~ The Invoice, by Jonas Karlsson ~
An intensely Scandinavian book (in translation by Neil Smith) where the protagonist who is never named, is surprised one day to receive an invoice of 5,700,000 kroner. His life is much too small to ever have generated an invoice for such an absurd amount, and at first, he simply disregards it, thinking it is a mistake. But a month later, he is contacted again to be told of interest mounting on this debt, and after a lot of frustrated waiting on phonelines, he manages to get through to the collecting agency, to be told it is no mistake. Apparently, this is the charge on something called E.H., which is to do with Experiences in life, and Happiness, which must be paid for. The collecting agency is W.R.D. – World Resources Distribution – which apparently has a very sophisticated algorithm by which this E.H. score is calculated for each individual.
Our protagonist lives a simple quiet life, in an old-fashioned rented apartment where he has hardly any assets worth mentioning. Apart from a small inheritance which is dwindling, he earns only a meagre income at Jugge’s Flick, a video shop for enthusiasts, working part time a few days a week; indeed, film watching is one of his chief hobbies. He has a few friends, but no one particularly close to him. He had had a passionate love affair once, but has no girlfriend currently. His loving parents died naturally and his sister who lives elsewhere has children he is fond of. His is a simple life, very contented, with no extravagances, where he takes pleasure in little things like having an ice cream, and not doing a lot. However, because he is happy with so very little, and because he can derive good feelings even out of negative experiences, his E.H. score is exceptionally high.
He has never thought of himself as exceptional, so he is really surprised to be expected to pay so much more than almost anyone else. (He finds out his childhood friend, Roger, who is a tight-fisted misery, is only being charged 220,000 kroner; while the receptionist he speaks to in the collecting agency, admits she was only charged 700,000 kroner.) However, the receptionist of W.R.D., Maud, with whom he strikes up an exceptionally strong and sympathetic relationship, explains to him how the world works, from a Swedish perspective apparently:
“People are extremely unhappy. Most people feel really bad! They’re in pain, poor, sick, on medication, depressed, scared, worried about all sorts of things. They’re stressed and panicked, they feel guilty, suffer performance anxiety, have trouble sleeping, can’t concentrate, or they’re just bored, or constantly under pressure, or feel that they’re being treated badly. Deceived, unsuccessful, guilty, – anything and everything. At most, the majority of people experience a few years of relative happiness in their childhood. That’s often when they build up their [E.H.] score. After that, it’s pretty bleak.”p124
Apparently therefore, living pain free, debt free, worry free, happy with not much, is going to cost our protagonist!
When the protagonist goes into the W.R.D. offices just to check this is all bona fide, they spot an error in his paperwork, recalculate his score, and charge him 10,480,000 kroner. This novel is quite hilarious, and it would do it a disservice if the review contains spoilers, but there is no need to reveal the entire plotline because in truth, the point and charm of the novel is its unique world view.
It is a charming book, a very slim volume, more novella than novel, light hearted, earnest, endearing in its depiction of a community which is so honest, so polite, so carefully correct, so painfully scrupulous and law abiding, so apparently completely without subterfuge and attempt to cheat or deceive. A community that accepts that dues must be paid, accepts that life is usually painful, and all with such matter of factness.
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