But what became of Agnetha?

Nicoline picked me up this afternoon and drove us into the heart of Stockholm. She had to pick up an armless armchair which had developed a wobble and had been in a furniture shop being de-wobbled. It was a rare moment of literary failure when I couldn’t work out the English word for an armless armchair. Turns out, no-one else does either. If you search for it, you’ll see what I mean.

That was but the beginning of our night. With armless armchair loaded into the car, we then headed for Saltsjöbaden and an appointment with The Other Bookgroup. (It appears to not have an official name so, in order to differentiate it from Bookbusters, The Other Bookgroup will have to suffice.)

The discussion was to be at Birgitta’s lovely yellow house. Her house has the ultimate in travel convenience. There is a bus stop right outside. I can only dream of such a thing. The house also has a big mountain (rock) out the back, protecting the house from…well, anything really. It is a most effective barrier.

Anyway, before we got down to the serious business of book dissemination, we had nibbles, bubbles then a delicious dinner with an exceptionally creamy sauce which was saved from explosion shortly before we sat at table.

There were five of us: Nicoline, Birgitta, Peter, the infamous Mats and me. I say ‘infamous’ because Nicoline had warned me before we arrived that he could be loud, interrupting and strongly opinionated. He lived up to this reputation.

The book was Outline by Rachel Cusk, the first in a trilogy, and there was a bit of a divide between readers. Nicoline was adamant that it was boring, Birgitta insisted that people should read all three books, Peter enjoyed it and Mats was obsessed by the women’s perspective, something he feels very strongly about. In fact, there was a lot of discussion regarding this ‘women’s perspective’. The rest of us were unclear what that meant.

As for me, while I enjoyed the writing, I didn’t care about any of the characters in the book and, therefore, couldn’t say that I actually enjoyed the book at all.

What I did enjoy was the night as a whole. What fun it was. From marriage proposals to Trump’s war on Iran, everything was discussed (mostly by Mats). The marriage proposals were possibly my favourite bit. Particularly Peter who has been married three times and divorced twice.

As an example, his first wife, Agnetha, a prospective lawyer, studying with him at Lund, had dropped out with him, to go and work on a farm. She went from law to farmer’s wife overnight. According to Peter, she was happy with her lot and they happily farmed away. Then, they got divorced but, when questioned about what happened to her, Peter’s memory was a bit hazy. Either that or he was reluctant to admit the truth.

Did Agnetha become a lesbian? Did life on the farm render her to turn away from the male perspective to, rather, embrace one of her own? I feel certain we will never know but I really, really hope she did. Of course, as I suggested, she could have gone on to be a famous pop singer with an internationally successful group.

Anyway, as I said, the night was great fun, culminating in the choice of the next book then the planning for the next meeting in 62 days hence.

Before we all went our separate ways, Mats and I discussed art. He doesn’t get the abstract and would much rather look at the figurative. As usual, I couldn’t really say I had a favourite (style or artist) and opted for a series of different artists and my eclecticism.

For Mats, therefore, I include this photo of a painting hanging in Birgitta’s corridor.

I’m going to suggest that Mats is represented by the tiger flower while I’m the top hatted butterfly monkey. I leave the rest to someone else’s imagination.