The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Brigge is a writer. As well as writing the notebook that constitutes the novel, he claims to have written other works that were, by his own admission, poorly received. Brigge believes that these attempts at writing failed because he lacks the knowledge and maturity needed to tackle the impossible complexity of life. The more he learns about the world and the more he tries to infuse this knowledge into his writing, the more he comes to realize that life is so incredibly complicated that there is no possible way for his writing to be a truly accurate portrayal of the world. Brigge’s notes are his attempt to deal with this issue. Rather than fitting this complexity into a conventional narrative with a beginning, middle and end, Brigge simply catalogues every thought and observation that comes to him without regard to their order or cohesiveness.

Rilke was one of Europe’s foremost Modernist poets, and the style of The Notebooks reflects the Modernist concept that life and experience are nonlinear; language must break its traditional narrative and linguistic constraints to create an authentic expression. Brigge’s failure as an author is as much a commentary on the failure of traditional narrative as it is on Brigge’s lack of literary skill.