MixedPopMattersMirror, Shoulder, Signal is essentially the narrative of a women refusing to accept that youth is no longer on her side and the ordeal of having to readjust once her dependable comforts are no longer comforts. Nors charts Sonja\'s progress with a meticulous hand, detailing the heroine\'s exploits with studied resolve. But the narrative meanders aimlessly. Nothing in Nors\' novel ever feels as though it\'s moving along a steady trajectory of human experience. Rather, the novel seems more a series of joint recollections that don\'t always connect thematically … Mirror, Shoulder, Signal is, in fact, a series of glimpses of the life of a woman who ponders laboriously over her next steps. Nors provides an informative and careful sort of journalism here that captures the thought patterns of humans in the throes of anxiety. But the narrative is almost always detached and, though affably related, rather cold.
Dorthe Nors, Trans. by Misha Hoekstra
MixedPopMatters\"Nors charts Sonja\'s progress with a meticulous hand, detailing the heroine\'s exploits with studied resolve. But the narrative meanders aimlessly. Nothing in Nors\' novel ever feels as though it\'s moving along a steady trajectory of human experience. Rather, the novel seems more a series of joint recollections that don\'t always connect thematically ... many moments throughout the novel are filled with such circular and wearisome ruminations. It\'s tedious and stilts any momentum that is achieved when any form of action takes place ... Nors provides an informative and careful sort of journalism here that captures the thought patterns of humans in the throes of anxiety. But the narrative is almost always detached and, though affably related, rather cold.\
