The Half Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen
"The Half Brother" by Lars Saabye Christensen is a poignant novel that explores complex familial relationships against the backdrop of personal and historical turmoil. The story is narrated by Barnum Nilsen, who reflects on his life growing up alongside his half-brother Fred, the product of a traumatic event in their mother's past. Vera Jebsen, their mother, faces societal stigma as an unmarried mother and navigates the challenges of raising her two sons with an often absent and morally ambiguous husband, Arnold.
As the brothers contend with their identities and their troubled family dynamics, themes of loyalty, loss, and the quest for understanding emerge. Fred, characterized by his physical strength yet emotional turmoil, acts as a protector for Barnum until his own struggles lead him away from home. The novel delves into the impact of their father's secrets and the haunting legacy of their mother's history, ultimately shaping Barnum's aspirations as a screenwriter.
Through Barnum's journey, readers witness the profound effects of familial bonds and the pursuit of personal redemption, making "The Half Brother" a significant exploration of love, trauma, and the ties that bind us.
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Subject Terms
The Half Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen
- Born: September 21, 1953
- Birthplace: Denmark, Norway
First published: 2001 (English translation, 2003)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Saga
Time of plot: 1945–80s
Locale: Oslo, Norway
Principal Characters
Barnum Nilsen, the narrator
Fred Jebsen, his half brother, the son of Vera and an unknown rapist
Vera Jebsen, his mother
Arnold Nilsen, his father, Vera’s husband, a former circus performer and grifter
Boletta Jebsen, his maternal grandmother
Ellen Jebsen, known as the Old One, his maternal great-grandmother
Peder Miil, his best friend
Vivian Wie, his friend and romantic partner
The Story
On the final day of World War II, Vera Jebsen is raped while gathering her family’s laundry in a communal drying loft. Vera remains completely silent after the rape, leaving her mother Boletta and grandmother the Old One to wonder what has happened. She finally breaks her silence when her son Fred is born in a taxi on the way to the hospital.
With Fred’s birth, Vera becomes the most recent in three generations of unmarried mothers. Boletta never mentions the identity of Vera’s father, and the Old One’s lover, the mariner Wilhelm, disappeared into the ice of Greenland on an expedition and never returned to marry her, leaving her to raise Boletta alone.
Arnold Nilsen leaves his parents and his island home of Røst, where he has never fit in. He joins the Circus Mundus, where he learns con artistry and begins the travels that lead him to meet Vera in Oslo, where he courts and marries her. The couple has one small son, Barnum, and because the local vicar disapproves of his name, they travel to Røst to have him christened.
Barnum, the narrator of the story, looks up to his brother, Fred, a strong and sometimes frightening presence. Both brothers are out of place at school, Barnum for his short stature and Fred for his difficulties reading and writing. Fred protects his younger brother from bullies until he is moved to a different school because of his dyslexia, leaving Barnum to fend for himself.
Fred voices his strong hatred of Arnold to Barnum, offering to kill Arnold for him. Arnold never discusses what kind of work he does when he leaves home each day, but there are signs that his work is not honest. His car is taken as payment for an unnamed debt, and a washing machine he brings home for the family later disappears. A family vacation to Italy is made at least partly in hopes of getting money from an old family friend, but Arnold fails to make money from it.
While managing to get himself thrown out of a dance lesson, Barnum meets the two people who will become his best friends, Peder Miil and Vivian Wie. The three begin seeing movies together, and Barnum begins spending time with Peder’s family, who seem much happier than his own.
Arnold decides that he will teach Barnum and Fred to throw a discus. He dons a bright yellow tracksuit, produces new athletic shoes for Barnum, and takes the boys to a stadium to practice throwing. At the stadium, Fred asks Barnum to remember what he has promised him and then throws the discus at Arnold, hitting him in the forehead and killing him.
After Arnold’s death, his family discovers that he had been stealing from them, taking money that they had saved for their insurance premium and racking up a large bill at a local hotel, where he had been renting a room for unknown purposes. They also discover that Arnold had taken and sold the last precious letter that the Old One’s lost love Wilhelm had written to her from Greenland.
Peder’s father invites Barnum and Fred to visit his family’s holiday home during the summer, and while Barnum vacations with the Miil family and Vivian, Fred starts seriously training as a boxer. When Barnum returns home to see Fred’s boxing match, he watches as Fred appears to throw the match at the very end, though he tells Barnum he has really won. After the match, Fred gives up boxing and begins to leave home for days at a time, causing more worry for his family.
Barnum, Peder, and Vivian get roles as extras in a film, and after seeing the screenplay, Barnum realizes his calling as a screenwriter. He begins writing screenplays, and Fred gives him a typewriter for his birthday. Soon after, Fred disappears again, and the family finds out that he has gone to sea. He remains missing for years.
Peder leaves Norway to study economics in America, and Barnum and Vivian move into an apartment together. Barnum’s family takes over an old neighbor’s kiosk, where Barnum works selling food and magazines while Vivian works in a beauty salon.
Vivian wants to start a family, and after being tested, she asks Barnum to take a sperm sample to the hospital. At the hospital, a doctor informs him that he is impotent. Barnum keeps this information from Vivian, telling her he is fine.
When Peder returns to Oslo after his father’s suicide, he sets up business with Barnum, working as his agent. Barnum leaves the kiosk to write, and Peder worries about Barnum’s drinking and about Vivian, who seems unhappy.
When Vivian announces her pregnancy to Barnum, it ends their relationship. Soon after the memorial service Vera organizes for Fred, whose jacket has been found on a bridge in Copenhagen, Vivian moves into the apartment that has been made from the old drying loft where Vera was raped. Vera and Boletta help her raise her baby Thomas, who resembles Barnum.
Barnum continues to drink heavily but finally manages to write meaningfully about his family and his brother. At a film festival in Berlin where he and Peder are trying to promote his screenplay for the film The Viking, he receives notice that Fred has returned to Oslo. On his way back home to see Fred, he gives Peder a new screenplay called The Night Men, its title a reference to all the men who have left the women and children in his family.
Bibliography
Binding, Paul. "Life’s a Circus." Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 23 May 2003. Web. 30 May 2014.
Evans, Julian, and Lisa Allardice. "The Sadness of the Circus." Rev. of The Half Brother, by Lars Saabye Christensen. NewStatesman 16 June 2001: 53. Literary Reference Center.Web. 30 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=9997860&site=lrc-live>.
Kongslien, Ingeborg. "New Voices, New Themes, New Perspectives: Contemporary Scandinavian Multicultural Literature." Scandinavian Studies 79.2 (2007): 197–226. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=27260711&site=lrc-live>.
Rus, Andra-Lucia. "James Joyce’s Dublin and Lars Saabye Christensen’s Oslo. Geocritical Readings." Romanian Journal of English Studies 10.1 (2013): 271–77.
Souster, Tim. "The Hand Holding the Glass." Rev. of The Half Brother, by Lars Saabye Christensen. TLS: Times Literary Supplement 17 Oct. 2003: 23. Print.