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Solvej Balle: Om udregning af rumfang 4 (On The Calculation Of Volume 4 )
When we left volume three a small group of those people who were permanently stuck in 18 November, had moved into a large house together and at the end of the book a few others joined them. We now learn e about these others, how they discovered the house and its inhabitants and how they discovered each other.
This is the fourth of what will be seven volumes of this story. We, and of course the key characters, are all wondering what caused them to be trapped in the 18th of November, can they get out of it, and, if not, what happens to them?
It also raises a host of subsidiary questions such as do they age the same way people normally age or does their body go back to the way it was on the 18th of November.
One of the themes of this volume is whether they are finding other people and, sometimes they do. They also get clues about some potential candidates for their group then fail to make the necessary contact.
One of their number, Ralf, is trying to approach this scientifically and is making a detailed chart of all the various accidents that occur during this period to see if there is any link. In some cases, of course when they learn about an accident, they try to prevent it happening the next 18th of November, i.e., the next day. For example, they learn about someone who leaves a pan of oil on the stove which catches fire so they intervene the next time around. Some people just get on with their lives, others such as Ralf want a more a systematic approach to resolving the issue. Some people take advantage of it to have casual sex, knowing that there will be no consequences, though in one case a couple fall for each other and fortunately both are caught in the 18th of November.
While some of this book is about the newcomers, how they find one another how they cope with each other, a lot of of it is about some of the issues they face. They. now all live. together in a house abandoned by some rich people. Others moved to neighbouring abandoned houses and we and they learn about similar houses elsewhere. As far as we and they are concerned, this phenomenon seems to be limited to an area in Western Europe. if it exists elsewhere that has yet to be discovered by our group.
They have regular meetings whereby an individual can put a slip of paper into a cup and that topic, in theory, gets discussed. A variety of topics are discussed such as what might happen if the 19th of November turns up and also what would happen if it does not. They clearly show signs of ageing, with hair growing and toe and fingernails also growing. Some of the women seem to see more wrinkles when they look in the mirror.
There is the issue of health. They have only one medically trained person and while for minor issues they could still go to a doctor or hospital. as happens when one woman gets pregnant and has a scan at the local hospital. However there is the issue of a more serious illness how they deal with it. We learn, for example that one woman had had a syncope while driving and inadvertently hit and killed a cyclist. He died and did not r reappear alive the next day.
This raises another issue, namely the inconsistency of what carries over to the next day and what returns to how it was at the beginning of the day. For example they repair cars but the next day the car still needs the same repair. However, as we found from the first book food consumed seems to remain consumed and does not reappear the next day which, of course, causes problems as they run through supplies. It is November so not much can be grown. We do see that potatoes will sprout even at that time of the year.
So what happened to them and what do they call it? Someone comes up with the word.anastrophe though not all agree. And what do they call themselves? Various terms such as time prisoners are suggested but do not meet with general approval. One person raises the question as to whether they are indeed still human and, if not, what are they?
There is also the question of what caused this to happen? Was it inadvertently caused by the behaviour of these people? No one has a satisfactory answer, of course.
Another interesting issue is that they all seem to be a conventional white middle class people. There are no chimney sweeps but also no stock brokers. Is this coincidence? It is of course possible that these other people did not see the notices they put up in railway stations, which is how most of them got to know about one another.
Some people move south, for example to Spain, because it is warmer out and of course they can grow fruit and vegetables which is a little tricky in the climate of Bremen where most of them are.
They decide to have a large conference to discuss all the various issues that they face and break up into groups to discuss these issues. Inevitably, there are different views but nothingconclusive about what caused their situation and how it might turn out.
Our narrator is Tara, a used a book ddealer, located in Belgium with her husband Thomas. She hasn’t seen him for a while. Then suddenly she gets a phone call from him. Of course, as this is the first time he has phoned since the 18th of November event first occurred, it looks as though he has broken the time loop. Moreover, he tells her he has done something which he had not done before. What is going on? She gets up early the next morning and head back home.
As always with these books a whole situation is totally fascinating as of course we might imagine what we would do in a similar circumstance. It is interesting to see how the individuals struggle to cope, what they think might be the cause, and how they might get out of it, if at all. Always we eagerly look forward to the next volume while immensely enjoying this one.
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Publishing history
First published in 202 by Pelagraf
First published in English in 2027 by New Directions
Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell