Review: Free-form Rambling
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2014
First, the positives -- this is a fascinating slice of life to show how times changed in Sweden and the world from the 50's to the 00's, and how sweeping world events like the Cold War, HIV, and modernization/liberalization affected ordinary citizens.Unfortunately, the actual characters and micro events of the novel were very difficult -- a depressive, violent, hard drinker who passed along those traits to his two sons along with his resentment of one; women who for some reason find him or the sons attractive; and other sketches.It mainly centers on the two brothers and their best friends, a brother and sister as well. Some of the coincidences around their hidden connections that become revealed in major plot points are hard to believe, but it apparently is a very small town where the story takes place.Conflicting dream sequences and narration from a minor character only serve to make the jumps back and forth in time as loose and disorienting as the title suggests, and may be meant to hide a relatively lacking plot about uneven love, resentment, and jealousy.I was very surprised to find that the author is a doctor and pharmaceutical executive, because the elements to the scandal in which one brother is embroiled seems to be treated a bit naively.