[ Recommandation de Den danske Bibliotek ] Is it possible to debate democracy in a novel? Yes, and, when the extremely odd couple Rasmussen and Nielsen travel to America to test its democracy, you can even count on daring humour into the bargain. In the weeks leading up to the 2004 election, Rasmussen and Nielsen are in the US with their democracy box. We know them from ‘The Suicide Mission’ (2005), which documents their 2004 journey to Iraq in America’s wake to reinstate democracy. Just as A de Tocqueville (1805–79) was sent to America by France to study the country and the status of its democracy, the two travellers in their wrinkled suits want to see how democracy functions today in this achieved utopia.  Rasmussen has the vision of the mission, Nielsen is his secretary and is to deliver the historic report to the (local) press in Denmark. Their democracy box is delayed, but that doesn’t stop them from taking New York by storm. They are regarded as exciting European performance artists who put themselves on display in a rented store on Manhattan as the “Founding Fathers”. In Washington, DC, the democracy box is believed to be a bomb and the nomadic tent a psychological laboratory, the democratic mission thus being put to a serious test. This is a critical novel targeting society. It is melodic, serious and funny, though at times it is overblown in its ironic portrayal of the American lifestyle and in the two travellers’ roles, which change during the course of the novel. It is not always straightforward, but it is altogether unforgettable. Maybe utopia is out there, the dream of paradise in Horne Land on the island of Funen, where Nielsen finishes writing his report! Readers find themselves in a whirlwind of paradox and political philosophy, and European thought is often drawn upon. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, for example, who in his magnum opus ‘Leviathan’ establishes the sovereign as the possessor of power, plays a large part in the novel. The sovereign’s power and rights make up a social contract between the individual and the sovereign; a necessary contract, because man, according to Hobbes, is driven by desire and self-preservation. A novel that poses questions and challenges common beliefs about art, literature, democracy and politics is rare. Maybe a cultural space for discussion no longer exists – only an interspace where Starbucks and the consumer rules. Read, enjoy it and judge for yourself. It is bold and very, very relevant.    

[ Info ] Das Beckwerk - The Director, : Suverænen . (original language: Dansk) Gyldendal, København, ISBN: 9788702068689.