‘Aliss at the Fire’ by Jon Fosse (2003) – 107 pages Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
They have recently published Jon Fosse’s 800-page, single-sentence, seven-part novel ‘Septology’. They have also recently republished Jon Fosse’s short novella from 2003, ‘Aliss at the Fire’. Lately I have read a lot of good things about this Norwegian fiction writer and playwright. So guess which book of his I decided to read.
In ‘Aliss at the Fire’ it is 2002, and wife Signe is sitting by the fire and looking out the window waiting for her husband Asle to return from his rowboat excursion in the fjords around their home. She has been waiting for over 22 years.
“she thought he was just staying out on the fjord for a long time, she thinks, that he’d still come back, but the hours went by, hour after hour, no she can’t bear to think about it, she thinks, because he’s really just gone, he’s never coming back,”
I am quoting only a partial sentence as the sentences in ‘Aliss at the Fire’ are very long with a multitude of short phrases. Despite being lengthy, the sentences are easy to follow and understand. The entire novella is Signe sitting by the fire, remembering, and for her as well as for us the thoughts in our minds don’t stop with a period but go on and on and on.
Waiting, waiting for Asle to return.
“she never fully understood him, not from the first time she met him, she thinks, and maybe that was why she felt so close to him”
Signe recalls that Asle’s great-uncle, also named Asle, met the same fate on the fjords and that this great-uncle’s father Kristoffer had nearly drowned in the fjords also but was saved by his mother Aliss. The family’s history in the fjords goes way back.
The writing in this short novella is vivid and dramatic, almost incantatory. I could easily visualize actors performing the roles of Signe and Asle, of Aliss and Kristoffer, etc. It did not surprise me to find out that Jon Fosse is one of the most produced living European playwrights. There is an Anton Chekhov-vibe, a Eugene O’Neill-vibe, a Tennessee Williams-vibe to Fosse’s evocative writing.
Someone would do well to translate the best of the plays of Jon Fosse into English so that they can be performed on stage in the United States.
Grade: A
Tony's Book World 
Posted by Lisa Hill on April 6, 2023 at 5:40 AM
You know, I like the sound of this, but *chuckle* I’m still in recovery after reading Septology!
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Posted by Anokatony on April 6, 2023 at 6:02 AM
Hi Lisa,
Congratulations to you. To read an 800 page novel like Septology and still keep a blog going is quite an accomplishment. Just from my reading of the novella ‘Aliss by the Fire’, I can tell that Jon Fosse would be an excellent playwright, and I guess his plays are put on all over Europe, Somehow they have not reached the United States yet.
The longest novel I have read since I began the blog is the 737 page ‘Daniel Deronda’ by George Eliot to which I devoted two articles. The most difficult read I’ve done since I began the blog is the 568 page ‘Life A Users Manual’ by Georges Perec to which I also devoted two articles.
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Posted by Lisa Hill on April 6, 2023 at 6:11 AM
Ah well, I read other things at the same time. Septology was on the dining table with my journal beside it, and I just read a bit of each day till it was done.
I have Life a User’s Manual on my TBR and I will get to it one day!
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Posted by Anokatony on April 6, 2023 at 6:22 AM
That’s one thing I don’t do, read multiple novels at the same time, although I often read two or more story collections at the same time, alternating stories.
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Posted by Lisa Hill on April 6, 2023 at 6:52 AM
I can’t sleep if I don’t read before bedtime, and big books requiring intense concentration are just too hard to read in bed.
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Posted by roughghosts on April 6, 2023 at 12:52 PM
I bought this book when I was dragging myself through the first volume of Septology. I am at a loss to understand what people find so engaging about his baggy, preachy magnum opus, but did think that with a limit of about 100 pages I might quite like Fosse. I haven’t read Alis yet though.
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Posted by Anokatony on April 6, 2023 at 4:11 PM
Hi roughghosts,
I do think the technique of Jon Fosse is quite valid. Our minds don’t stop thinking with a period but keep going from thought to thought to thought. He does use that technique to some extent in Aliss, and I still found his work easy to follow and enjoy. I’m still not ready to commit to Septology, but I would happily read a collection of his plays. There is a stage feel to ‘Aliss at the Fire’.
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Posted by roughghosts on April 6, 2023 at 11:18 PM
I don’t question his technique, but I found the narrator of Septology (The Other Name) unbearable. I was not willing to buy another two books to find out where he was going. Although it’s technically a single sentence, it does not read like one, but it is endlessly repetitive and weighed down by Fosse’s born again Catholicism. I suspect I am better to explore his pre-conversion work.
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Posted by Anokatony on April 6, 2023 at 11:32 PM
You are much more familiar with Jon Fosse than I am. To me he is an unknown quantity except for this novella. I do believe I’ll be not reading Septology for now.
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