The Dwaft is a remarkable Swedish novel from the 40's that so few people know about but keeps popping up in my life like a whack-a-mole. Written by Par Lagerkvist and helped win him the Nobel. It's the diary of the most evil creature since Shakespeare's Yago. He may be even more complex. The voice is so unique, so dark, you'll never forget it.
Despite working in a bookstore at one time, I would have never known about it unless it landed in my lap (which it did). And given that book has drifted in and out of print for a while, you first task is just to find it.
10 years ago I was introduced to it by Joel Jacobson who claimed it was a treasure. After reading it a few times (which I don't normally do), I decided to write a monologue from it. Try to distill the voice out. Maybe Wallace Shawn could play the role? Well, I had an actor read a few of my 'translated' pages and that pretty much shut down the project. I couldn't get down what I was hearing in my head.
Last year, I went into a friend of mine's office - he, Josh Schneider, is a very interesting guy inandof himself, and after talking business, he asked his secretary to, "give him a copy of the Dwarf". Sort of half-listening, sort of in shock, I looked down at this screenplay for the book. He too, had been taken by this 26-inch curmudgeon, and had spent the last 5 years trying to get the film rights from Lagerkvist's offspring. Multiple trips to Sweden, lots of convincing and begging, and Josh had secured the rights. Then he grabbed a writer and went to work.
The had a very different take but, hey, it was a take. I read through 3 different versions, gave comments and I keep up with the project. It's still very much in play.
So online tonight I stumble across this great commenary from a brilliant oddball reviewer. First, let it be renoted that very few people read the book, and a proportionally small number people write about it...at least in English. Everything that has been written is that much more out-of-print than the book itself.
This 'Literary Moose' has pretty much consumed a good chunk of high-end literature, especially the darker Nordic and Eastern European blends. Claiming to be very much in his youth (~30 yrs old), he's doing most of this reading in English (his third language, native is Polish) and writes a solid stylized review. Even better is his complete (and perfectly clear) rejection of soliticitation, ideas of adding comments to the site, compensation, etc. He pretty much says, "I enjoy reading, I enjoy writing about what I read. If you enjoy this site, so be it. But please, do not bother me." That's my paraphrase and my snip at the end. Lots of really good thinking on the site.
If you're really interested in learn more about Par, here's one of the few good places to start.
I've also found an actor who does a one-man play using "bodymasks and life-size puppets in Hebrew, English or German."
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