Borderliners by Peter Høeg
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I do not like this novel much. While I appreciate the overall message that I think Mr. Høeg wants to convey in Borderliners—that love is the main thing, which the children need when they are growing up—I am not impressed with the form in which the message is presented. Other readers may like the highly elliptical prose much more; I find it obscures the narration.

Borderliners merges two different literary entities. One—told by the narrator, a 14-year-old boy with four different institutions for children from broken homes in his past—is the story of children's rebellion against strict discipline in an exclusive Danish school in the early 1970s. It could have been a heart-rending story, showing the need for treating children as human beings, not only having them follow rules and schedules. I believe it could have been a captivating tale were it told with more focus. Mr. Høeg has shown that, when he wants to, he can write with intense lyricism, such as in the scene of the kiss.

Rambling divagations on the nature of time constitute the second entity. The author muses on the topics of subjective vs. objective time, absolute vs. relative time, and linear vs. cyclical time. (By the way—since the author mentions mathematics a few times—mathematicians have known, since the late 18th century, a sort of equivalence between linear time and cyclical time: it is expressed in the form of Fourier series.) Even the relationship between time and entropy is mentioned. The author insists on stressing the link between the story and his musings about time, yet—in my view—the connection is tenuous.

I appreciate the author's asides on Danish educational theories. Having been an educator for over 50 years, I would agree with what I think Mr. Høeg wants to stress: that no educational approach will work for all students and that the emphasis must always be on the student rather than on the method.

Towards the end of the book, a major twist in the plot of the children's story seems to be revealed. Yet, the author leaves it to be discovered by the reader.


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