Coined as a ‘genre defying novel’,
See You Tomorrow by Tore Renberg fulfils
its undefinable reputation. Don’t be intimidated by the thickness of the book,
it is 600 pages of intense emotion and excitement. Written through the eyes of
different characters in each chapter, the novel manages to maintain pace and a
page-turning aspect the whole way through – something I was surprised about for
such a long book. Starting with Pal, a father of two who needs help with his
desperate, inescapable secret, the story linking each first-person character
gradually unfolds. I found the staggered character introduction very motivating
throughout as each time we met someone knew I hoped they would reappear in the
next chapter as the protagonist speaker – usually they did.
The constant switching of
perspective seems in theory potentially overly complex and confusing. In
reality, however, it totally worked and really showed off Tore Renberg’s talent
as such a diverse writer. Each character had their own distinctive voice, to
the point where you could recognise who was speaking without the chapter title
specification. Obviously, I had my own favourites and less favoured characters –
I loved Cecile’s personal story and learning her tragic history. And that
really is the beauty of the book: whilst there is the main plot line running
through each chapter, every character also has their own personal story slowly
developing throughout their own chapters. So even if you don’t love the particular
character of a certain chapter, the plot will keep you reading through, and as
the characters reveal more about themselves, so too does the overarching story
become ever clearer.
Something that I wasn’t expecting
to be so noticeable in the novel was the description of and preoccupation with
the Norwegian landscape. The partners in crime, Rudi and Jan Inge, who provide
much of the psychological thrill, are paired by their obsessive personalities:
Jani for running an orderly business and horror films, Rudi for his girlfriend
Cecile and his grandmother. Rudi’s monologues are saturated with memories of
the landscape of his childhood, truly immersing the reader in the world of the
characters and the culture in which they have been created. Renberg has
previously been quoted as suggesting there is not much difference between
Norwegian and UK culture. Whilst I agree that I was able to relate to and
recognise a lot of the focal issues which the novel is preoccupied with, small
touches which reveal the unique setting of the novel really brought it to life
for me – to the point where I was visually dreaming about it!
As I said before, the transition
from perspective to perspective was consistently flawless, each character was
so well developed and recognisable – I believe this was certainly in part due
to the realism of the language Renberg writes in. As a translated text, credit
is of course due to the translator, Sean Kinsella – it is thanks to both him
and Renberg that the dialogue and streams of consciousness were so natural and
realistic, and therefore believable. This no-frills no-fuss approach made way
for a totally raw and unadulterated depiction of each character. Whilst there
is a fair amount of swearing and crude language, it never came across as
crudity for the sake of crudity as it so often can in novels. Instead, it just
became another integral part of the text as a way for us to further get to know
the characters and their minds. As well as sex and swearing, the novel deals
with some pretty heavy violence, both mentally and physically. I loved that
Renberg neither hammed the violence up too much nor shied away from portraying
it as brutally as it may be. This fact also led to the darkly comic aspect of
the book – just as life has its horrific scenes, there is often a comical edge
to everything we do, Renberg beautifully explores this fact simply through
maintaining a strong sense of realism throughout.
See You Tomorrow is wonderfully intricate and multi-faceted in both
its character development and plot development. I won’t lie, it’s not a
question-answering novel, it is most definitely a question-asking novel. The
beauty of it is explained in the title: purely focusing on a condensed period
of three days, we only see what happens in those days and are left hopelessly
(and frantically!) guessing what happens next, as well as what happened before.
Frustrating it may be, but I dare you not to fully invest yourself in each
character and find yourself caring about even the seemingly most despicable
ones.
Read it now! Buy it here
