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    Naïve. Super
    Naïve. Super
    Naïve. Super
    Audiobook4 hours

    Naïve. Super

    Written by Erlend Loe

    Narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Troubled by an inability to find any meaning in his life, the twenty-five-year-old narrator of this deceptively simple novel quits university and eventually arrives at his brother's New York apartment.

    In a bid to discover what life is all about, he writes lists. He becomes obsessed by time and whether it actually matters. He faxes his meteorologist friend. He endlessly bounces a ball against the wall. He befriends a small boy who lives next door.

    He yearns to get to the bottom of life and how best to live it.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    TranslatorTor Ketil Solberg
    Release dateSep 18, 2019
    ISBN9781515945666
    Naïve. Super
    Author

    Erlend Loe

    Erlend Loe is a Norwegian novelist. His eight books have been translated into over twenty languages.

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    Reviews for Naïve. Super

    4/5

    433 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      An entertaining "what is the meaning of life" book. The narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies was fabulous
    • 5/5
      I’m curious, did you hear about this book from 1996, in the same way I did? That would have been in the political coverage of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Seems that Mayor Pete found the book while at Harvard, and when he discovered that the Norwegian author, Erlend Loe, didn’t have any other works that had been translated, he learned Norwegian. Mayor Pete was certainly an original politician in many ways.Curiosity of discovery aside, this slim paperback is one very clever and original coming-of-age novel. The style is simple and tells of a young man who has dropped out of a MA program, isn’t working, has no obvious ambition, and is house sitting for his brother. He does have a compunction to make lists of all sorts of things, and to bounce a red ball off the wall for hours at a time. Oh, and he finds great comfort in one of the kids toys where you hammer the pegs through the bench, and then flip it over and pound them all right back. The simple things can many times be the most rewarding. As little is expected of him, he does the simple things that bring him pleasure, the things that he can control, while all the major decisions of his life are currently over the horizon of this temporary phase of his life. He knows that they will come his way eventually, but he’s into the uncomplicated pleasures of life—while he can. [I can strongly relate to this situation, at his point in my own life.] The writing reflects the simplicity of his life, as well as the self-controlled nature of his days. Many lives get complicated at this point—when one knows that the major decisions of life won’t be leaving you alone much longer. Many times those complications are drugs and other addictions. Another way is when someone start making a few or many of the myriad of self-destructive choices possible in life. There are hoards of coming-of-age novels, stories in which characters feel that the time has come when they must grow up, must make all those major life decisions. However, just maybe, this stellar and slender novel is a grand example of the time in life before all that happens. Or, on the other hand, it may be not be showing what precedes, but what can supersede all that. No matter how closely you feel to the life depicted within this story, this extremely funny and insightful book was a real treat to read and to relate to, and it is wonderfully original and fresh.
    • 2/5
      These kinds of novels with a childlike, naive narrator seem to be becoming more popular; or, perhaps, I am on a streak, having recently read Matt Haig's "The Humans" and Fredrik Backman's "A Man Called Ove." I find it a bit tiresome. It reads like a literary exercise, an excuse for the author to dispense "wisdom" without actually having any. This book is particularly bad, lacking redeeming qualities like an original premise (e.g., math and aliens in "The Humans") or an interesting character (Ove). I don't usually complain about this, but the narrator's dilemmas also reek of privilege. Forgettable.
    • 2/5
      a very fast read. i definitely chuckled (yes. chuckled.) through it. some fun observations of every day little things. prose are very choppy and to the point. also a bit of stream of consciousness.
    • 5/5
      The twenty five year narrator is confused, a graduate who has just withdrawn from his masters degree course he is confused, he is hung up on time and space, he has diffusivity understanding such concepts, and as he explains, it is easy to see why. He expresses himself in very simple terms, many sentences are just three or four words in length, yet what he is considering is frequently profound. He considers what he has, and what he does not, he likes making lists.Looking after his older brother's apartment in Norway while his brother is away on business, he makes friends with a young boy of kindergarten age who lives in the same building, he meets a girl, and enjoys the caring attention of his brother.Naïve. Super is like no other book I have read, while the narrator is concerned about certain concepts, he is also concerned about friendship, life, and being a good guy. It makes for a fascinating and very different reading experience.
    • 4/5
      This is one of those slightly off the wall books I would probably never have found if I didn’t go poking around in second hand shops. In it, the unnamed (aren’t they all nowadays?) narrator tells of a mini-breakdown in his life which caused him to question just about everything in his life and, in particular, the nature of time.He drops out of university, spends ages throwing a football against the wall, and plays games with the five year old next door. The parents of the said five year old agree to leave the child in his care for the day, despite discovering that he (the narrator) has spent the previous day playing with a child's hammer and peg board. Bizarre. Next thing, they are racing up and down the road in a Volvo. It's a sort of random stream of thoughts and events, some of which had me nodding and thinking 'yes, I often feel like that too', and others which made me want to give him a kick in the pants and tell him to pull himself together.Despite its weighty topics, this book is very easy to read and is the sort of thing you could whizz through in a day. The chapters are short, there are frequent lists, and towards the end there are whole pages devoted to a visual joke which probably works better in the original Norwegian and which I skimmed over in less than ten seconds.This was an enjoyable read inasmuch as it represented something different from the norm: a trip along a literary back-alley. A world view filtered through unfamiliar eyes with some fascinating facts thrown in. On the other hand I would have preferred it to last a little longer and to provide something more substantial to chew on
    • 2/5
      A twee travel tale about a twentysomething who thinks and acts like a child, playing with toys and making lists of things he likes. The simple language and quirky main character nearly kept me charmed, but the author's inclusion of too many lists and documents left me with the the sense that, ultimately, there was just too little substance in the story.
    • 5/5
      If you are or have been a twenty-something that's a bit lost, this book will appeal to you. If you're not, it will still appeal because of its charm. It's written with so much simplicity but such depth and it seems impossible to cover so many themes and subjects in such a short book, but it's done with such elegance and always hits the nail on the head. I've never read a book like it.
    • 3/5
      It may be that I've read more than my quota of "young adult" literature for a while but I was not all that impressed with this. Erlend Loe's most popular novel (and indeed, the only one available in English at present), is written from the perspective of a 25 year old but the voice of this person is a lot younger - his displays the kind of existential angst that is usually reserved for teens. Or Miranda July's characters (without the quirks). This young man gives up his studies and his life (although, it is hard to believe he was up to much before this novel began) and moves into his brother's empty apartment to sit, throw balls, play hammer-and-peg and contemplate the nature of time and make lists. It is sweet enough. There are at least a few kernels of interest and he occasionally has a nice turn of phrase. But I think I am over padding out books with list after list on inania. By the umpteenth "things I saw today" list, I was thinking uncharitable thoughts. But it might just be my time of the month!
    • 5/5
      I loved this book - my only complaint is that it was so short as I could have happily read more. The main character is a 20-something who doesn't know what to do with his life. The book follows his attempts to connect with the rest of the world. Despite the angst of the main character, he has a child-like innocence that makes him very likeable which makes a refreshing change. It is written is a simple style, with lots of lists and short chapters, making it a very quick read.
    • 4/5
      My brother stole this book from me and keeps it at the other side of the Atlantic, but just the thought of Naiv.Super. makes me happy. It is a book about going back to basics when life seems to hard, and how you get up again. It is simple and super at the same time. If you ever starts to cry if someone is mean to you in cricket - this is a comforting friend for you.