Friday, 25 September 2009

Versions of Strunge

At Kiiltomato, Barbro Enckell-Grimm reviews the Swedish edition of Knud Munck's biography of Michael Strunge, finding it to be a somewhat modified version of the original Danish book, focused more on the details of Strunge's life rather than on the analysis and presentation of his work. But she also finds fault with the stylistic character of the translation, and calls the original Danish text "more generous", as it goes more deeply into the literary, cultural and poetic wellsprings of Strunge's inspiration. The Danish edition is better and more clearly written, and less concerned with trying to popularize Strunge's pop-oriented but also deadly serious personal and existential quest.