Nathan again
Kategori: Jaget
Hi, it's Elin again, the 25 year old Swedish girl who wrote you a (digital) letter essentially saying that she did not want to get to know you. I realize now that that must have been an odd letter to receive, there is no way to answer it for starters, but I'm still glad I sent it, if nothing else as a reference point of sorts for myself.
So I finished your book today. Sorry it took so long. And much like Matt I wanted this follow up letter to be perfect, to capture what I thought and felt over the months since I first made a brief acquaintance with Simon in September and lived with this story somewhere in the back of my mind until those last couple of days when I picked it up again, right up til this morning when I finally understood what the shock of the fall actually was. It is a great title by the way. But then I realized that if the letter has to be perfect I will never send it. And I really want to send it, because I loved this book so much, and I think you should know that.
I'm trying to pin down what it is that makes it special, but it is not so much a specific thing as it is the whole of it. I love the cover, I love the graphic design with the fonts and illustrations, which not only supports the narrative but makes it urgent, I love the ease and beauty of the language, I love the small details, like how they propped open the fire door at the memorial despite the man telling them not to because they had had problems with that before, and I love how the seriously depressing subject matter was so engaging. My English isn't up to digging into the technical aspects, but I recognize the brilliance of your narrative structure, the pacing and references, the parallel themes and layers of chronology, but I am most impressed with the balance you struck. While moving through time the suspense of the storytelling neither gave in to the sensational or the overly sentimental, and that is no small feat. I think the bottom line is this immense respect for the story and it's characters that shine through it all. (Which is not to say that other writers do not respect their stories or the people in them, but I felt it so clearly in this book.)
But more than all of that, more than anything, I really like Matt. I truly do. And I realize that you probably do too, for mostly the same reasons, so I will keep it short, but he is such a kind person. That resonated with me. The first sentence, that he is not a nice person, is wrong, he is wrong about himself and it breaks my heart but in a way he is right too. Because when he describes his snake-like illness that knows everything he does, he says this "Worse than all of that is how I have become selfish." It's a prefect sentence, a beautiful contradiction and I think it both sums him up so well and hints at who he would have been had he not gotten ill. God I like him.
Which is why it really threw me when he pointed out that the names aren't real. Of course they aren't. Matt is so vivid to me that when I read that I realized that I should have known, he wouldn't do that to the people in his life, but I didn't and I felt foolish, and kind of like apologizing to him for missing something so obvious. I don't even think it was hard for him changing the names, calling himself by this other name as he told the story of who he was, but I do think it was difficult for him changing Simon's. (I just realize now that I'm writing this that it all makes perfect sense. The girl was not called Annabelle, because that is too good of a name. You didn't give her that, Matt did. Or, well, ”Matt” did. That is wonderful.)
Which brings me here, today I actually have questions.
1.Do you have other names for the characters? As an author, did you decide the original names and then what "Matt" changed them into based on what they were?
2.Do you think Jacob is doing OK?
Before writing this I saw an interview with you, so I know what you sound like now. You have more of an accent than I expected. And I think I made the right call before, I didn't want to know that while I was reading, but I can get to know you now. It would make me happy if you took the time to answer my questions, but I won't mind if you don't. It would be great to know that you got this though. Frankly, I'm a bit suspicious of the whole setup.
Finally, I just want to tell you that your book is excellent for reading out loud. I've already read the first chapter to a friend, and I hope to one day meet someone who I can read the whole thing to. That person will be a keeper.
Again, thank you for this book. I wish you the best of luck.
/Elin
