Mirror, Shoulder, Signal

MIRROR, SHOULDER, SIGNAL

by Dorthe Nors

 

Nominations: Booker Finalist 2017, Dublin Longlist 2019

 

Date Read: July 7, 2023

 

This short novella is a sweet exploration of the intricacies of trying to change your life when you get older. The older you get, the harder it is to change. Sonja has moved to Copenhagen, is learning to drive, is trying to reconnect with her sister. The family farm was sold and there is really nothing for her to return to from her upbringing. So why can she not let the memories of her idyllic early life go?

 

The driving school portions of this novel are really bizarre to me. How hard is it really to learn to drive? Maybe there’s a big difference between learning as a teen and learning in your early 40s that makes you less confident. Either way, it really isn’t that difficult. I know she’s learning on a manual but my god, push in clutch and shift. Not rocket science. And yet, as Sonja moves on to her second instructor, she begins to realize she will never drive. Girl, just keep going!

 

Her masseuse and unwanted energy healer, Ellen, was a fun reprieve. I enjoyed how she pushed Sonja outside her comfort zone to commune with nature, focus on her inner power and squirm away from joining in activities she really doesn’t want to be involved in. 

 

Overall, I can’t blame Sonja for wanting to return to the town of her youth. Sometimes the past just calls us back with unfinished business and a claim on our psyches that runs too deep. This I can identify with the most out of anything else in this novella.

 

I appreciate Nors’ observations on the small things of life that all add up to big things and her ability to explore insecurities that seems to be universal. But overall, there was something lacking here that resulted in me not finding this work compelling.

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