E-Book Content
Jens Bjorneboe A sublime genius of a storyteller.' —Bucherei und Bildung
m mm
E
»$6.95
Moment of Freedom Jens Bj0rneboe ".
.
.
meal
this bitter last
.
.
.
prepared by
Swift and Kafka and the mystics of Evil,
but also powerfully by Bj^rneboe himself."
—
Der Spiegel, Hamburg "More important than all the novels I know from the last decade."
—Miinchener Abendzeitung
Such reactions from German
critics
to
profoundly disturbing novel are startling. Mr. Bj0rneboe is the pre-eminent Norwegian novelist of our time, and this novel is a devastating revelation of the this
German The valley,
of his
character.
narrator, a court clerk in an alpine sets life
—
out to write
down
the story
his perception of truth.
With
he describes bestialities and beauties, the world "full of stars and excrement," of freedom and what
the
vision
it is
and of unfreedom and why
a
of
painter,
it is.
And
he describes, too, the German cross to which he is nailed. He recognizes his love for things Germanic, despite his perception of the German character. Slowly he realizes that all his attempts to perceive order in life lead only to his acceptance of the chaos of
life.
moment
Thus
the narrator arrives at his
of truth, his realization of what
life and death for him and the between the two. He knows at last what he must accept from his past to free his present; to live uncoerced by power, unpersuaded by friends; to take
constitutes struggle
for himself the liberty of stating his critique in
order to
live in his
The power
own moment
of truth.
of this novel derives from
superb writing, narrative drive, philosophic humor, sensuality, and an apocalyptic view of mankind. It may be that rare event a work of literature.
insights,
—
ISBN 0-393-08719-0
Moment of Freedom
Novels in English by Jens Bj0rneboe THE LAST OF THESE WITHOUT A STITCH
Jens B]0rneboe
MOMENT OF FREEDOM The Heiligenberg Manuscript Translated from the Norwegian by
Esther Greenleaf Murer
W-W- Norton Company • Inc • New York
Copyright © 1975 by Jens Bj0rneboe. Originally published in Norwegian under the title Frihetens 0yeblikk © 1966 by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada by George J. McLeod Limited, Toronto. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bj0rneboe, Jens, 1920Moment of freedom. A novel. Translation of Frihetens 0yeblikk. I. Title. PZ4.B6258M03 [PT8950.B528] 839.8V374 ISBN O-393-08719-O
74-34032
This book was designed by Victoria Gomez. Typefaces used are Times Roman and Bauer Bodoni. Set by New England Typographic Service, Inc. Printing and binding were done by Haddon Craftsmen, Inc. 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 0
Doch in dir ist schon begonnen was die Sonnen übersteht
The Cities
One
uring the several years that I’ve now been a Servant of Justice, I haven’t been able to avoid acquiring a certain perspective on life. The varied and wandering existence which I’ve led, the age I have reached, the enormous number of different kinds of people I have met; in short: the countless impedimenta of experience which I’ve accumulated in the course of time— these have been sifted through and sorted out over the last few years during my daily attendance in the courtroom. I’ve always had an uncommon ability to ad