A New Name: Septology VI-VII (Septology, 3) Paperback – February 26, 2022

Septology has been an immersion into the mind of a humble mystic. There are very few books that I have read over my lifetime, that I can say improved me. This was one of those books. Throughout the seven day journey into the mind of the book’s narrator, a widowed painter named Asle, I found myself again and again awestruck by the balance Fosse strikes between what is unsayable and universal. The simplicity of language and repetitions created a hypnotic effect on my mind as I was carried into Asle’s reflections on the past and the present, on love and loss, on art and faith. It is a book that is both earthy and mystical, both lonely and communal. What makes the book work so well, is the way that Fosse, reflects and ponders the interconnectedness of things seen and unseen, spoken and unspoken, without ever being preachy or heavy-handed. The author achieves this through the self doubting and honesty of the narrators thoughts. It never once felt like there was an agenda, and yet, it has so much to say about the things that truly matter. I finished the last page and thought if I would be willing to enter the same kind of stillness Asle embodies, the same stillness Fosse seems to live and write from, and humbly accepted the mystery of it all, maybe just maybe, I too could find the pinpoints of Grace in it all.

I intend to reread Septology. It’s that good and that that mysterious- In a spiritual sense. In it the main character looks back on life. On suffering. On love. On art and life.I was unaware of this author, even though I read many novels in translation, until he won the Nobel Prize. I was so struck by what I read about him and this, his latest work, that I immediately downloaded the first two parts as e-books and ordered the third part in paperback (which arrived just as I finished the e-books).Though printed in 3 volumes, the work is divided into 7 parts, each one recounting a day only, constituting a whole week of consecutive days. There is a spiritual underpinning to the whole work and I suspect the one week of 7 days is meant to remind us of the 7 days of creation, the first chapter of Genesis.I recommend this so highly I intend to reread it soon.

The concluding statement of Septology never ceases to turn the dial on the metaphysics; streams of consciousness pile in rolls of theological speculation, as Asle recovers a sense of identity. While this is one of the more expressive representations of the sheer uncanniness of self-hood to emerge in prose, at times the work is burdened by its straining efforts to dwell in religious themes. The work shines in its illumination of the deep, ingrained movements of consciousness.

Magical. Men especially should like this book. It is on my book shelf next to Dag Solstad

This series won the Nobel prize so I decided to read all three books. Frankly, it was hard going--stream of consciousness stuff. Disjointed. Hard to decipher. But, I kept wanting to read it, and I am glad I did.

Great reading experience