Reviews

• “A beautiful and an intense portrayal of love.”

• “[Jonas Gardell] is one of our country’s most important authors; the way in which [he] tells a story is wonderful and necessary. What I feel for [his] book is nothing more and nothing less than unconditional love.”

• “A fantastic portrayal of a kooky mother. /…/ It’s terribly funny. /…/ Gardell has a wonderful ability to extract the humor in a situation without for a moment forgetting – or hiding – the darkness that the laughter tries to hide.”

• “This is a rich, careening chronicle full of philosophical slapstick. /…/ And behind the playfulness there’s the profound gravity, the unconditional love. The portrait of a human being on her way into dementia is fantastic. Dementia doesn’t come without the comedy of the absurd, but incredibly skillfully, Jonas Gardell lets his mother keep – or rather returns to her – the freedom that she was perhaps deprived of in everyday life. Who knows? I probably have to read the novel again, because when there’s tears in your eyes the text turns a bit blurry, and the reader’s own thoughts will interfere, as they do in really good books.”

• “Jonas Gardell is a magnificent storyteller who’s not afraid to be drastically clear, or even preach to the reader. His new novel In Memory of an Unconditional Love is a family chronicle, a childhood depiction and a portrait of a mother that grows into a picture of society. /…/ Jonas Gardell has during the decades that have passed since his fictional death grown from an irresistibly unique comedian […] into a three-time honorary doctor – in theology, medicine, and philosophy. /…/ An honorary doctorate in history would be appropriate as well, for his eye-opening, credible stories about modern Swedish society. And still Jonas Gardell remains most of all a true romantic writer, in the traditional sense – one who handles his engaging and deeply personal voice ever more skillfully with each novel.”

• “It’s deafening, heart-breaking. At times, In Memory of an Unconditional Love hurts so much that I can hardly bear it. Yet at the same time, I’ll be laughing aloud in the same breath. /…/ While I read, I think about how such a painful book as this can also be so full of comfort, and gradually come to the conclusion that it’s the prose itself that consoles.”

• “When it heats up, it truly burns, and [Gardell] has something important to say about how humanity imposes guilt, its denial and suppression, its despise for weakness and how family life snares women into a nearly unbreakable female trap.”

• “What does it mean to write like Jonas Gardell? He has a wondrous ability to make people feel, sympathize, and does so without resorting to any of the simple tricks from the writer’s toolbox.”

• “A moving homage to [a] mother. /…/ It’s both educative and entertaining, and bears witness of an author with solid experience and enough self-confidence to experiment with devices.”

• “[In Memory of an Unconditional Love] is both vivid and humorous. You breathe and love the novel. And most of all, you love her, who gave her son an unconditional love that he too – even when he depicts her least flattering sides – never tries to hide that he feels as well. /…/ The portrayal of the years when she slides into dementia […] is among the most beautiful and loving things I have read in a long time.”

• “Heart-rending. /…/ On the mark. /…/ A warm and melancholic novel.”

• “A whopper of a novel full of tenderness.”

• “Excellent […] this novel will captivate and inflame the many fans of this author.”

• “Jonas Gardell writes beautifully and sensitively. /…/ Not only is Gardell a storyteller extraordinaire, he has also mastered the nuances of language and knows how to employ his own identity in the service of fiction.”

• “A terrific book.”