A day in the life of Alfred

Øivind Hovland is a Norwegian artist who has earned a living illustrating book covers and magazine articles.  Obviously with ambitions to create something of his own and has produced his first two books, released by Tabella Publishing.   

As the title suggests, this follows Alfred through the drudgery of his daily life and the anomie of urban living.  On the left hand page are monochrome drawings with some parts coloured in stark red and on the opposite page are captions or Alfred's thoughts.  These illustrations and the text give an insight into the mind of a lonely office worker haunted by a childhood trauma.  You really feel something for Alfred when you get to the end and I immediately re-read it with an entirely different viewpoint.   

Obsessed by cobbled streets and with an almost autistic attention to numbers and places, A day in the life of Alfred shows his journey to work, his path from the elevator to his desk and an encounter with a man who constantly passes on his way to and from the office. 

In under 56 pages Øivind Hovland is able to get so much emotion into the illustrations and sparse text that you really feel for Alfred and the book is touching and affecting.  I've read it three times now and enjoyed it more each time.  I found Trial and Error to be more fun, but this is social commentary and so is deeper and certainly more meaningful.   

With books by the same author, you tend to assume that if you liked one you would like the other but this isn't the case here as they are so different.   They have different audiences and, although I liked them both, there will be people who prefer one to the other as this is dark and quite moving whereas Trial and Error was whimsical and quite fun.  This is the more rewarding of the two and another that you will lend to friends and buy numerous times.