Den mirakulose mandarinen

Framlingskap utan granser
For ett decennium sedan fick den turkiska forfattaren Asli Erdogan sitt genombrott i hemlandet med romanen ”Staden med den roda kappan”, och sedan dess har hon kommit att betraktas som en av de tongivande rostema i sin generation. Berattelsen ar forlagd till Rio de Janeiro — en av de stader utanfor Turkiet dar forfattaren sjalv har varit bosatt — och exilens ensamhet ar central.

Nar Erdogan nu introduceras pa svenska med den nagot tidigare boken ”Den mirakulose mandarinen”, kanns mycket igen: det febriga ffamlingskapet tidvis varvat med minnesbilder ffan hemstaden Istanbul, det aterkommande dodsmedvetandet och irrandet i karlekens labyrinter.

Ocksa har moter vi en skrivande turkisk kvinna som bor utomlands, den har gangen i Geneve. Hon har forlorat bade sin pojkvan och sitt ena oga och flackar runt pa de nattliga gatoma i ett alltmer desperat sokande efter en utvag. Inte heller den kvinnliga litterara figur som hon har uppfunnit som

I den andra delen berattar en man som befinner sig i samma schweiziska stad sin historia, som ocksa den borjar i Istanbul och tecknar en karlek som slutar med att kvinnan drabbas av en sjukdom och dor. De bada berattelsema fogas inte till varandra pa nagot sjalvklart satt, men forlustema de rymmer korresponderar anda pa ett djupare plan, som tva fartyg som lagger sig bredvid varandra i

Ibland later Erdogan kulturella stereotyper slippa igenom — mexikaner med stora mustascher och brasilianare som tycker om att dansa eller forenklade beskrivningar av den europeiska kulturen. Betydligt skarpare tecknas det komplicerade forhallandet till det turkiska, som rymmer bade tillgivenhet och Iran kritik. Aven om det overgripande dramat inte kan skiljas ffan det personliga ar det inte framfor allt i den samhalleliga dimensionen som Erdogans styrka ligger, utan i den genomborrande blicken pa den enskildes dilemma. Dessutom ar det inte i forsta hand den geografiska exilen som plagar dessa karaktarer, de ar utlanningar i sjalva verkligheten: ”Mitt helvete hade varken med mitt fosterland eller med platsen dar jag vistades just nu att gora.”

Flera ganger under lasningen kommer jag att tanka pa Guy de Maupassants no veil ”Natten” dar huvudpersonen vandrar runt omgiven av nastan psykotiskt skarpa detaljer, som aven den slutar pa en bro. I sitt efterord gor Ulf Peter Hallberg ocksa en traffande koppling till Camus ”Fallet”.

Darmed har det antytts hur hart spanda de strangar som Erdogan spelar pa ar.

Det som imponerar mest ar fixeringen vid tillvarons riskabla nollpunkter. Karleken blir dar lika mycket smarta som lindring, vilket ocksa kommer till uttryck i den kinesiska legend som titeln

Sa vitt jag vet ar Asli Erdogan den forsta turkiska forfattare i generationema efter Orhan Pamuk som har oversatts till svenska. Det ar en valkommen introduktion, och man far hoppas att fler kan folja i hennes spar. Men framfor allt ar detta en forfattare som gar sin egen vag — vid sidan av trendemas och konjunkturemas snitslade banor — med en intensiv rost som svingar sig over

”It is a beautiful novel, with an uncompromising melancholy, as well in its attitude as in its language, which balances at the edge of some kind of elegant post—expressionism.”

— Dagens Nyheter 2009—01—07 (The largest daily newspaper)

”The world described is in loss of compassion, an existential martyrum which increases by the beautiful language, clear as glass.”
Svenska Dagbladet 2008—12—11 (The third largest daily newspaper)

”Erdogans language glitters clearly, lyrical and condensed, full of wonderful bittersweet sentences. It is a pearl with dark lustre. I hope many readers will discover it.”

— Norrkopings Tidningar 2008—10—18 (Regional daily newspaper. The critic had your novel on her best books of the year list. )

”With her sharp reflection Erdogan unveil here several senses of being ”half1 — as a woman, immigrant, Muslim and so on. And the underlying criticism of the novel against the view of ”the other” has only gained in importance during the years that have past since writing the novel. This account has, just all relevant contemporary literature, a range which reach far beyond its purpose.”

— Tidningen Kulturen 2008—10—21 (web—based Culture Journal)

”The destiny of the mandarin is certainly a bittersweet image of love, but more than that it points at the structure of the text itself: layer on layer it lies, unpaved, summary, vulnerable but complete. Strong images are weaved together with an everydayness to yet again butt toward a heavy symbolic.”

”In the second part of the novel some of the motives return — reminding of David Lynches Mulholland Drive the story turns itself around its own axle — and the interspersion is intricate.”

Aftonbladet 2008—12—08 (The largest evening newspaper)
”Sometimes Erdogan lets cultural stereotypes slip through — Mexicans with big beards and Brazilians who to dance or simplified portrayals of the European culture. Considerably sharper the complicated relation to the Turkish is sketched, which holds both devotion and biting sharp criticism. Even if the comprehensive drama cannot be separated from the personal it is not foremost in the social dimension the strength of Erdogan lies but in the piercing gaze on the dilemma of the individual. Besides it is not mainly the geographical exile that torments these characters, they are foreigners in the reality itself.”
”Most impressive is the fixation to the risky ground zero of existence love becomes as much pain as relief, which is also expressed in the Chinese legend that the title alludes to, the wound of the human being is opened in contact with the other.”
”Foremost this is an author who walks her own way — at the side of the blazed ways of trends and business cycles — with an intensive voice that swings over the national
Sydsvenskan, 2009—01—10 (The leading daily newspaper in Skane and the Oresund

”Asli Erdogan. Remember that name. The Turkish author Erdogan has enough literary gunpowder in her slender body to tremble a whole world.”

”Reading Erdogan is enter a landscape which consists of quicksand covered with a thin layer of soil. One takes a step out on the thin layer, which is the frame of the story, but soon one notice to be sucked in to totally different deeps with an unmistakable autobiographical bottom — the exile, love, violence, alienation, the ravaged landscape of childhood in Istanbul and the loneliness are some of the existential emotional experiences which form relief on the dream scenes of wandering in the night of Geneve.”

”The quality which carries her texts to literary heights is the dense and intensively vibrant poetic language.”

”The subtle lyrical breath in the prose of Erdogan serves a scalpel, which almost unnoticed cut the surface of reality exposing totally different, unforeseen dimensions.”
Helsingborgs dagblad, 2008—11—24 (daily newspaper)