Review: This Should Be Written in the Present Tense, by Helle Helle

I have just finished reading the most wonderful book.

My boss suggested this book without having read it. I think I will make him read it. At first, the run-on sentences bothered me. They were deliberate, though, and used to effect.

When I was done, I thought I wanted to cry, but I had forgotten how.

The jacket said it is a book ‘for anyone who has ever been young, sleepless, and a little reckless, trying to figure it all out.’

But I think it is a book about the small things we notice when we’re trying hard not to notice the big things. It is beautiful, but strangely so.

When I googled it later, I found a review from the Guardian, describing it as ‘a book with all the bigness hidden away’, so I guess someone agrees with me.