Post by Taika of Narfell on Jan 14, 2007 17:37:59 GMT 1
A Norwegian book that I've read in Danish. I know it has been translated to English, I do not know the quality of the translation, though. I hope it is good, because this book deserves it.
The book follows Dina, who at a very young age accidentally causes her mother's death. The experience marks her for life - not surprisingly - and in addition to that, there is no one to help her deal with her grief, her guilt and uncertainty. Her father cannot deal with the daughter of his dead wife so he sends her away to be raised with another family. But Dina is unapproachable and ends up being beyond help. After 7 years with the other family she comes home to a father who has remarried but still loves his deceased wife. To a stepmother who continuously attempts to remove all the paintings of her predecessor but must accept that she comes second to a dead woman.
And Dina is still unapproachable. She is wild and untamable, she rides like a man, and has no sense of propriety. Not till Mr. Lorch is hired to teach her does she calm down a little. Not because Lorch is a good teacher, but because he can play the cello, and that instrument captivates Dina and enables her to listen. Lorch manages to teach her not only to play cello and piano but also to read at least a little, and he finds that she is very good with numbers - something unheard of in a woman in the 19th century.
At the age of 15 she catches the eye of her father's widower friend. The man is 50 but asks Dina's father for her hand. He agrees without asking Dina - another thing she never forgives him for. It is with her marriage to the 30 years older man, Jacob, that the story truly starts. Her life at the much larger farmstead, Reinsnes, becomes something of a personal epic.
She remains as untameable as always, she does what she wants, smokes cigars with the gents if she feels like it and drinks more than is healthy. And she has no sense of propriety still.
Her relations with the people on the farm are trained to say the least. With no manners and no propriety, and no real connection to society and its rules and norms it is difficult to be a proper wife in the mid-19th century. And the book portrays it more from outside Dina's point of view, even when we get Dina's point of view we are still somehow outside it.
We follow her through insanity, widowhood, birth, loss, abortion, rumours and the daily life in a large trader household in a Norwegian fiord. It is intense and captivating. While Dina is a heroine few would be able to identify with there is a supporting character for everyone. The cook, Oline, who has been in the household for several generations and stays behind the scenes with her silent authority; Dina's mother-in-law, Mother Karen, who takes charge when Dina is in one of her moods, but is as gentle as can be; Stine, mother of two children out of wedlock, the first of which died, who was taken in by Dina to help raise Dina's own son; Johan, the son of Dina's husband - about the same age as Dina - whos tudies theology in Copenhagen but has but has problems with being himself - especially around Dina; Nils and Anders the two brothers and fostersons of Dina's husband, as different as night and day with differences that grow only more marked as time passes; Tomas the boy from Dina's childhood home who taught her to handle a gun and ended up being the main farm hand in her new home; and Leo the traveling Russian who is as wild and untameable as Dina herself.
I cannot say too much of any of them as it would reveal a great deal about the book's plot. Suffice to say that the book revolves around emotions and relations between people. It shows the wonderful contrast between the properly raised people with their controlled and calculated behaviour that never reveals too much and the wild Dina who shows more frankly what she wants, but all the while reveals even less than anyone else.
It says on the back of the book that it takes its readers like Dina takes her men. How to interpret that is best left to the individual reader after having finished the last page.
Suffice to say that it is a book well worth reading. I'll even say it might well end up as one of the classics of Scandinavian Literature in our century. I, for one, think it should. A must read for anyone who likes drama and personal sagas.
The book follows Dina, who at a very young age accidentally causes her mother's death. The experience marks her for life - not surprisingly - and in addition to that, there is no one to help her deal with her grief, her guilt and uncertainty. Her father cannot deal with the daughter of his dead wife so he sends her away to be raised with another family. But Dina is unapproachable and ends up being beyond help. After 7 years with the other family she comes home to a father who has remarried but still loves his deceased wife. To a stepmother who continuously attempts to remove all the paintings of her predecessor but must accept that she comes second to a dead woman.
And Dina is still unapproachable. She is wild and untamable, she rides like a man, and has no sense of propriety. Not till Mr. Lorch is hired to teach her does she calm down a little. Not because Lorch is a good teacher, but because he can play the cello, and that instrument captivates Dina and enables her to listen. Lorch manages to teach her not only to play cello and piano but also to read at least a little, and he finds that she is very good with numbers - something unheard of in a woman in the 19th century.
At the age of 15 she catches the eye of her father's widower friend. The man is 50 but asks Dina's father for her hand. He agrees without asking Dina - another thing she never forgives him for. It is with her marriage to the 30 years older man, Jacob, that the story truly starts. Her life at the much larger farmstead, Reinsnes, becomes something of a personal epic.
She remains as untameable as always, she does what she wants, smokes cigars with the gents if she feels like it and drinks more than is healthy. And she has no sense of propriety still.
Her relations with the people on the farm are trained to say the least. With no manners and no propriety, and no real connection to society and its rules and norms it is difficult to be a proper wife in the mid-19th century. And the book portrays it more from outside Dina's point of view, even when we get Dina's point of view we are still somehow outside it.
We follow her through insanity, widowhood, birth, loss, abortion, rumours and the daily life in a large trader household in a Norwegian fiord. It is intense and captivating. While Dina is a heroine few would be able to identify with there is a supporting character for everyone. The cook, Oline, who has been in the household for several generations and stays behind the scenes with her silent authority; Dina's mother-in-law, Mother Karen, who takes charge when Dina is in one of her moods, but is as gentle as can be; Stine, mother of two children out of wedlock, the first of which died, who was taken in by Dina to help raise Dina's own son; Johan, the son of Dina's husband - about the same age as Dina - whos tudies theology in Copenhagen but has but has problems with being himself - especially around Dina; Nils and Anders the two brothers and fostersons of Dina's husband, as different as night and day with differences that grow only more marked as time passes; Tomas the boy from Dina's childhood home who taught her to handle a gun and ended up being the main farm hand in her new home; and Leo the traveling Russian who is as wild and untameable as Dina herself.
I cannot say too much of any of them as it would reveal a great deal about the book's plot. Suffice to say that the book revolves around emotions and relations between people. It shows the wonderful contrast between the properly raised people with their controlled and calculated behaviour that never reveals too much and the wild Dina who shows more frankly what she wants, but all the while reveals even less than anyone else.
It says on the back of the book that it takes its readers like Dina takes her men. How to interpret that is best left to the individual reader after having finished the last page.
Suffice to say that it is a book well worth reading. I'll even say it might well end up as one of the classics of Scandinavian Literature in our century. I, for one, think it should. A must read for anyone who likes drama and personal sagas.