Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Such Good Work
Such Good Work: A Novel | Johannes Lichtman
3 posts | 5 read | 2 to read
A timely and provocative debut novel that Rivka Galchen calls “wisely comic and tremendously moving,” about a creative writing teacher whose efforts to stay sober land him in Malmö, Sweden, where drugs are scarce but the refugee crisis forces a very different kind of reckoning. Jonas Anderson might be an excellent teacher if he weren’t addicted to drugs. Instead, at age twenty-eight, he’s been fired from yet another creative writing position after assigning homework like, visit a stranger’s funeral and write about it. Jonas needs to do something drastic and, as a dual American-Swedish citizen, he knows Sweden is an easy place to be a graduate student and a difficult place to be a drug addict. The year is 2015 when he arrives in Malmö, a city trying to cope with the arrival of tens of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees. Driven by an existential need to “do good,” Jonas volunteers with an organization that teaches Swedish to the desperate and idling young refugees. But one young man, Aziz, will force Jonas to question whether “doing good” can actually help another person. Such Good Work is a darkly funny work of autofiction that asks us to consider how one should go about being a good person in our modern world. In his striking debut novel, Johannes Lichtman’s uses pathos and humor to grapple with simple yet necessary questions—Such Good Work begs you to consider the person you are, as well as the person you hope to be.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
Anna40
Such Good Work: A Novel | Johannes Lichtman
post image
Mehso-so

Jonas moves to Sweden to get his s...t together and after 150 pages he becomes proactive and volunteers, helps refugees, because he has to vomit after reading the news. That's it. In between he goes to parties, writes his thesis and tries to find a girlfriend or not? I. Don't. Care.

Yes, it is well written, yes, Jonas is a relatable, well developed character, yes, it does address serious issues, but why this story?

quote
shawnmooney
Such Good Work: A Novel | Johannes Lichtman
post image

Lindy 💔 5y
35 likes1 comment
quote
shawnmooney
Such Good Work: A Novel | Johannes Lichtman
post image

saresmoore 😅 This is how I dance, too. 5y
CouronneDhiver 😂😂 5y
42 likes2 comments