Utterly riveting, Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) is the grand opening of her speculative fiction septology, winner of the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize (Scandinavia's most important literary award) for being "a masterpiece of its time."
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Utterly riveting, Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) is the grand opening of her speculative fiction septology, winner of the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize (Scandinavia's most important literary award) for being "a masterpiece of its time."
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Time has been a mystery over the ages for scientists, philosophers, poets, theologians -- for almost everyone. And time is at the heart of this book, "On the Calculation of Volume I" by the Danish novelist Solvej Balle (b. 1956) in the English translation by Barbara Haveland. The novel, shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, is the first of a seven-volume series.
This is a short, difficult book narrated by the primary character, Tara Selter, who lives in rural France with her companion, Thomas. Tara and Tom are in the business of selling antiquarian books. It appears, as the story begins, that their relationship has begun to fray and that they both, Tara in particular are unhappy and restless. Tara is in Paris to purchase some prized antiquarian books for resale. She travels on November 17 and is in Paris on November 18. And that day in Paris gives the story its impetus. Tara's life does not proceed in linear time, through November 19, November 20, etc. Rather her life becomes stuck on November 18. She lives that day over and over and over again. She keeps a journal reflecting on her experiences. And life on November 18 becomes the focus on the book.
The story begins with Tara's reflections on November 18 day #121 and Tara gradually works the reader back to the beginning. It concludes on November 18 day #366 in a year which, Tara observes, was not a leap year. Tara meditates on her plight. Often she is alone and isolated and speaks and writes to herself. For portions of the book, she shares her situation with Tom who tries to sympathize but also is living and functioning in standard linear time. The couple become increasingly alientated and Tara has further reflections and activities alone.
Tara has wide-ranging thoughts on her situation. Her thoughts, some of which she shares with Tom, include sophisticated philosophical or scientific reflection on the nature of time including reflections on what are sometimes called possible worlds. She reflects a great deal on loneliness and on the human place in the world. Her reflections become tied to nature as she thinks of the breadth and majesty of the sky and the cosmos as compared to the smallness of human life. She buys a telescope to assist her meditations. Then too, her relections are minute and particular. She reflects on what she sees day after day on November 18 in the streets of Paris and at her home. She reflects on her hair and on a burn on her hand. These reflections are given in minutest detail. She reflects on her surroundings and on her relationship to Tom. Often the details are particularized, with several instances of both Tom and herself urinating. She describes her surroundings and she describes herself describing her surroundings. She thinks incessantly about the strange situation in which she finds herself and about what she might do about it. There are moments of beautiful writing and of insightful reflection in the course of the novel.
The book didn't succeed. Perhaps it was the timing, so to speak, as at the moment I was not looking for a book of this nature. But with some of its interesting themes, the novel was slow and dull. The book was solipsistic in tone. I didn't find Tara especially convincing and didn't feel the need to get to know her better. The long philosophical meditations on time and its nature did not tie in for me with the peculiar events of the story which is more about loneliness and lack of connection than about the mysteries of time. I could not visualize reading six further volumes of this. I struggled with the book, given the praise it has received and some of its themes, but concluded that it was not for me.
