''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 h ...

. 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 ''En komikers uppväxt'' is a 1992 novel by Swedish writer Jonas Gardell. 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 ...

''. 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 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to promote reading, publishing, and copyright ...

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

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

. Recently, Gardell adapted his novel into a screenplay for a feature film (English title: ''

My Life as a Comedian My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Market ...

''), 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 (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

xenophobia Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

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

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

with a heavy accent and at one point girls are throwing

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

salutes at her, and Juha's mother is Finnish as in all other versions.

References

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