Don't Look Back

Author Karin Fossum has come to be known as the Norwegian Queen of Crime! Don't Look Back is one book in her Inspector Konrad Sejer series - all are criminal detective novels and had I realized her claim to fame, I would have begun my adventures with Inspector Sejer by reading the first in the series, Eve's Eye. (Of course there is the small problem that it is not yet published in English)! I read Don't Look Back as my final book for the Scandinavian Reading Challenge 2010 hosted by The Black Sheep Dances. If you would like to participate, visit her blog.



Ragnhild Album lives in a small village in Norway nestled beneath the Kollen Mountains. On a normal day in this average village, Ragnhild goes missing. Joined by the local police captain, Inspector Sejer is sent to help find the very young girl. Just as suddenly as she vanished, Ragnhild returns. Relieved, the two policemen returned to the station only to receive a phone call from Mrs. Album - Ragnhild saw a girl by the lake, a girl who was naked and not moving at all. So begins the real mystery. Who killed Annie Holland?

Fossum takes the reader on a wild ride - visiting everyone in the small village - characters that leap off the page; surely you know someone just like each one of them. Inspector Sejer, assisted by his younger assistant Jacob Skarre, seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to investigating. But his talent is in getting the villagers to share the secrets they have hidden from their neighbors who thought they knew everything about everyone. But it seems Annie was one of the few who knew things that fermented just below the surface of the town's apparent normalcy. Getting to know who Annie had been before she was murdered, Sejer finds hints of teenage angst, a girl who turned surly almost overnight, abuse, and love. Annie's boyfriend Halvor knew that Annie kept a diary on the computer in his room and he also knew that if he could figure out the password he could help solve the murder. Or was he trying to hide what he knew? Just as I thought I had it all figured out, the answer changed. And that is, of course, the mark of a good detective novel.

Here are links to my other five reviews for the Scandinavian Challenge:

Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
The Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen

I am thankful that the Stieg Larsson books were so popular here in the US. Without them, and the Black Sheep Dances Challenge, I probably would not have been introduced to these wonderful authors and books.

TITLE: Don't Look Back
AUTHOR: Karin Fossum
TRANSLATOR: Felicity David
COPYRIGHT: 2002 (English translation), original 2002
PAGES: 295
TYPE: fiction
RECOMMEND: This was a book for a thinking person - not a thriller, but a slowly building criminal investigation. I enjoyed it.
AWARDS: Riverton Prize, 1996; Glass Key Award, 1997

Beatles

Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen was a delightful stroll through the Beatlemania of my youth. Each chapter of the novel is the title of a Beatles album or song and I did not have to try hard to transport back to that year in my life. It was fascinating to view the same time period from a Norwegian perspective. To make the novel even more interesting the perspective was male.

The novel follows four young Norwegian boys from 1965 until 1972. As you might imagine, Kim (our narrator) and his friends Gunnar, Ola, and Seb are obsessed with the Beatles. I was as well during the 1960s! In fact Kim and his friends thought of themselves as the Beatles. They dreamed of starting their own band which would be named the SNAFUs. But, as with many dreams, life got in the way. The four friends changed from boys to men. They smoked, drank, played, fought, fell in and out of love, made a mess of things, and put things straight. We were introduced to their parents, other friends, rivals, girlfriends, and teachers. These boys felt like family. Close family!

I think this is one reason I loved the book so much - reading it felt like being admitted into a secret club, one usually closed to girls. Growing up, I had only one younger sister. Each summer, we went to stay with family in Tennessee. I loved staying with my three males cousins who lived out in the country. They teased me unmercifully as the city girl lost in the country. And we had some fun capers, and like the characters in the novel, more often than not got caught. Still some parts of my cousins' though processes were closed to me. I wasn't quite a member of the club!

Another idea which was prevelant in the novel was the protest against America in VietNam. I lived both sides of the same protest in the United States. I was told that the Communists were going to come take over our country if we did not defeat them in VietNam. When friends died, I wasn't sure that I cared about the Communists anymore. The distaste for what was viewed as American imperialism is palpable in the novel. Somewhat reminds me of the world response to our invasion of Iraq. We may never learn.

The author was born in Oslo in 1953, the same year I was born. He began writing Beatles when he was 25 years old. It is interesting that in 2006 readers in Norway voted this book the best Norwegian novel of the last 25 years.
I found an interesting anecdote about the book in an August 2009 review by Tone Sutterud found in the British The Independent:

Unbelievably, Beatles was almost lost to the world. Having written the entire tome by hand, Saabye Christensen thought it might interest his old schoolmates at most, and carelessly stuffed the script in a suitcase travelling from France. The suitcase got lost, but found its way back to Oslo after a two-week European round trip that took in London. "Which was only right and fitting," the author says. "Now the book has come home, so to speak."

