This Should Be Written in the Present Tense Paperback – January 12, 2016

At the start, the deceptive simplicity of her novel slowly ensnares the reader into Helle's precious little world. I almost fell into comparing her with Hemingway, except that Hemingway compresses rupturing emotions in the spaces between words, whereas Helle's sentences are mood pieces, the nearest one gets to a Nordic haiku. But it only gets us so far.Eventually, Helle's writing style, in refusing to succumb to any weighted passage, stretching instead the reader's patience with book-long buried allusions, descends to vapidity.Perhaps it is a matter of taste. Perhaps my tropical background instinctively prefers branches groaning with plump fruits of juicy sentences despite my pretensions of liking the bare Bergmanian boughs. One must take any story on its own terms. But in all honesty, one never achieves this: each reader interacts with the pages uniquely. Hence, to me, This Should be Written in the Present Tense launches solidly, with me enraptured by its shadowy winter writing, only to leave me too long in the cold.

Older male here, and found this book fascinating, not in any way titillating. Still don't remember why I bought it, but glad I did. It's just that I feel I've begun to understand this person and find myself liking her and being annoyed by her in different measures. But then curious to follow her around and see what comes next. Stayed up way too late finishing book off .. a compliment to the author.

I never did determine what the purpose of this story is. I kept reading only because it had been recommended, so I felt sure something would happen at some time. It was boring and very disappointing. I'm sorry I wasted time on it.

This was a waste of the translator's time. No real plot, merely a description of the person's daily activities in a very disjointed manner. Read like something that a third-grader would write. Not an enjoyable read.

I've been waiting for a long time to get Helle Helle in English, and this novel does not disappoint. The prose is spare, elliptical and often seemingly random or list-like, but that feels absolutely appropriate for our narrator. What I love most is the way the narrator's perceptions, her world, enter her thoughts and prose unfiltered. So as she navigates Denmark's landscapes, train stations and department stores, a bird call or lost picnic basket make random appearances and are given the same weight as a funeral or break-up.I recommend in particular if you are a fan of Sheila Heti's How Should A Person Be?, Lydia Davis's The End of the Story, or Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation.One last note: the translation is heavy on British colloquialisms, which inevitably makes the book feel somewhat more British than Danish.

Beautifully written with a keen eye for everyday detail. The story of a student who easily flits in and out of relationships with various men without either any sense of overwhelming passion or any major break-ups. All of the men are remarkably nice. The worst that can happen in this tame world is either a cold winter or someone else using your expensive shampoo. Does every detail have meaning or do things just happen? This question is raised at the end of the novel. If there was a deeper meaning, it passed me by. It’s a lovely read of life in a world, which although not easy, is made up entirely of nice people who happily wave to strangers. There is a curious lack of bad guys.

xmas present