The Year of Living Danishly

This book was a little boring. The problem is that it's a mixture of non-fiction (facts about Denmark) and a novel (the story of a journalist moving to Denmark for a year), but none of the two is good enough. Facts and statistics are outdated (despite the “recent studies show” lines without any date indication) and the novel itself doesn't have any conflict or interesting plot, you can't emotionally connect with the main character (and her husband - whose name remains unknown: she calls him “Lego Man” and that in itself was, well... cringy.

I found this story fascinating at times I was dazzled with the idea of living in Denmark and other times I had second thoughts. It was interesting to learn about this culture and style of thinking. I love the idea of having trust and and finding joy. I like the idea of equality and available resources. I love the passion for the nation and the care of the environment. But this book did show some of the dark sides too gender equality isn't as great and we first thought also high divorce rates and drinking rates are questionable. Overall I think I'd like to live a year Danishly.

The Year of Living Danishly is a memoir of Helen Russell's move to Denmark for a year. Russell used the year to take a close look at why Danish people report themselves to be the happiest people in the world. I am happy to have learned more about happiness from this book.

This book is really funny and filled with dry British humour, it made me laugh out loud many times. It could be because in some sense, it's similar to Sweden, a country I've lived previously. Being married to a Swede and living in the UK, it was easy to relate to it to a certain degree. Having said that, it appears that Danes are so much more free and in a certain way, they seem to have an attitude of “as long as you're happy, anything is allowed”. That part of their life, I did not enjoy, nor reading about how free they are to express themselves sexually. Therefore, I would not recommend the book as there is almost a whole chapter talking about that. If you really want to read the book, go ahead but it's not worth spending the time unless you are actually listening to the book so you can actually do something else in the meantime. Also, the last few sentences of the book summarise the whole book pretty well.

A surprising little nugget of awesome.

Ok, I'm impressed with this book for many reasons. The author was relateable and her situation was epathtically lamentable. In the end, this is upper-class writing.

As non-fiction goes, an author's voice is often dull and mechanical, unless you are Helen Russell. She was witty, glib, and completely normal from start to finish. As I do, she assigned nicknames to most of those she interacted with. Examples include “Judgy Face” or “Lego Man.”

Her research was neither tediously academic nor jeuvenile. The majority of her research is based on interviews, jotted notes, and humerous internal monologue.

From start to finish the reader loves the story woven around her main goal to identify what makes Danes so happy. The project is broken up into 12 months, with each month ending in a summary of her findings. The best of her observations, interviews, and internet research are highlighted throughout. The reader stands to learn more about rural Danish life and tradition than you thought possible. Certainly more than you previously thought interesting.

In summary, well done Helen. Please write more so I can read all of your work.