Hot stuff

With high hopes I packed my suitcase, stuffing two books into it that I had half-completed by then. And to my great astonishment, courtesy of the sun that never failed us, I was able in less than three weeks to finish reading the first book and progress substantially into the narrative of the second.

THE BOOK THAT I FINISHED READING:

 "Barn av sin stad" (Children of their city) is a fictional story set in late 19'th century Stockholm, the Swedish capital. The second installment in a series of five books, it mainly covers the family story of the descendants of Henning and Lotten, a working-class couple struggling to make a living in the harsh environment of the rapidly expanding city. When the narrative of "Barn av sin stad" opens, Henning, the husband, is already deceased, having succumbed to the merciless burdens of manual harbour work.

The author of the book, Per-Anders Fogelström, himself a native of Stockholm, relays to the reader a grim picture of the human and natural environments into which children of the disenfranchised were born. Long befor the idea of worker's rights became embedded into the Swedish legal code, the occupants in various worker's quarters were left alone to wrestle with whatever deprivation or injustice that life would throw them. Alcoholism, domestic violence, rampant infant mortality, a volatile job market and the cruelty consisting in absolute indifference on the part of the haves towards the poor and struggling. These are just a few of the factors brought oppressingly to bear on the daily lives of people living in the substratums of society.

BLEAK CITY

Emelie, the eldest daughter of Henning and Lotten, is one of the chief characters in the story, a dutiful, hard-working and extremely loyal girl who already from a very early age has to contribute to the family economy through working extremely long hours in conditions that - judged by today's standards - would cause a national outrage. But back then, without the support of a trade union, workers toiled away for most of their waking hours without even considering protesting being exposed to toxic fumes or acids that would forever mar their skin or cause them to die early from various diseases.

Emelie's life is littered with tragedies and setbacks, the pinnacle of which is her mother's untimely death at age 40. An accident involving Lotten leaves Emelie with the responsibility of taking care of and raising her youngest brother, Olof, all alone. Our stalwart heroine doesn't stop there. Surrounded by suffering people, she consciously and compassionately invites strangers to share what cramped accomodation her money can provide. Sometimes, when joblessness hits them, they cannot even pay the rent for the wooden bench they spend their nights on.

Per-Anders Fogelström depicts Emelie, her brothers and family members, with the utmost respect and candour, never once being tempted to painting a romantic, distorting picture of the working class condition in which model workers uncompromisingly stand up for eachother, conducting their righteous struggle in a fervent spirit of brotherhood, equality and empathy. The characters that people Fogelströms narrative appear genuinely and convincingly human: some lethargically whiling away their days in restlessness and drunken stupour, some venting their frustration and anger through verbal and physical abuse of wives, children and fellow workers, and some directing their energy and sense of social injustice towards engaging in the embryonic labour unions.

A GLIMMER OF HOPE?

The¨narrative of the second book closes as Emelie, now in her thirties, having all but completed her commission given by her dying mother to take care of Olof, crosses the threshold into a new century that certainly bodes well for the younger generation looking for a much better life. But the spinster of 35, always having had to forgo personal satisfaction and romantic relationships, still cannot relinquish the burdens of responsibility that has dogged her every step. There is hope for a brighter day, but is there hope for her as well?

"Children of their city" tells a tale in which God just occasionally turns up, usually through a charity or other that provides the hungry with soup, a bar of soap and a scrap of hope through free lodging for a night. But each individual glimmer of compassion rapidly dies away as the haves reassert their relentless grip on power, punishing every perceived act of disobedience with crushing precision and determination. In a world of hierarchy, the Church sides solidly with the oppressors in their insistence on law and order at all costs. Throughout all of the books, the living, loving body of Christ remains absent, its aspirations and potential quashed by the lifeless societal structure into which the official Church fits so nauseatingly well.

"Children of their city" makes for a terrific read, challenging this believer to reconsider some of my priorities. At least, that is what I hope will be the outcome of spending time with the fictional characters of a Stockholm that may or may not have vanished.