Danish author Tove Ditlevsen wrote poetry, novels and short stories. Today, perhaps she is best known as a memoirist. Her collection of memoirs, “Childhood,” “Youth,” and “Dependency” has been called a “masterpiece” by the New York Times.
Ditlevsen (1917-1976), leaves no stone unturned in her brutally honest, often disturbing narrative. In “Childhood,” she describes growing up poor in a working-class neighborhood of Copenhagen and writing poetry in secret from her family. In “Youth,” she often changes jobs, looks for love, and moves out of her parents’ apartment. In “Dependency,” Ditlevsen begins to publish her work and gains recognition as a writer, while she goes through four marriages and becomes a mother.
Throughout her life, Ditlevsen suffered from drug addiction. Her third husband, a sociopathic doctor, introduced her to pain killers and kept her on a steady stream of Demerol to keep her numbed and subdued. She nearly died, but was eventually able to leave him and check into rehab.
Ditlevsen’s prose is beautiful – her origins as a poet clearly come through her in her writing – but the subject matter – such as parental neglect, abuse, poverty, divorce – is anything but. In one chapter, she describes her attempts at abortion, which was illegal in Denmark at the time, in painful detail. Reading these passages in post-Roe America is especially chilling.
https://www.amazon.com/Copenhagen-Trilogy-Childhood-Youth-Dependency/dp/0374602395
https://bookshop.org/books/the-copenhagen-trilogy-childhood-youth-dependency/9780374602390
Alexandra (Sasha) Schwank 