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language: Greenlandic (French tr. Inès Jorgensen and Jean-Michel Huctin)
country: Denmark
year: 2014
form: novel
genre(s): literary
dates read: 10.5.20-11.5.20, 7.4.24-8.4.24
just finished rereading the French translation of Niviaq Korneliussen’s Homo sapienne (tr. Inès Jorgensen and Jean-Michel Huctin) and while I do think it’s not a perfect novel I nonetheless still think it’s extremely good.
in five sections, it interweaves the perspectives of five 20-somethings from the Nuuk area as they struggle with, move past, and/or come to terms with various aspects of their lives, especially with regards to sexuality and gender. none of them is cis/het. it’s not always an easy read, especially Arnaq’s section, which explores the effects of intergenerational trauma and sexual abuse. even Sara’s section, which is superficially the most “well-adjusted”, is still about struggling with depression.
the French translation is a bit iffy. not in that it’s bad — it definitely handles the mix of languages better than the English translation, for example — but in that the French is, like, quite generic standard French, only standing out because of the stream of consciousness aspects of the novel, which contrasts markedly with the English and I suspect — given the bulk of the novel — doesn’t align with the way it’s written in Greenlandic or, at a guess, probably even with Korneliussen’s Danish version that Jorgensen was working from (with Huctin checkint it against the Greenlandic). this translation also includes footnotes, which definitely feel like it is performing This Is A Greenlandic Novel in a way that a novel set in, say, Italy wouldn’t have. bad vibe.
in spite of this, I think it’s a very good book and well worth a read (even in the English translation). the weakest link is probably the second section, from Inuk’s perspective, which feels like a bit of an afterthought (perhaps uncoincidentally because it’s the only one from a cis man’s POV) and ends rather abruptly. the end of Arnaq’s section hits especially hard (“J’avance en cercles. Je reviens toujours”!!!), and Fia’s, Ivik’s, and Sara’s are all really good in their own ways.
the whole book is about those moments where something goes from unthinkable or at best a distant possibility to something not only possible but inevitable — being gay, being in love, being a man, … — when everything falls into place and you think, oh my god, this is it. I didn’t know it could be like this. this is real.
— and, conversely, about facing the terrifying possibility that that moment may never come and asking how we keep going in the face of that possibility.
moods: emotional, hopeful, inspiring