Girl, 1983: A Novel

No matter how much I tried to understand all of this book, I found segments much more accessible than others. Perhaps that is because Linn Ullmann’s Girl, 1983, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, is so experimental in its format. Still, I found myself thinking of the themes long after I finished the book.

Though the book is touted as a novel, there does seem to be some crossover with Ullmann’s own life in that the central character travels to Paris as a teen to model. Her personal experiences are the foundation for the central character of the novel, a girl who is given the same opportunity, which leads her into a relationship with a man 30 years he senior who promises to get her into Vogue magazine. Forty years later, the grown woman reflects on that time in her life by addressing the young girl herself and commenting on the time.

This is where I found myself lost. The narrator is the girl in 1983 and the adult woman in 2023; they talk to and about each other, and the novel loops back to this event for 260 pages. I think this choice is meant to note the profound and indelible mark this moment had on her life, but it could have been shorter and could have been far more direct. Still, if novels related to gender dynamics are your thing, you’ll likely enjoy it.