MICRO REVIEW: The Room by Jonas Karlsson

The Room is an absorbing novella written by Jonas Karlsson, a Swedish actor (Beck, Death of a Pilgrim, The Fourth Man) who seems to juggle more than successfully professional acting and writing. This is a claustrophobic story dealing with various themes such as the nature of existence, its relation to the spatial dimension as well as the source of human inspiration. Karlsson writes in plain and simple prose which is easy to follow and allows the reader to devote his attention to the irrational side of the story and its potential interpretations and meanings, a fact that reminds the reader of the work of Franz Kafka and the absurdist artists like Samuel Beckett and Ionesco. The Room is a book that should be read by all as it concerns each one of us. I am eagerly waiting for the future novels by J. Karlsson, hoping that they will cause more intellectual engagement than this one.