naive. super

Naive. Super is a book by Erland Loe which I have just finished approximately 30 seconds ago.

I really would not know how to describe this novel. I have found myself talking about it copiously with my friends- telling little snippets and ideas, (of which there are many) but as a 'good read' it really is quite dry and bland and a little like hearing the inner monologue of a man close to depression.
It is a Norwegien book and weirdly, having been to Norway last year, I feel that fact on its own explains alot about this book. the clarity, the straightforwardness and the linear feeling of the narrative... I'm not sure how this correlates with the country of Norway.. but I find it is also very straightforward and simple and beautiful. Like the ideas contained within this novel.

The narrator is completely endearing. He has a wonderful way of saying things when he thinks them and wants to share his thoughts with other people. He moves to his brothers apartment, meets a boy, faxes his friend, reads a book on space and time, buys a ball, a hammer and nail toy, rides his bike and visits New York. Being perilously close to turning 25 myself (which was the pinnicle of the narrators leaving university and losing his sense of being) I felt as though this book brought something extra in to my life. I suddenly wanted to go and buy a ball, to bounce it against a wall and stop thinking about direction/meaning/purpose/time...
But instead, as the narrator does in the book, I decided to write a list of things that made me happy and a list of things that made me happy as a child. I love that lists were so prevalent in this book. I feel as though lists are extremely prevalent in my own every day life. my bedroom floor is littered with them, my desk at work is covered with tiny post it lists, every notebook i own has repeated lists between their covers. I cant imagine a life without lists.

things that made me happy when i was young:

my friends
sleeping
cycling
my lego pirate ship
marbles
miniture things
giving inanimate objects personalities
long grass
climbing trees
my piano
scary stories
horses
my school of stuffed toys
playing my recorder
cycling shorts
tie dye
reading books
writing stories
maths
drawing
colouring in
swimming in the sea
my dogs and cats
bare feet
bonfires
snow
sunshine
tom and jerry
pineapple
dancing

things that make me happy now:

my friends
my boyfriend
swimming in the sea
climbing ropes
trapeze
cycling
learning
scarves
reading books
music
seeing foxes in the city
making strangers smile
mountains
new places
sunshine
drawing
bare feet
fires
letters
snow
pineapple
dancing
big windows
woolly jumpers
art
tents
hot cross buns
really long emails/letters about important things
hugs hello and goodbye
laughing out loud
Bristol

I have also discovered that for me- it is not bouncing a ball that makes me happy, it is climbing onto trapezes and ropes to swing around in the air.
loveliness.