Author Monika Fagerholm has written two collections of short stories and six novels. Her books often tell the story of girls and women because she wants a woman to be the protagonist in literature as well.
Is easy to see it in the picture. In the house in Tenhola, Ekenäs, author Monika Fagerholm sitting reading manuscripts, spouse Hilding Nylund watching TV, cat Jerker is in a deep sleep.
Comfortable, warm home atmosphere.
The image is created more easily than with many other interviewees. Just because when talking to Fagerholm, the air is as thick as all the meanings, stories, images he has written in his eight works. Above all, in his six novels, the first of which, Lovely women on the beach (1994), at the time of writing, he was already the author of two works.
Lovely women on the beach was Fagerholm ‘s first novel, and the first to be translated into Finnish. It began to arise when he rented a house in Kemiö for two months. “Old wooden house, just one radiator, wood stove, no running water. I don’t think at a young age how this is going to work in practice. ”
There was no interesting nature even, the house was on a highway. “When I think of those days, that loneliness, even though it was freezing, I had a terrible drive on. I was somewhere else all the time. The writing didn’t even go well, the text wasn’t good. ”
But a text was born, and an insight was born.
“The fact that it’s important to stay in that world. From day to day is, and does does does. ”
Wonderful women when writing, Fagerholm wanted to reinvent writing.
“I realized there is no writing if you just go out to describe something. So far, I had had an awful lot of rules for myself. After visiting Outi Nyytäjän of course he made me realize organic dramaturgy, one that starts from the spinal cord. And the significance of concreteness. ”
Fagerholm decided to keep writing “terribly simple” and only two rules apply.
“The other is that I’m going to write every day. Not to perform would not be lazy. But so I like to think about writing. The other is that I want to change through what I do. That means always writing about things that are important to you. ”
Now, six novels later, Fagerholm is undeniably a great writer, measuring it with the number of awards or the love of readers.
“If I compare Kemiö’s time to this time that it has gone so well, then I wouldn’t have believed it. But I somehow terribly grateful to myself that I was doing this stuff. It has meant so insanely much. Not that you think of yourself as a writer, but that you are the one who writes, does, reads. ”
Monika Fagerholm writes about girls and women – because they are, above all, people.
When writing Fagerholm does not think about themes. That’s what he says emphatically.
“Yes, I know there are things like that that happen all the time. But I never decided that now I would write about young women or women. ”
However, he has done so. Fagerholm also says he knows why.
“I want – and although this has changed in recent years, it’s still not as obvious as it could be – that women could be as protagonists in literature as men. And that means that that femininity or girlfriend isn’t the most important thing – but that the reader identifies with them. Not because they are of a certain gender, but because they are human. ”
After all, women have always read great literature, identified with men and boys.
It has made Fagerholm think that for men, identifying with a female person is “yes terribly difficult yet”.
“We female readers have to do this so early because there is a male protagonist in every classic. We go to him and we don’t think about it. ”
Lovely women on the beach The popularity of the novel – the work was, for example, a Finlandia candidate and a film was also directed about it – was like stepping out of the closet into the limelight, Fagerholm recalls.
“It was a confusing experience. Suddenly the journalists were interested in me. ”
The work was translated into English, among other things, and it did well in Sweden as well.
Success gave a certain kind of freedom. Next came Prima donna, a novel about a thirteen – year – old girl ‘s separation.
“I had always wanted to make such a linguistically completely different novel, about a girl who comes up with her own language and takes over the world by naming it.”
“Yes, I thought then that if I had done it before Lovely women on the beach, no one would have read it. ”
Presently Fagerholm writes a new novel. He doesn’t really want to talk about it. He admits that it’s a little annoying that the schedule for completing books is always changed.
“Every time I say something, however, I come to break it. Yes, it bothered me myself, for example Who Killed Bambi? it took six years to make. It’s not nice. ”
Birthday, which Fagerholm in general is still a little difficult to deal with, is, perhaps, bringing a change to long writing processes.
“I decided that because I have to meet 60 years, not the next book can not stand seven years. Because time is running out. ”
Aging in itself does not bother Fagerholm, it is just that “sixty sounds… it is a step towards something”.
“But after forty years, I noticed that it’s still growing, and I’m shrinking, which is a good thing. Interest in the world around us and people is growing. ”
To that extent, Fagerholm agrees with the new book to say that it is “kind of epic” and begins in the seventies.
He smiles.
“I have been inspired lately, i have had inspiration. ”
Pandemic has brought Fagerholm a relaxed stay at home, but holding a birthday party is, of course, impossible.
“It may be that we have a pool party in the summer.”
Pool party, can do nothing, the words turn into a picture again.
Fagerholm always says he dreamed of a swimming pool, but he just never could afford it.
“When I got the big Tollander award last year, that’s when I decided that now. That is, we acquired a swimming pool. It is lovely.”
The pool is ten meters long and can be used for swimming from April to October.
“I like swimming. I am a fitness swimmer, but I do not crawl. The pool has changed my whole life in a way. ”
Monika Fagerholm has lived in Tenhola, Ekenäs for twenty years.
Monika Fagerholm
■ Born in 1961 in Helsinki, lives in Ekenäs.
■ Studied psychology and literary studies at university.
■ Short story collections Sham (1987) and Patricia (1990).
■ The novels are all translated: Lovely Women on the Beach (1994), Diva (1998), American Girl (2004), Spark Stage (2009), Lola Upside Down (2012), Who Killed Bambi? (2019).
■ Won several literary awards, e.g. Runeberg Prize, August Prize, State Literature Prize and Nordic Council Literature Prize.
■ Turns 60 on Friday, February 26th.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/60-years-old-thirty-years-ago-in-a-cold-house-in-kemio-the-novel-lovely-women-on-the-beach-was-born-because-monika-fagerholm-had-decided-to-change-the-way-she-writes/
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