TITLE: Beatles
AUTHOR: Lars Saabye Christensen
TRANSLATOR: Don Bartlett
COPYRIGHT: 2009 (English translation), original 1984
PAGES: 534
TYPE: fiction
RECOMMEND: This was a book that I did not want to end. The characters were so well defined, that I felt they were people I knew. I have seen one reference to two books which have already been written and are untranslated sequels to this book, so maybe I will get my chance to catch up with this fab four! Interesting to see the comparison between times here and in Norway.

Growth of the Soil

Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun and translated by W. W. Worster is an excellent and thoughtful book I read for the Scandinavian Reading Challenge 2010 hosted by The Black Sheep Dances. If you would like to participate, visit her blog.

First a bit about the author. Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920 for this book. The review on the Nobel Prize website made sense to me -





Hamsun's work is determined by a deep aversion to civilization and the belief that man's only fulfilment lies with the soil. This primitivism (and its concomitant distrust of all things modern) found its fullest expression in Hamsun's masterpiece Markens Grøde (1917) [Growth of the Soil].

Which leads me to my review of the book. First, I should explain that it has always been a standard silliness at my house that my goal in life is to be a Slovak peasant (and I say that with a sincerity that might be difficult for some to believe or understand, but I think of it as a simple life unencumbered by the rush of daily life here). There would be hard work to be sure, but also a sense of accomplishment in living by one's own hands. So, you can only imagine my delight with this novel.

In the beginning, Isak starts out in the wilderness seeking a place to build a home and till the soil. He is alone and seeks a wife to help him. After some time, Inger comes to him and agrees to be his wife. She was born with a harelip and could not have hoped for a better situation. The two live a long way from a town and together they make improvements to the land and have children. But life is hard in Norway at the turn of the century, especially in the wilderness when a man and woman must work very hard. And things can change very quickly. Things change dramatically when Inger gives birth to a daughter who has a harelip and Inger kills her. She goes to jail leaving Isak and his younger son to take care of the land. The older son has gone to town and is too sophisticated to come back to the farm. While she is gone Inger has surgery to repair her harelip and she returns a little different causing even more disconcerting scenes on the farm. There are other characters who come in and out of the story, but this is Isak and Inger's story of building a life on the frontier in Norway in the early 1900s. I absolutely fell in love with this family.

Just as an aside, there was a small focus on women's issues in this book. Did a woman have to give birth to a baby just because a man got her pregnant? Should the woman be punished if she killed an unwanted, or even disfigured, newborn? How was the man punished?

I find it interesting that it is possible to read this novel online. Click here for the book and an essay by Worster.

TITLE: Growth of the Soil
AUTHOR: Knut Hamsun
TRANSLATOR: W. W. Worster
COPYRIGHT: 2006 (English translation), original 1917
PAGES: 435
TYPE: fiction
RECOMMEND: This was a phenomenal story of a family and the people they knew in the wilderness of Norway. I really enjoyed getting to know and understand the people who worked hard to bring a home into the wilderness and deal with civilization as it came nearer to them.
AWARDS: Nobel Prize for Literature (1920)

What I Loved

For me, the mark of a great book is one that, while I am reading it, I say to myself "This is the best book I have ever read." Now granted I am prone to saying that with some frequency, but for me, What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt was just such a book. I loved every part of it - the mundane, the excitement, the familiar, the unknown, the art, the critic, the loneliness, the camraderie. This book has everything and then some. The focus is clear as we have a single narrator who leads us through his twenty-five year friendships in New York's art world. Before I delve any further into the plot, let me tell you a bit about the author.

Although Siri Hustvedt was born in Minnesota, her early life was steeped in Norwegian culture. Her mother had moved from Norway the year before she was born and her father was third generation Norwegian American. Siri's first language was Norwegian and she had her first visit to Norway at the age of five. Her father was recognized for his work with the Norwegian American society and taught the language and literature at a local college. Siri spent her last year of high school in Norway and graduated there. Her novels have been translated in twenty-nine languages. Visit her website for more information about her other works.

Now on to my review of What I Loved. The sole narrator of the novel is Leo Hertzberg who is a middle-aged art historian who teaches at a New York college. Through his memories we meet the other major characters. Because we come to know them through Leo, the novel is character driven with our opinions spinning out from Leo's encounters. Initially we meet Leo's wife Erica who is a writer. Leo's life changes when he purchases a painting by Bill Weschler. Leo befriends the artist, Bill's first wife Lucille, and his second wife Violet - the woman in the art Leo purchased. The two families bond and the novel recounts their intertwined lives for twenty-five years. With Leo, we struggle with what is real and what is really only remembered - altered for psychological reasons unknown even to ourselves. We witness joys and sorrows, loves and betrayals.

