A Shining

August 28, 2023
Fosse follows up the voluminous Septology with the hypnotic story of a man lost in remote Norwegian woods. The unnamed narrator has taken an aimless drive and winds up on a narrowing forest road, where his car gets stuck in a rut. He knows he should go for help, but it’s cold and dark and he doesn’t know which way to go, or whether he would be able to reach another person on foot. Eventually, he sets out into the moonless darkness, and after a time an illuminated form comes toward him, its features expanding as the narrator grapples with what he’s seeing: “A shining whiteness. An outline of a person. A person inside a shining whiteness. Yes, maybe like that.” Later, as the illuminated form lingers and the narrator remains lost in the woods, he encounters his elderly parents, who turn out to be just as lost as he is, and who bicker among themselves about what they’re doing there. Searls translates with precision and playfulness as Fosse commits to his strange vision. It works because the narrator remains anchored in logic even as events unfold like a dream (“Maybe it’s something that’s only experienced, that’s not actually happening. But is it possible to only experience something and not have it be happening”). Fosse fans will savor this assured monologue of ethereal events.