The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency

in all three books, we feel tove’s tension between every and all relationships and her devotion to writing poetry and becoming a successful author. she was serious about being a published author as young as ten years old. during the “childhood” chapters, tove wrote about how her early years were not lovey-dovey, but rather lonely. she struggled to make friends at school, since all the drama that the other girls were interested in didn't interest her. her sole goal was to read poetry and write it. her mother was often angry, untouchable, and filled with secrets tove would never learn. her father was serious, melancholy, but passed his love for literature down to tove.⁣

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later, during her “youth” chapters, hitler came into power, and everything was very bleak in copenhagen, and having left school prematurely, tove takes on menial jobs to survive and found ways to write during her spare time. typical years of meeting boys, kissing, dancing at clubs, going to the movies, but none of these relationships seemed to have manifested into anything long term. during the “dependency” chapters, things got really dark for tove, she finally became a poet and was successful, but struggled constantly with addiction.⁣

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the earlier books reminded me of ferrante’s quaratet, the difference is the last part, where tove’s story really becomes a harrowing read. still important though because her struggles are ones that we face today — overcoming poverty, trying to be something in the face of our parents disapproval, the presence of addiction. the prose is clean, unsentimental, and direct, her voice is unforgettable. parts of it did make me physically uncomfortable, and others made me want to unzip my skin and escape, but it all comes from that beautiful writing and the the disturbingly powerful life tove lived. highly recommended!