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Bjorn Ranelid. Mitt namn skall vara Stig Dagerman. Stockholm. Bonnier Alba. 1993. 324 pages.
Bjorn Ranelid (b. 1949) belongs among the more interesting of contemporary Swedish novelists. Mitt namn skall vara Stig Dagerman (My Name Shall Be Stig Dagerman) is his eighth novel, but not his most successful. Some critics have expressed discomfort with the work's very premise: Ranelid assumes the voice of the legendary author Stig Dagerman (1923-54) and presumes to write an "autobiographical" account of Dagerman's life. In the novel the fictional Dagerman recalls his life story in flashbacks to a compassionate hotel maid, Karin Lind, a former ballerina who had to give up dancing after a bicycle accident in which she broke her ankle. The confession takes place in a...