''En komikers uppväxt'' is a 1992 novel by Swedish writer

Jonas Gardell Lars Jonas Holger Gardell (born 2 November 1963) is a Swedish novelist, playwright, screenwriter and comedian. He is the brother of religion scholar Mattias Gardell. He is well known for his books and plays in all of Scandinavia and his books ha ...

. Loosely based on his own upbringing, the novel portrays a boy, Juha, struggling with acceptance and belonging in suburban Stockholm. Juha is torn between loyalty to his old friends, the outcast kids Jenny and Thomas, and wanting to be one of the cool kids and get the popular girls. The novel was the basis of a 1992 Swedish TV miniseries in three parts, also called '' En komikers uppväxt''. On 13 April 2000, the book was given as a gift from the National Agency for Education, Svenska förläggareföreningen and Månpocket to all eighth-grade pupils in Sweden before the

World Book Day World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day or International Day of the Book, is an annual event organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote reading, publishing, and copyrig ...

, which occurred on 23 April, but the giving was done earlier because of

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

. Recently Gardell adapted his novel into a screenplay for a feature film (English title: '' My Life as a Comedian''), which had its world premiere on 6 September 2019 at the

2019 Toronto International Film Festival The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film '' Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band'', directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a ...

. The film, directed by , is set in two time frames, the 1970s and the 2010s (whereas the novel was set in the 1970s from the perspective of the 1990s). The movie highlights the

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

and

xenophobia Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

of 1970s suburban Sweden as it emphasizes the foreign background of the three outcast kids: Jenny is played by an Chinese-Swedish girl, Thomas's mother is portrayed as

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

with a heavy accent and at one point girls are throwing

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

salutes at her, and Juha's mother is

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

as in all other versions.

References

1992 Swedish novels Swedish-language novels Swedish novels adapted into films {{1990s-novel-stub