NONFICTION - Jan. 7, 1996

CHILDHOOD by Jan Myrdal, translated from the Swedish by Christine Swanson (Lake View Press: $18.95; 182 pp.). Alva Myrdal won the Nobel Peace Prize; her husband, Gunnar, author of “An American Dilemma,” an important book on race relations, won the Nobel in economics. Together, they were architects of Swedish social democracy. But they were lousy parents, says their son, Jan, author, among other things, of “Confessions of a Disloyal European” and “Report From a Chinese Village.” In this memoir of his life from ages 5 to 10, which ignited furious controversy when published in Sweden in 1982, Jan Myrdal says that Gunnar alternately humiliated and ignored him; Alva viewed him as a laboratory animal, taking copious notes on his behavior and constantly referring to her “problem child” in public. Jan had only two refuges: his traditional grandparents’ farm and a world of icy, lyrical fantasy.

In a sequel, “Another World,” Jan describes accompanying his parents to the United States. In the third volume of the trilogy, “12 Going On 13” (also available from Lake View Press), World War II has broken out. Jan wants to stay in America, but Alva and Gunnar force him to return with them to Sweden, jeopardizing his future, he feels, for the sake of their public-spirited image. But by now, he is beginning to fight back. From Mark Twain, Leadbelly’s music, Native American history and other sources, he constructs a positive image of himself as a rebel. His fantasies grow more elaborate. We see him turning into the frank, acerbic writer who has produced films, plays and some 60 books.