Udda

I guess the word is "verve", not just because it sounds like "verb" and both Lövestam and one of her lead characters are fascinated with grammar. But because even despite having a cast of characters that's not your typical cookie-cutter romcom cast (it's a triangle drama between a butch lesbian high school teacher who can't spell "commitment", a repressed male store manager with an amputee fetish, and a paraplegic academic whose attitude towards romance is that she doesn't want to attract the sort of people who find a woman without legs attractive) there are times when the plot gets painfully clichéd. Right up to the bit where it turns out everyone knows each other without knowing it. Yet what makes it remarkable is Lövestam's attitude: it's the good sort of debut novel, the one where the author goes "Fuck it, let's just do this", mixes up some familiar ingredients, sneaks in some rather clever thoughts on language and identity between the lines, finds her voice, and plows full steam ahead. It's not always revelatory, but it's never less than entertaining and in some aspects kinda great.

3.5