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See You Tomorrow (2013)

by Tore Renberg

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686385,699 (3.59)None
Pal has a shameful secret that has dragged him into huge debt, and he is desperate that his teenage daughters and ex-wife don't find out. Sixteen-year-old Sandra also has a secret. She's in love with the delinquent Daniel William, a love so strong and pure that nothing can get in its way. Cecilie has the biggest secret of them all, a baby growing inside her. But she's trapped in her small-time, criminal existence, and dreams of an escape from it all. Over three fateful September days, these lives cross in a whirlwind of brutality, laughter, tragedy, and love that will change them forever. A fast-paced, moving, and darkly funny page-turner. "A dense literary novel that moves like a thriller. . . Renberg gives us a novel, rooted in noir softened by comedy, that gets to the serious business of how our shortcomings are all linked."--Kirkus Reviews. "An impressively well written, organized and presented thriller of a read from beginning to end."--The Midwest Book Review… (more)
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Make no mistake, Tore Renberg’s See You Tomorrow (Arcadia, 2014) is the hardest boiled of thrillers. Brash, gruesome, riveting, bitter and full on, it requires a courageous reader. It is, as you would expect of a thriller from the Arcadia stable, an action-packed page-turner. But it’s cleverer and more rewarding than that. It’s a terrifying insight into how people can become bound into a repellent, immoral and perverted code of behaviour which, for them, becomes justifiable, even something to be proud of, as the only means to survive in the a world which has done them no favours. What emerges is a questioning of the human condition, delivered without judgment, which is intelligent, engaging and ultimately troubling. Late night reading is not recommended.

The sun is shining on Stavanger and it’s hot. Unseasonably hot for late September. Sunlight burns a rare spotlight on the lives of eleven usually unnoticed misfits, left behind by Stavanger’s rapid, oil-funded gentrification. Among them are petty criminals with a philosophically flawed but pragmatic code of ethics, their lives ringed with heavy-metal and horror films, dishing out brutality in paltry revenge for that which they have received; teenager Sandra, blinded by faith in a God who doesn’t bless her and fatefully repressed by parental, middle-class expectations is infatuated with a bright-eyed and devastatingly handsome local delinquent who refuses to discuss his past; Pal, left behind more than once, is bewildered his own inability to live an ordinary and struggling to keep up appearances and single-handedly bring up his two girls. He’s also a secret and unsuccessful gambler who deals with his mounting debt by tipping bills into the litter bin at a nearby bus stop; Cecilie is awkward, abused and wonderfully powerful but she doesn’t know whose baby she is carrying. Rudi, always super-horny, whose Asperger’s-like tendencies compel him to over-value routine and under-value the ability to stop talking, proves much of the darkly comic humour: one might think of him as a lovable rogue, if he didn’t enjoy dishing out ritualistic violence quite so much. Jani, hilariously, haphazardly tries to use his own mangled version oil-rich corporate conglomerates’ management techniques to his dangerously pathetic local gang of four.

Over the course of three days their stories continually collide, causing explosions which propel them off course, all of them, scratching and scrambling to regain a small portion of control. There’s so much about the bonds that bind people and the casual cruelty that breaks them apart. Out of it comes a relentless narrative which will revolt the faint-hearted and reward thoughtful thrill-seekers.

Renberg has acknowledged William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (1930) as an influence on See You Tomorrow. The parallels in style are obvious – interlaced narratives told from different perspectives; short, sharp chapters, constantly challenging the reader to keep up and work it out. But there is something deeply intimate about Renberg’s style – his benevolent interest in characters, his sympathy for their circumstances, all wrapped round with the sometimes comforting and sometimes confrontational sounds of music and poetry – that makes See You Tomorrow distinct. I never know where I am with Faulkner. Renberg gives signposts!

At one point, as I closed the book (I had to occasionally, just to catch my breath) it struck me that fellow thriller-seeker Liz Barnsley would love this book. I quick stop over at her blog, Liz Loves to Read, proved me right. She gave it “Five shiny ‘do not miss this book’ stars and an elephant”. I’m not sure about the elephant, but See You Tomorrow is certainly 550 pages of zestful verve for which the phrase page-turner might have been invented.

