Tower of Iron Will

Elias Rukla teaches Norwegian literature in a secondary school in Oslo. Over the years his students' attitude toward his classes has changed from bored to hostile. One day during a lecture on Ibsen's The Wild Duck one of his students lets out an exaggerated sigh and it shakes Rukla to his core. Later that day when he cannot get his umbrella to open he starts beating it against the fountain in the school's courtyard in a fit of frustration. When he realizes a group of students is staring at him he turns on them swing his broken umbrella and shouting insults. Rukla spends the rest of the novel wandering around Oslo trying to figure out how he will explain to his wife that he probably just threw away a 25 year teaching career in a moment of anger.

Except for the scene I described above, the novel takes place entirely in the head of the main character. Elias is a middle aged man who knows that the thing he values most in life, the study of literature, is regarded as a waste of time by his students. He justifies his classes by his belief that although the teenagers may not be able to appreciate literature now they will appreciate their Norwegian cultural heritage once they become adults. The truth is Elias is kind of afraid of his students and suspects they no longer have any context for appreciating Ibsen.

I must admit I kind of lost interest in the book as Elias wanders around reminiscing about his college days and his estranged best friend. The novel is very much a character study, but I was more interested in the character's situation than the character himself. As the title implies, Elias is a deeply reserved and introverted man who wants to maintain his dignity and pride but sees it all slipping away from him. If you chose to read a Dag Solstad novel you can probably relate to the feeling.