[Read aloud to Adelle]
Fishing in Utopia, Sweden and the Future that DisappearedThis book rewinds to before our time in Sweden and describes a country we hardly recognise. There are some familiar aspects, of course, a lot of it revolves around the quintessence of Swedishness, that acceptance of others but only as long as they, in turn, accept that quintessence.
This book starts in a rural industrial setting with nail guns and wood pallets, with which the writer becomes disillusioned. He moves back to England where he also finds that he does not fit in.
When Olaf Palme is assassinated he returns to Sweden to find it a rather different place to the one he remembers. The country was reeling from the awakening that the world is fragile, and that bad things can happen, even here.
It seems, though, that he has changed even more than the country has. He is a writer now and spends much time in isolated cabins, interrupted by visits to places and people of his previous experience, eventually going on a road trip toward the end of the book, heading to the far north, beyond the reach of agriculture, deep into prospecting territory.
While the Sweden in this book is not the one we encountered, it does contain some familiar scenes, and it provides some context for the view of life we had from our privileged perch in Stockholm. Explaining the origins of the concrete Million Programme, which by the time we were there largely housed immigrant populations, peoples who have now been in the country long enough that they are Swedish born, even if they are of elsewhere. It seems that accepting these people was easier for those in Stockholm, where there was already a mix of people.
We were accepted in our time there, partly because we passed as Swedish, at least until we spoke. It is sad that there are those who are trying to disrupt that acceptance now.
His mother in law originates from Östersund, where we were Vikings one midsummer, and he passes through the town several times in his travels. This is a weird town, one that keeps showing up, I later discovered that I worked with one of the Vikings, although I had not met him on our visits.
Unsurprisingly there was a thread of fishing running through the book, providing a context for his contemplative moments. This was uncomfortable for me, fishing holds no appeal.
This would be a good book to understand more about the Swedish temperament and some of the history that lead it to be the country it is today.