Finished it...

[metoo]

These two lines appear right after the "Be me a little scene" in the English version:

And the person in his arms was … Eli.
A boy. My friend. Yes.

That certainly lets the reader know how Oskar views Eli now.
I was just wondering if this was the same in the Swedish version?

Yes, it was.

[jcckidz]

Thank you all very much for the replies. They continue to shed light on these details for me. Ofelia, I don't think it's that you were vague, but that I think really detailed sometimes. That can make it difficult for me to just get the "gist" of what people are saying. I appreciate everyone's patience. That said, here I go again

What I see as ideal, however, is to think of Eli as Eli, free of such labels; neither boy nor girl, the way Eli sees Eli. That's why I really hope JAL chose not to be lenient in regards to using male pronouns and only did so when he absolutely had to.

This is what he does, for the most part. It's not noticeable in the original Swedish unless you already know that particular twist.

When you say "for the most part" do you mean he doesn't always try to avoid using the male pronoun or that he does always try, but for technical reasons (or to avoid awkward wording) he sometimes uses it?

Also, when you say "It's not noticeable..." do you mean his avoidance of using gender words doesn't stand out in a way that would make the reader think he's hiding something about Eli unless the reader already knew he was doing it because Eli is an androgynous biological boy?

In scenes that are from Håkan's perspective, gender isn't used, but I think this is because it would confuse the reader/ spoil the twist if we saw that Håkan thought of Eli as "he".

Excellent point! I had thought about that, I just didn't exactly know how to express it in words. You said it perfectly.

But before you find out about Eli's gender, Håkan in the hospital dreams of Eli as "a boy angel" coming to rescue him. That stood out to me when I read it, and I'm pretty sure it's in both versions.

These two lines appear right after the "Be me a little scene" in the English version:

And the person in his arms was … Eli.
A boy. My friend. Yes.

That certainly lets the reader know how Oskar views Eli now.
I was just wondering if this was the same in the Swedish version?

Yes, it was.

Yeah, I figured anytime Eli is directly referred to as "A boy" in the English version, it's also like that in the Swedish version.

As for Oskar, I think he stops thinking about it after a certain point. It's not really relevant to them anymore, and since Eli dismisses it easily enough I assume Oskar does too.

By the end of the book the question of Eli's gender seems to have lost it's importance to Oskar, he doesn't contemplate it anymore.

I totally agree.

The scene is written from Oskar's perspective, and the pronoun used for Eli is he:

Det hade ingen betydelse. Det väsentliga var att gubben hade en kniv i händerna, en kniv som pekade rakt ner mot Elis bröst där han låg naken, blottad i badkaret

What's the translation of the sentence? I could make out a couple of words, like knife and hand. Also, is the use of "han" only due to it being unavoidable or does it seem like it was avoidable, but that it was intentionally used by JAL to show us that Oskar saw Eli as a boy at this point in time?

Lacke höjde sitt glas mot munnen Lacke raised his glass to his mouth

It's really interesting the way JAL didn't use gender words when referring to Lacke (at least in this sentence). Was that intentional or is it just that Swedish is sometimes/often like that?

In the end, if you want to dive this deep into the Swedish original text, you should get it.

You know something? That's a great idea!

Just a random unrelated question. Is this book available in hardback? I've only every seen it in softback. I'd like to get it in hardback if possible.

[metoo]

When you say "for the most part" do you mean he doesn't always try to avoid using the male pronoun or that he does always try, but for technical reasons (or to avoid awkward wording) he sometimes uses it?

You have to get the book and study it yourself to get a more precise answer. Still, without spending hours on checking every sentence in the book, I'd say that Eli's true gender isn't revealed until Oskar learns about it.

Do you mean his avoidance of using gender words doesn't stand out in a way that would make the reader think he's hiding something about Eli unless the reader already knew he was doing it because Eli is an androgynous biological boy?

I'd say that.

What's the translation of the sentence? I could make out a couple of words, like knife and hand. Also, is the use of "han" only due to it being unavoidable or does it seem like it was avoidable, but that it was intentionally used by JAL to show us that Oskar saw Eli as a boy at this point in time?

I challenge you to find the translation yourself, as an exercise!

It's really interesting the way JAL didn't use gender words when referring to Lacke (at least in this sentence). Was that intentional or is it just that Swedish is sometimes/often like that?

This is just normal Swedish.

Just a random unrelated question. Is this book available in hardback? I've only every seen it in softback. I'd like to get it in hardback if possible.

It's not available new in hardback, only in paperback. However, since you are into studying the book in such detail, I recommend getting an electronic version. I have one (in addition to the paperback I got first), without that I wouldn't be able to answer your questions.

[ofelia]

When you say "It's not noticeable..." do you mean his avoidance of using gender words doesn't stand out in a way that would make the reader think he's hiding something about Eli unless the reader already knew he was doing it because Eli is an androgynous biological boy?

Yes. It doesn't at all seem like anything is being concealed because it's such a tiny subtle thing. Like the sentence about Lacke that metoo used as an example. Also JAL's writing style is very direct and choppy; I haven't read his other books yet, so I don't know if it's because of this whole gender avoidance or just his style. But you get a lot of sentences where there's no subject at all, like: He got on the train, sat down. Stared out the window. That's not an actual quote, but he writes in that pattern, which diverts you from the fact that no pronoun is used for Eli (in the beginning of the book). And because of Swedish grammar this doesn't stand out as anything but a stylistic choice. If I had read it in Swedish first, I wouldn't have picked up on it. It's like when you read dialogue, you don't always notice the "said" words: said, asked, explained, etc. They just sort of go by unnoticed because you're paying attention to the dialogue, not the little surrounding words. It's kind of like that: you only notice if you're looking for it. That would be the closest parallel I can think of in English, since we don't have gendered nouns.