In Blood Brothers, the debut novel by the Norwegian author Ingvar Ambjørnsen, two scared middle-aged boys live together in a council flat in Oslo. You can probably guess that both of them face serious issues but are ready to give their best, just not now if possible. They are no longer part of a social institution and now are blood brothers. The happening is due to a broken bottle of elderflower syrup and the boys are afraid. They fear to leave the house or pick up the phone, for instance. A bittersweet story of faltering friendships, steaks with butter and cream sauce, and sauerkraut poetry.
The two are now out of the Breines clinic for the mentally ill because of their inability to accept reality. Thirty-five-year old Elling cannot overcome the death of his mother, whose care for her son is perhaps more than necessary. While the slightly older Kjell Bjarne just wants to kill his parents without explaining why.
Elling is intelligent but suffers from social anxiety disorder. But now he is determined to expand his social contacts and get in touch with the reality he so long avoids. For him things are either black or white; there is no in-between. He likes the rules and is terrified even from the thought of breaking them. But what he wants the most is to beat social worker Frank to it.Kjell Bjarne, on the other hand, is quiet, simple-minded, addicted to phone sex and food. He does not believe in the necessity of personal hygiene and changing underwear. Now they are out in the real world and have to learn to take care of themselves, albeit under the guidance of Frank who visits them every two weeks. For both, life is frightening but tolerable in acceptably small portions. The rude Kjell Bjarne takes over the cooking while the bright Elling manages their small retirement incomes. Well, at first, mistakes are made. For instance, when they barely have money due to the erotic phone calls. Gradually, though, a routine is made in which they both feel almost comfortable. The only problem is Frank’s attempts to socialize them by dragging them to pizza places and restaurants!
Ingvar Ambjørnsen shows us the world through the eyes of Elling – a Norwegian version of Forest Gump, with a deviation from the autism spectrum, who is literally afraid of everything. Many novels, concerned with the issue of the modern human mental health, depict the plunge into the abyss. This one is different. The author clearly has sympathy for the slightly crazy couple…. fine, pretty crazy couple… which does not stop the occurrence of friendly banter that openly speaks about their issues, which are far from being one or two. Meanwhile, the two main characters really try, each to his abilities, and often succeed in finding the way to the human race, becoming almost normal. Not without the help of a few understanding friends, of course. Like the naïve but endlessly jovial hospital cleaner Reidun Nordsletten, whose appearance seems to enliven the two loners and bring them out of the security of their deliberate isolation. Or the strange old man Alfons Jørgensen - an impressively erudite man in the sphere of contemporary Norwegian poetry. They seem to be the first people who do not judge the issues of Elling and Kjell Bjarne but find them rather tolerable and even normal. Maybe because they themselves struggle with their own.
While Kjell Bjarne learns to change his underwear because of the tentative relationship he begins with Reidun Nordsletten, pregnant with a child of some Spaniard, an unknown underground poet appears on the streets of Oslo. The sauerkraut poet, whose poems begin to live among the sauerkraut boxes in the stores, on the toilet doors in pizza places, bars and restaurants, on the handrails and other unexpected things. They flash like bullets, fired at the loneliness and hopelessness of life. They get stuck like glistening crystals of wisdom right in the eye of the lucky one who sees them first.
Blood Brothers is a hopeful story about how even the most seemingly damaged human beings can improve themselves, face their fears and become winners in their daily battles. Like going to a poetry reading in a bar full of strangers. Or helping an unconscious pregnant woman. Or simply going to a restaurant without being accompanied and even starting a conversation with a stranger in the toilet. A novel about the invisible and their struggle to fit in, the small steps toward reality, the different aspects of bravery, the friendship and the moment you realize you want to adopt a cat or two. To leave the comfort of your own cocoon in order to challenge the life itself by simply eating a stake in your favourite restaurant Larsen’s, in which you go for the first time.
The novel Blood Brothers enjoys a film adaptation Elling. It is nominated for Oscar for Best Foreign Film and is one of the most famous films in the history of Norwegian cinema.
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Translation: Elisaveta Asparuhova