(A version of this review, complete with pictures and author notes, appears on my blog: https://bookaddictionuk.wordpress.com )
  BookAddictUK | Aug 11, 2015 |
See You Tomorrow by Tore Renberg
Translated from the Norwegian by Seán Kinsella
Arcadia Books (London: 2014)
978-1-909807-60-0
£14.99, 551 pgs

[Note: the Scary and/or Crazy Factor is a simple scale of 1 - 10 with 10 meaning hide your pets.]

Wow. Just, wow. I’m going to begin by introducing y’all to the cast of characters or we’ll all be hopelessly but happily (maybe deliriously) lost.

Pål – single father, social worker, all-around good guy, internet gambling addict, aspiring to normality, scary and/or crazy factor: 3

Malene – teenage daughter of Pål, gymnast, all-around good girl, aspiring caretaker, scary and/or crazy factor: 0

Tiril – teenage daughter of Pål, younger sister to Malene, singing Goth idealist, aspiring avenging angel, scary and/or crazy factor: 4

Sandra – classmate of Malene, co-worker of Tiril, in love with Daniel, aspiring martyr, scary and/or crazy factor: 5

Daniel – foster kid, deeply disturbed control freak, sometime high school student, aspiring Clyde Barrow and/or Ted Bundy, scary and/or crazy factor: 11

Veronika – foster sister to and in love (lust?) with Daniel, aspiring Bonnie to Daniel’s Clyde, scary and/or crazy factor: 8

Jan Inge – criminal mastermind, lonely philosopher, horror film aficionado, aspiring writer, scary and/or crazy factor: 7

Rudi – best friend and loyal right-hand-man of Jan Inge, boyfriend of Cecilie, career criminal with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, aspiring Luddite, scary and/or crazy factor: 8

Cecilie – sister of Jan Inge, girlfriend of Rudi, former teenage hooker, inferiority complex, aspiring person, scary and/or crazy factor: 6

Tong – Korean cartoon character, inmate, aspiring ascetic, scary and/or crazy factor: 12

Setting: 3 fateful autumn days in Stavanger, Norway

Got that? Okay. See You Tomorrow by Tore Renberg is a brilliant accomplishment. It is a crime novel about, perhaps counter intuitively, love and philosophy. Also damaged people attracting each other like magnets and steel. Pål loves his daughters and his dog. Malene loves her father and her sister. Tiril loves the planet. Sandra loves Daniel and Jesus. Daniel loves Sandra AND Veronika. Veronika loves no one. Jan Inge loves everyone. Rudi loves Cecilie and Jan Inge and is willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Cecilie loves Rudi and Jan Inge. Tong loves himself.

This is a long book – 551 pages – but it is a page-turner; it begins with intrigue on page one and the pace never lags. The sense of foreboding is palpable – you just know these wack-jobs are all going to end up in the same scene together sooner or later. Everybody has a secret and as Renberg torques the tension the question becomes: Which secret is the Jenga secret? At what point does everything come tumbling down?

One of the pervasive and most intriguing themes in this story is change and the stress it causes. Even good changes cause stress: marriage, childbirth, job promotions, graduations. Stress over bad changes can flatten you: divorce, death, losing a job. Criminals are people, too: Technology, the internet and the disappearance of cassette tapes scares the hell out of Rudi. Cecilie is melancholy over gentrification in their down-at-the-heels neighborhood and, feeling out of place, wonders if maybe she should gentrify herself as well. Jan Inge is terrified that Rudi and Cecilie will move out of the house they share in favor of their own place and then everything will change.

See You Tomorrow is often very funny in an off-kilter way that manages to point out the absurdities and contradictions in the lives of its characters, usually, somehow, in a rather gentle manner. For example, Jan Inge and the gang have decided upon “a time-honored classic” insurance scam to get the money Pål needs to square his gambling debts. Here’s Jan Inge explaining the motivations of the hypothetical criminals [them] that are going to break into Pål’s home, rough him up and steal his stuff:

“It’s the same as when a gang of youths kick the wing mirrors off parked cars. They’re generally acting out after a painful upbringing. They’ve experienced maltreatment and abuse. We’re talking about failure of care a lot of the time. These people have something inside that has to come out. A need for destruction. The crooks that were at your place tonight suffer from something like that. Do you understand, Pål?”

