Willful Disregard: A Novel About Love

This grim little novel is gripping without being emotionally involving -- except perhaps generating some sympathy for Ester, who becomes hopelessly magnetized by an older artist she interviews for a story. I enjoyed the lean, severe writing and don't mind novels that are "talky." However, it's hard to view Ester as the rational person she prides herself as being, because we never understand what about Hugo is so irresistible. Neither character is described physically -- indeed, we get little sense of Hugo's character aside from the fact that he's an obvious jerk. A girlfriend chorus is referred to, but only vaguely. I agree with the line from the New Yorker review that the book "makes you waver between loathing and compassion for basically all humans."

The title might lead you to believe it is a light weight love story, but it is not. Instead, it is an excellent character study. Ester Nilsson was a writer and poet who had a degree in philosophy. She viewed herself as very realistic and unemotional. However, that is open to debate. She was asked to give a talk on a well known artist Hugo Rask who was also praised for his moral stances at a time when most focused on superficial things.As Ester read about Rask, she fell in love. "What she loved was not so much him as her own creation...." even though she had yet to meet him. Hugo praised her speech and told her that no one had ever understood him so deeply as she did.Soon Ester and Hugo were texting and have dinners together. She became obsessed with him and reminded me very much of a teenager or a young twenty something. It became obvious he was not as attached to her as she was to him. In fact, he seemed to want adoration from her and others rather than to give it to Ester. She would walk around his neighborhood often to see what he was doing or in hopes that they would meet and she would phone, email and text many times a day without a response.Esther had a "girlfriend chorus" that tried to get her to look at her relationship in a more unemotional, logical manner. At first I thought she was consulting with her girlfriends, but I think she was probably just having a dialogue with herself in her head.Nilsson's writing and the translation were excellent. My one nit is that there were no quotation marks with the dialogue. The author did a good job of trying to show who was speaking, but at times it made me think Esther or another character wasn't talking but just thinking. I'd have to reread a passage.If you need characters who are likable or books that are light or happy, this book is probably not for you. If you like psychological character studies, I do recommend it.

A whole book about unrequited love and a woman’s willful disregard of it was dull. The woman’s hope endured and endured, but was unendurable to read.Additionally, both characters were philosophers, so there is much philosophizing. I didn’t understand most of it, which further made the book boring.I read 60% before I gave up. Then I tried to read the last two chapters, hoping to see how it ended. They were merely more of the same dull subject matter, so I could only skim them.

Binge read this and 'Acts of Infidelity' after reading the New Yorker review. Both are great descriptions of insanity overcoming reason when someone is in love with someone not in love with them. Lena Andersson is a great writer, up there with Karl Ove Knausgaard.

Unrequited love delivers of course no happiness and joy to one’s self-esteem. For the most part, Wilful Disregard by Lena Andersson was surprisingly a good read. Good translation. Rush for time I chose to read it later in Swedish. Halfway through the story, I became impatient with one of two main characters, Ester’s obsession (my god! was it moral masochism?) while Pride cowardly took a backseat — with Hope portraying the role of a scoundrel. But as in many amorous relationships, the language of the heart dictates, ’til time (the mother of truth) or reality intervenes. Hugo Rask was a total nincompoop. But the story needed him to make sense of (justify?) Ester’s ordeal, which was excruciatingly painful.

Did I continue reading it because it must go somewhere, the monotony of repetition would have to end, the insipid female main character would have to mature or at least the other characters - any of them - would be less predictable? Alas that was not the case. Do yourself a favor and disregard willful disregard

The Nordic sensibility really comes across in this book. Love is intellectualized and dissected but not really lived or experienced. It made me reflect on my own bad breakup and hope that I wasn’t as obtuse as this woman.

I was quite surprised that given the number of stars this book had, I really did not enjoy it. Too verbose, although probably written that way based on the main character. The story seemed very drawn out and I guess overall the main characters failure to comprehend what was really happening left me feeling disappointed that she could not pull it together.

This is a really interesting and refreshing examination relationships between men and women, or indeed any relationship where there is an imbalance of power. It explores the power we give to the other person in a relationship and how even in the face of rejection, shame and embarrassment we sometimes don't take back the power and just move on. It is clever and funny and (unusually) there were so many lines I wanted to underline as quotes. I love the way Ester hypothesises and interprets Rask's actions and lack of actions until she hits on the theory she needs and then justifies her own actions in the light of this. The cover says it is “a novel about love”, I think it is a novel about self-deception.A great read, I couldn't put it down.

The sign of a great book is that it stays with you and you return to it again and again, this is such a book. Wilful Disregard can be both painful and disturbing read. An intelligence young woman, Ester, falls in love with an older man, Hugo, his response agonising to witness. Ester is slowly deminished by Hugo, it's a cruel, gruelling process almost unbearable at times to watch. Esters' self, so confident and bright at the beginning of the novel is swallowed up by the utter imbalance of the relationship. In no sense is this an easy read but for anyone who has been part of or has witnessed a one side relationship this novel lays bare the self destruction, agony and humiliation that it brings.

Lena Andersson is a magnificent writer. Her writing explains love, or is it obsession, to perfection.This is one of the best books I've ever read. And it's absolutely the only real explanation of what love and obsession actually feels like i have ever come across.Also throughout the book is some amazing philosophical content, pieces that you can underline that you will want to refer back to. How she describes Hope towards the end of the book is a real life changer, it's not what you think!I highly recommend this book.

This book has left me torn. The idea is an interesting one and the writing is impeccable, showing real insight into obsession and some great philosophical passages. Overall though I just found that poor Esther lived variations on the same situation one too many times and that just wasn't interesting to read about. There are some really well observed scenes and reflections but the actual plot just didn't quite keep me interested.

This is a brilliant, excoriating book. Not an easy read if you have ever been a victim of hope, but a necessary one. The wilful disregard of the title refers as much to the determination of the lonely to refuse to see their love object as a real person as to the cold way the loved one seems not to see the lover as real.