Cross-country
Indreeide, Erling: Langrenn
In Cross-country Erling Indreeide thematise among other things the battle between longings, his own and those belong to other life. How and with what right do you defend one longing from the other? An he lets this conclude in a discussion of defence politics and a brilliant interpretation of NATO’s “out of area”- doctrine.
Cross-country covers widely and shows signs of and author who with humour and great sincerity connect abstract knowledge and specific experience in new and surprising ways. Erling Indreeide has created a crossbreed of genres, an essayistic collection of poetry with epic-narrative and philosophising levels, a collection about politics and love, which also contains homage to cross-country skiing.
Click here for English sample translation.
Praise for Cross-country:
”Political collection of poetry with a skier’s sense of long lines and crossing tracks. Cross-country moves itself outside both the poem, the body and the limitations of the “I”. Resiliently and well done”
(Klassekampen)
”Linguistic groundbreaking. Convincing combination of clear reasoning and poetic strength. Erling Indreeide has in Cross-country developed an essayistic lyrical format which at first sight may seem linguistically compact, but which works very well when you get into the train of thought and the rhythm… Indreeide displays a critical and exemplary exercise in precise use of terms and discursive explanations”
(Bergens Tidende)
”While Indreeide’s last book was a piece of poetic essayism, he is now back with a collection of essayistic poetry…- Indreeide’s new book is a complex, personally pondered, poetic reflection on today’s Norway… Indreeide treats all the small and big battles, wars and legal disputes as a struggle between longings. Partly I perceive it as a poetication, partly it makes the book appear just as philosophical as strictly political. Indreeide is clearly socially critical, but in a cunning, good-natured ironic matter"
(Aftenposten)
First published: 2006, Forlaget Oktober
Erling Indreeide: Biography and bibliography
