re screwing up your forehead. I told you it wouldn’t be beautiful. Because it’s the truth what I’m about to say”.
With those words the nameless woman with the red suitcase begins her story. The woman is the main character in Torborg Nedraas’ breakthrough novel Nothing Grows by Moonlight. The poetic and enigmatic title of the book reflects the alluring quality of the merciless tale that is both somber and dark, yet also portrays female strength and bravery.
A man meets an unknown woman at the train station and invites her home; she’s carrying a small red suitcase. This is the night she tells her personal story to a man she just met. She reveals the story of her first relationship with an older man, multiple abortions and of the excruciating feeling of shame that so unforgivably will shred a woman to pieces. A story that begins in the spring, the spring she finished secondary school, and she is 15-years-old. It was the spring she fell in love with a married man, Johannes, a teacher at her school.
They’re intimate for the first time in the woods, followed by months where she hears nothing from him. And this is the way their relationship will continue to unfold. The relationship must be hidden for all it's worth. Johannes contacts her if- and when he feels like it, and she, on her end, becomes more and more desperate to meet him. When she is with him, she can forget about the other aspects of her life, her father struggling in the mines and her mother fighting her own demons at home. Their relationship exists only during the night hours, at dusk, in the moonlight, stolen moments of happiness that are shattered when reality strikes. During the day his feelings cools off, and she alternates between longing to see him and hoping to get over him. And then Johannes ends it, and the main character finds out that she’s pregnant. Having children outside of marriage, however, is not accepted. Her financial situation would not allow it, and nor would the people of her town. And while Johannes happily marries the daughter of one of the most respected men in town, the book's main character is left with the humiliation and slander of her judgmental surroundings.
The book is especially powerful because it blatantly describes a girl's naive love, and her situation of dependence on the male gender that allows men to exploit her and derive her of any sense of pride or dignity. It depicts a woman of immense strength and of her journey to come to terms with the constant conflicting female roles as objects of male lust and of purity and innocence. The book is not only about the narrator, but also about all the people she meets along her way. Once the narrator saw “ a girl, a whore, who was bending over to pick up some paper money. She didn’t want the money; she said she wanted to throw it in the face of the man who had tossed it after her. But she put it in her purse in a terrible hurry . . .she couldn’t afford to throw it in anybody’s face and couldn’t afford a little pride”. The book deals with a woman's situation and shame, but it is also about men in terrible working conditions, and with dark secrets; it’s about the outliers of society and the judgments that are thrust upon them with so little compassion.
It’s not hard to imagine that this book was controversial when it was first published in 1947. Yet, it is just as relevant today. The book deals with heavy topics such as feminism, harmful work conditions, abortion, infidelity and shame, topics that are partly taboo even today. The writings of Nedreaas are distinct in both form and content. Her poetic voice combined with her style of writing novels in the short story form has granted her a position as a prominent writer and has undoubtedly given her an unshakable place in Norwegian literary history.
Torborg Nedreaas was far from a traditional woman of her time. Her willingness to present and question the bias and injustice in society became one of the foremost characteristics of Nedreaas’ authorship. While she maintained that political literature was worthless without artistic ability, she famously proclaimed that there is no distinction between politics and art, and she used her own artistic gifts to convey her political views in a gripping and approachable manner. Nothing Grows by Moonlight is no exception; rather it may be one of her most perfect examples of the rule.
This story about a woman who is betrayed by her partner, and who, in the wake of this betrayal, feels like abortion is her only option is both ugly and awful; but most importantly it’s reality. “ It’s really a banal story. It’s just that it’s never been told. It’s the kind of thing that people carry around by themselves. The kind that poets never write about”. There is little hope and sunshine on the pages of this novel, this is as far from chick-lit you can get; however, what you are given is a window into real life and real people. Nedreaas is aiming a spotlight directly at the rock bottom of our society, at the shameful darkness; and she does it with such poetic nerve that even the most bothered reader can’t avert their eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment