The Survivors by Alex Schulman

First published in Sweden in 2020; published in translation by Doubleday on October 5, 2021

Three sons and two dysfunctional parents are the only significant characters in The Survivors. The sons reunite for their mother’s funeral, their father having died years earlier. The funeral requires a change of plan when the kids discover a note that their mother left behind. The reader does not learn the content of the note until the novel’s end, as it reveals a fact that Alex Schulman keeps secret until the novel’s late stages. The secret changes the reader’s understanding of the events that precede its revelation.

Much of the story consists of memories of unpleasant childhoods, scattered across the story that takes place in the present. The memories are “spread out like Lego bricks” for a therapist (and the reader) to examine. Transitions between time frames are not always clear. The story is sometimes disorienting, an effect that I assume Schulman intended.

The parents were educated and had refined sensibilities, but they lived in poverty. They gave their kids “an upper-class upbringing that somehow occurred below the poverty line.” The children’s “academic upbringing had been undertaken halfheartedly; it began with great to-do but was never completed.” At some point, the parents lost energy and their parenting project ground to a halt.

Mom was usually sullen but sometimes erupted in emotional outbursts. The kids found making Mom happy to be a hit-or-miss task at which they usually missed, although she did little to encourage their efforts. She seemed to have more affection for the dog than for her boys, although even the dog earned inconsistent attention. Dad had an anger management problem, compounded by a drinking problem that he shared with Mom. Dad spent time with the kids only when he felt a need to alleviate his loneliness.

The brothers are Nils, Benjamin, and Pierre. “Benjamin was always trying to get closer to his parents; Nils wanted to get away.” Nils, who had “special standing” with his parents because he was a good student, feels he was abused by his two brothers. Pierre feels he was abused by his parents and blames his brothers for not protecting him. Even before an electric shock induced visual disturbances, Benjamin had moments when he disassociated from reality.

The parents once encouraged the three bothers to have a swimming contest, then went inside for a nap, apparently unconcerned whether the kids were capable of swimming to a distant buoy. Nor were the parents particularly attentive when Benjamin nearly electrocuted himself at an abandoned power station. That event is significant not just to Benjamin, but to the plot that eventually unfolds. Benjamin felt “a deep love for his father in spite of everything,” but Benjamin lived in his own world. His memories, like his perceptions of the present, might not be reliable.

For much of the novel, the story feels true to its Swedish origins. Gloom overwhelms the characters and threatens to infect the reader. The therapist is a familiar fixture in Scandinavian literature. We only catch a late glimpse of a therapy session, but it is the breakthrough session that reveals the hidden truth, a truth that has been distorted by memory. The truth is known to the therapist, who wastes no time dropping it in Benjamin’s lap. Her hurry to get to the point comes as a relief, as the time the reader spends with this dysfunctional family is far from joyful.

Still, the lives of the depressive characters have some interesting moments and the story is nicely detailed. The woods, the lake, the power station, the cabin — all are easy to visualize, as are the sullen characters. The story is at times maddeningly ambiguous, and it is only at the end that the reader realizes how those ambiguities serve the story. My reaction to the big reveal was more “huh” than “wow,” but I admired the skill with which the story is constructed.

RECOMMENDED