I recently blogged that I was reading the above book Fishing in Utopia’ by Andrew Brown.
Brown moved to Sweden in the late Seventies with his Swedish girlfriend and built a life there before returning back to the UK and revisiting Sweden 20 years later to see how it had changed.
He was interviewed in today Local ‘British Journalist fishes for the real Sweden.’
I have mixed thoughts on the book. It was of course fascinating to read what Sweden was like in the late 70s from a British perspective. I think it would have driven me mad, especially the Socialistic conformity that seemed to pervade Swedish society then or at least the West Coast of Sweden. I wonder if this book would have been very different if Andrew Brown had lived in Stockholm, especially Södermalm?
Brown’s first few months in Sweden were tough, not least because of his initial difficulties mastering the language.
“I was in hell, apart from Anita [his wife]. I wasn’t among people who spoke English. It drove me mad trying to work out the difference between ‘hans’ and ‘sin’ [Swedish for his and his/its].”
“Lots of my memories are of extreme loneliness. Fishing was a way to deal with that as well as to meet friends later.”
But loneliness, as he points out in the book, is at the heart of the Swedish experience.
“The idea of relating to strangers for pleasure did not figure largely,” he recalls in the book. It was not deliberate unfriendliness, but a society where people just didn’t know how to talk to each other.
Many aspects of the Sweden Brown describes remain recognisable today. Socialism, republicanism and tee-totalism were the foundations of society, and reminders of them were everywhere.
Like many foreigners today he was perplexed by the Systembolaget state alcohol monopoly, which in those days displayed graphic depictions of how alcohol could wreck your body.
The pervasive power of Arbetarrörelsen, the labour movement, was much in evidence in the 1970s. You could run your entire life through the labour movement: in addition to being governed by Social Democrats and being a member of an affiliated union, you could bank at the Coop bank, shop at Konsum and live in a flat owned by the workers’ movement.
While elements of this system remain in place, Brown insists that the Sweden of today is greatly changed:
“You don’t really hear words like nykterhet or solidaritet” today, he says, referring to the Swedish words for temperance and solidarity.
“The Swedish model had right-wing components,” like deference and authoritarianism he argues. This, he thinks, is something that many international fans of the Swedish model fail to recognise.
“You had internally-imposed conformity. It was quite easy for the Social Democrats to tweak the definition of what was acceptable.” There was no real acceptance of pluralism, he says. There was only one socially acceptable view on matters such as women’s rights and immigration.
Brown admits to mixed feelings about Swedish conformity: “When you’re inside it you hate it – it’s oppressive, but when you move away you see the virtues of it. I’ve given up trying to decide whether it’s good.”
I have been lucky in that most people I know in Stockholm speak English so I dont think loneliness is at the core of Swedish life though I must confess that it can be. Especially when like myself you try and avoid the expat scene as much as I can. I get barracked for this but I moved here for cultural reasons as we well as cultural aspirations.
I think expats today are very lucky because of the internet. Its easier to find information online, whether that be tax advice or where to buy Branstons pickle, or to find a partner online or people with similar interests to where is a good place to eat? None of that was available to to Andrew Brown. I can honestly say I would have been lost without the net.
In all honesty had I read this book before moving to Sweden, I may well have cancelled my tickets and stayed in blighty. He paints a dark picture with a few chinks of light.
I think its fairly clear that he doesnt like Bildt and the Moderates and is not so keen on the Alliance government. He is probably nostalgic for the old social democratic ways which is fine for him as he is living in London.
Its worth a read though, especially if you are British and live here or have lived here for some time. I did enjoy his fishing references and though it was an interesting prism in which to tell his tale.
Who knows maybe in twenty years I will pen a book which some upstart of a blogger may criticise 
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I found the book a bit disappointing. The author came from quite a privileged background and I felt that what most surprised him most about being in Sweden wasn’t particularly Swedish-specific, rather that he went through a culture shock of living in a working class community for the first time. He could have made similar observations to those made in the book had he moved to South Shields.
In general, I tend not to like those books which make sweeping observations and conclusions about societies from the perspective of the pseudointellectual middle class outsider. As ever in life, “its a bit more complicated than that” .
You are right Dave, I hadnt thought of it from a class background.
Can just imagine him quaffing expensive bottles of plonk up Notting Hill!
On saying that its just his view and was quite interested in how he found it on first arriving but after that the book didnt really get going.
I have to be honest, I havent read this book.
Fishing doesn’t really interest me, and if I had to force myself to read such a book, it would be a toss up between fish recipes of Rick Stein …. or fly fishing by J R Hartley LOL.
But back when I was 14, I left the UK for a year or 2 to stay with my dad in Stockholm and work in a warehouse for Indiska (I had already left school at 13 in the UK …. its a long story) but this must have been around 1989 to 90 /91.
I remember the times were defiantly different back then.
And the social scene was very surreal and very distant.
In 91 I moved back to the UK to return to education, and remember the glee I felt at returning home. And while life was a lot tougher in the UK for me in terms of social problems (rough nightlife / chavs / lack of middle class etc) and paychecks ….. I was still very glad to be back in the sociable UK.
However by 94, it had all got to much for me in the UK.
I think John major was prime-minister at the time, and the poll tax and other issues had come into effect on a very poor / financial recession period. SO I came back to Stockholm to stay at my dads for a few weeks holiday (and trying to scrounge some cash to be on my merry way to hopefully pick grapes in portugal or some other young dream I had back then). Well it never happened and I eventually met my wife over here and have been here since.
When I first came here in Oct. 94 I populously tried to stay away from Expats, as I didnt want to hear the baggage stories …. As there was way too many. But over the years the I have come to realize that many expats over here (that are not geezers at the local pub) are not always knot tied handkerchief Alf Garnett’s … A few expats I have met, are similar to myself in the sense that they left looking for a more relaxed, less aggressive middle class citizen.
Its a very delicate balance.
Utopia in a sense is to imagine that Sweden is your summer house.
And if you have enough cash to be able to travel well and still be able to retreat back to Sweden for the gaps, then that for me I would think is the happy medium.
Sweden is defiantly changing at a fast pace at present.
And I am not sure if I will be so happy here say in 5 years as the changes that we are seeing are a natural progression …. But, and this is a big “BUT” the changes we are starting to see appear to be a far less “liberal Sweden” and if Sweden does become a more hardlined while continuing to recruit a huge amount of outside help which is needed for the economy and continuing to stay on track forcing nationalistic and cultural assimilation then I am sure I will have to look elsewhere to live.
Sweden is defiantly at a cross roads in terms of future direction.
And my biggest fear is that we may see a very skewed social reality very soon. The funny thing is if you took the UK and compared it to Sweden in its present state you couldn’t find a more extreme comparison in Europe.
BTW, is the local kebab house shut for summer holidays?
Mark, thats a cracking comment entry! A lot to chew over there and will do so in due course.
Yes Palmyra är stangt….just as well as I am on a running programme …again !
So how is your Swedish coming on Shane ? Are you going to post another blog entry in Swedish soon ?
I suspect after next week I may post på svenska.
Did follow your advice David and I can actually read a lot of Swedish now…