My favorite parts of the book however were the descriptions of Bill's art work, especially as they came from an art historian and critic (and beloved friend). Further, Bill's work was influenced heavily by Violet's research - first on hysteria in women in past centuries and second on eating disorders of both men and women. One art exhibit was a series of doors which actually opened into variously sized rooms containing multi-media art scences. One scene showed Holocaust victims starving to death. The descriptions were fascinating and needed to be read slowly to take in all they had to offer.

As you see, this novel provides the reader with multiple levels of scrutiny. There is the physical, the art, the psychological, and even the meta-physical. I plan to read the novel again and again. My favorite passage is near the end of the book:

Every story we tell about ourselves can only be told in the past tense. It winds backward from where we now stand, no longer the actors in the story but its spectators who have chosen to speak. (p. 364)

TITLE: What I Loved
AUTHOR: Siri Hustvedt
COPYRIGHT: 2003
PAGES: 367
TYPE: fiction
RECOMMEND: This was a deep and expansive novel. The stories and remembrances will remain with me for some time and I will return to Leo's story again and again.
AWARDS: New York Times Notable Books of the Year (WON AWARD) 2003
Galaxy British Book Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2004
Orange Prize for Fiction (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2003

Dragon Tattoo and Played with Fire

I read this book, the first in a trilogy by deceased author Stieg Larsson, and while the opinions were varied at the book club meeting, I loved this page-turning adventure. Many did not like the violence, but I felt it served a purpose in exposing violence against women. And at times, it was personally satisfying - when you read it, you will understand - let's just say someone had it coming!

In particular, I fell in love with computer hacker, bad girl, Lisabeth Salander ,who is one of two main characters. She is unique and has a nasty past as a ward of the state. She is on her own now and teams up with Mikael Blomkvist, a financial journalist who has been sued for slander. Together they solve a decades old murder mystery under extreme conditions. Blomkvist brings out the best in Salander, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.

There are other supporting characters who are equally intriguing. When I finished the book, I could not wait to read the second book in the trilogy.

TITLE: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
AUTHOR: Stieg Larsson
TRANSLATOR: Reg Keeland
COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 608
TYPE: Scandinavian ficton, crime
RECOMMEND: I loved it.

Althought this second book had a different feel to it, Ther Girl who Played with Fire, was excellent in its own way. What I liked the best was slowly learning more about Lisbeth Salander. She has been hiding out and spending her secret stash of money for two years since she worked with Blomkvist. But three murders finds her before Blomkvist and she is implicated.

While the first book in the Millenium Trilogy focused on the abuse of women, this book seems to take an indepth look at the sex trade and how women are caught up in this nightmare. Perhaps Salander has too much information. I know that I could not stop reading until the duo figured it out. Sadly, the end of the book finds Salander almost dead with Blomkvist hoping he found her soon enough to save her. I cannot wait until I can run out and get the final book.

TITLE: The Girl who Played with Fire
AUTHOR: Stieg Larsson
TRANSLATOR: Reg Keeland
COPYRIGHT: 2010
PAGES: 630
TYPE: Scandinavian fiction
RECOMMENDATION: I loved it too!

Out Stealing Horses

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson is the first book I read for the Scandinavian Reading Challenge 2010 hosted by The Black Sheep Dances. If you would like to participate, visit her blog. I would recommend this book as a wonderful place to start your exploration of Scandinavian literature and, while they cannot count for the challenge because I had read them earlier, here are two other books that I really loved that meet the criteria: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Astrid and Veronika. I enjoyed all three books and am anxious to find my next Scandinavian book to read. If you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment.


Now on to my review of Out Stealing Horses. When I was a teen, I loved Henry David Thoreau's Walden and this book reminded me of how Walden made me think and feel about nature. Even if the story told by Petterson had not been engaging, I would have read on to try to capture that feeling of being one with nature.

The novel begins with Trond Sander, our near seventy year old narrator, working on a cabin in the woods in Norway. He is retired and his wife has died so he chose to leave his life behind and move to a cabin where his nearest neighbor, Lars, brings back memories of his youth with his father. Together Trond and his father visited this same area in the 1940s where they worked with locals to fell trees and float them to a sawmill. The story bounces back and forth between these times and over the course of the novel, the reader is drawn into both.

In the present time, Trond hoped to escape his own life to dwell in peace in the woods and depending only on himself. In the past, the reader learns with Trond that his father is part of a resistance movement smuggling Jews from Norway to Sweden. There are other secrets which I will not share - you will need to read the book to learn them.

In the end, Trond finds forgiveness within himself and welcomes the companionship of his daughter but continues to live in solitude, no longer feeling such pangs of lonliness. I loved every minute of this book.

TITLE: Out Stealing Horses
AUTHOR: Per Petterson
TRANSLATOR: Anne Born
COPYRIGHT: 2005 (English translation)
PAGES: 238
TYPE: fiction
RECOMMEND: I loved this book mostly because it reminded me that solitude is not lonely, rather it can be silence for the soul.
AWARDS: British Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (2006), International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (2007)