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Bo Carpelan. Urwind. Stockholm. Bonniers. 1993. 244 pages. 252 kr.
Bo Carpelan's latest novel, Urwind, continues the themes and concerns characteristic of this prominent Finland-Swedish author's long and illustrious career while extending his recent experiments with the diary genre. Ostensibly the intimate journal of an antiquarian book dealer, addressed to his estranged wife, the novel pulls its readers into the imagination of a timid, reflective middle-aged man, Daniel Urwind. Fantasy and mundanity vie for space in a text which shifts by turns from nostalgia and contemplation to violence and depression. Vignettes spanning the protagonist's life create a mosaic of experience, a glimpse at the thoughts of one person at midlife. Carpelan's powerful use...