T. Singer by Dag Solstad. On the cover of this book there is the quotation: “Utterly humane”. When I first saw this quotation, I thought to myself –we are all humans, what’s the big deal? It was until I was deep in the second half of the book that I understood the reason. This book is like a window to the mind and soul of a person who, although is just a fictional character, he seems to be so real.
The main character T. Singer is a normal, average person. Since his young age he never had big dreams or an ultimate goal in life. Basically he just goes through life by living day after day, without thinking too much about the future. When he is about to hit his thirties, he realizes that he is not so young anymore and needs to settle down with his life. He chooses to become a librarian with the hope of getting a job somewhere. Eventually T. Singer becomes a librarian in a small city and marries to a single mother who is two years older than him. A few years later she dies in a car accident leaving him with the decision of what to do with his step-daughter. The family of his late wife insists on keeping the child with them, but they are too old to take care of six year old Isabella.
Eventually T. Singer decides he will take care and raise his step-daughter. As the years go by, Isabella becomes a teenager and T. Singer continuously reevaluates his life and his decisions, but things more or less go well.
The book shows the inner dialog of this man with himself and explains in detail what is going on in his mind. Eventually, as a reader, I realized that Isabella is what gives meaning to the life of T. Singer. Just by providing a safe environment to Isabella and being responsible for her, T. Singer finally finds his place in the world. After decades of drifting through life he slowly finds a direction to follow. I enjoyed this book very much.