REMEMBER THE CITY

Author: Per Anders Fogelström
Year: 1964
Publisher: Albert Bonniers Förlag
Language: Swedish

The new century dawned amid the throbbing disquiet that one and a half decade later would hurl Europe into an event that came to define the entire epoch; a world war.  By now, labour unions had crystallized into forces of considerable import, demanding, and enforcing the much-desired principle of eight hours for work, eight for rest, and eight for leisure. Astonishingly, even some employers, guided perhaps by a flicker of enlightenment or, more likely, by a calculated desire to retain skilled labour, began to see in humane conditions a way of ensuring the continuous and efficient production line. After all, as abundant as unskilled labour was, the growing complexity of the production industry began to require workers of some aptitude.

Even so, strikes and conflict abounded, marking the twilight of the untethered capitalism that had proven as unsustainable as it was insatiable. In its place, a confident labour movement emerged, which to this day purports to guard the rights and dignity of those who trade their skill and sweat for sustenance.

Against this backdrop unfolds the third volume of Per Anders Fogelström's five-part epic, “Minns du den stad” (“Remember the City”), charting Stockholm’s metamorphosis from a backward outpost in the northern provinces of Europe to the hotbed for culture, commerce, and governance in Scandinavia which it would become. Here, Emelie Nilsson, daughter of the late Henning Nilsson, emerges as the pivotal character. Her loyalty, steadfastness, wisdom, and kindness earn her a place in the literary pantheon of paragons, on par with the likes of Jean Valjean (see review from September 2022) and Atticus Finch. Through her modest but indomitable spirit, she becomes the unseen architect of the fortune of others, saving her young nephew from domestic abuse and almost certain death, shielding her brother’s honour, and stirring the young women around her to take the reins of their own lives. Even amid the brewing animosity between capitalists and labourers, where the risk of a violent revolution looms ominously, Emelie wins the trust of her coworkers and employers alike.

Despite the tensions and the enormous upheaval that Stockholm, and indeed the rest of the western world endures, the atmosphere of Fogelström’s universe remains warm, contemplative, and benign. The struggles are, of course, keenly bitter and enmity irreconcilable. Some individuals prey upon the vulnerable, leaving some destitute souls to collapse under the weight of oppression, sometimes inflicting harm on others as they fall. Yet, for all its suffering, hatred, and injustice, Fogelström's world is never desolate. His characters know what is right and wrong and their choices, even when they are harmful or destructive, are rarely governed by malice, but rather by inadequacy and fear.

More than anything else, Fogelström seeks to unveil for us the resilience and tenacity of Stockholm’s underprivileged classes. These workers of the city’s underbelly refuse to give in; neither to despair nor to hunger. And also, as embodied by figures such as Gunnar and Tummen, they refuse to surrender to bitterness or brutality. The socialist revolution in Sweden, was a revolution of dignity and perseverance.

“She who is poor, must be very strong. The grit to toil at length, refusing to give in.”*

The identity of poverty permeates every thread of relationship in “Minns du den stad”, casting its shadow and light upon each encounter and interaction. Fogelström invites his characters to ponder upon their own existence and their station in society. They measure themselves against one another, positioning themselves with regard to one another. They define, compartmentalise, and label themselves and people in their community.  In both their rejection and acceptance of the humiliations they endure, they carve out a remarkable spectrum of perspectives, each unique and defiantly individual. In different ways, they embrace and reject various aspects of their material want to form unique insights into how a population that is united by their squalor, can remain so diverse. No poverty can rob them of their human dignity. 

* My own translation from the Swedish original.