He is, of course, absolutely correct and has unwittingly described himself and his cohorts. Here they are discussing how much damage to inflict on Pål, specifically whether they should break his nose, and Rudi feels that he’s being ignored in favor of a just-sprung Tong:

Pål stamps on the floor. Jan Inge turns to him. “Yes, Pål? Did you want to say something?”

“What are … what … are … you talking … about?”

Jan Inge shrugs. “Well,” he explains, “it’s just that we have had a mishap with a nose before.”

“Mishap? Whatkindamishap?”

“It’s not really something we ought to be discussing with you, Pål. That just wouldn’t be right. Now we’re going to break it, it will hurt, but Tong knows what he’s doing. Put it this way, the mishap wasn’t his fault –”

“Yeah, rub it in!” Rudi shouts.

“Rudi, don’t be touchy. Remember what we talked about. Little good comes from taking affront. … ”

“Rubitinbaby! … One mistake and it haunts you for the rest of your life! I’m here too y’know, I do exist! What is it you’re always saying? That we’re a team? You’ll never walk alone? Well then. Mr. Bullshit Writer. Mr. Horror, what do you think it’s like not to be noticed? Just because that little Korean is back again? Have you forgotten your chocolate chip cookies, Manchurian Candidate? I WON’T STAND FOR THIS! ONE MISTAKE AND YOU’RE HAUN –”

Jan Inge fixes his gaze on a point picked in the air at random. He inhales and exhales, feeling like an adult in a nursery.

Teenagers drive a lot of the action in See You Tomorrow. Everyone knows that teenagers are dramatic and, due to inexperience, have a faulty sense of perspective. “Over and over again they repeated their own short history, and they thought it was the most important story of all.” Y’all remember that feeling? I remember. We do teens a disservice when we tell them that what they’re feeling isn’t really love. Then we get into the argument over perception v. objective reality. Is there such a thing as objective reality? Or is there only perception? No matter which side of that argument you come down on it is inarguable that perceptions lead to actions and those actions have consequences. What if the best you can do is wake up every morning and try to do better?

In the end I agree with Jan Inge: the most terrifying thing is the fact that there is such a thing as too late.

We’ve just lived, Pål thinks, from one day to the next, we’ve tried to do as well as we could. Often, when he hears people discussing their lives, it seems like they’re talking about a series of choices they’ve made. It doesn’t feel like that to Pål. It feels, for the most part, as though life were a river and he’s been a boat.

Don’t be a boat, people. Be a current. ( )
  TexasBookLover | Oct 1, 2014 |
See You Tomorrow – Challenging

See You Tomorrow is the latest book from Tore Renberg one of Norway’s finest novelists. It is not easy to say what genre you could place this amongst as there are a number it could sit in, for a crime novel it is quite literary. At times it is a challenging read, but one has to remember that this has been translated from Norwegian, but does contain some of that Scandinavian darkness all the way through it.

See You Tomorrow at its core plot is three stories with complete background which in their own right could make an excellent novel, who through their decisions their stories cross. The story takes place over three days in September when the decisions that they make over those few days will change all of them forever.

All the characters come from what would be considered as broken homes with broken lives, who all have their own secrets that they would rather hide than admit too. At times their lives can make you laugh at the brutality around them who are trying to improve their lives with varying degrees of failure.

I am not sure I would call it a page-turner and you do have to invest time in reading this 600 page epic. What See You Tomorrow is good at is the combination of social realism, popular culture, hope and a large dose of heavy metal. It is worth the challenge and is quite enjoyable read that also asks questions that are relevant to modern times. ( )
  atticusfinch1048 | Aug 13, 2014 |
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Pal has a shameful secret that has dragged him into huge debt, and he is desperate that his teenage daughters and ex-wife don't find out. Sixteen-year-old Sandra also has a secret. She's in love with the delinquent Daniel William, a love so strong and pure that nothing can get in its way. Cecilie has the biggest secret of them all, a baby growing inside her. But she's trapped in her small-time, criminal existence, and dreams of an escape from it all. Over three fateful September days, these lives cross in a whirlwind of brutality, laughter, tragedy, and love that will change them forever. A fast-paced, moving, and darkly funny page-turner. "A dense literary novel that moves like a thriller. . . Renberg gives us a novel, rooted in noir softened by comedy, that gets to the serious business of how our shortcomings are all linked."--Kirkus Reviews. "An impressively well written, organized and presented thriller of a read from beginning to end."--The Midwest Book Review

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