Tag Archives: Sigrid Undset

Jenny by Sigrid Undset

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Synopsis:
A young Norwegian woman pursues her painting in Rome, but when she gets swept up in a romance with a fellow countryman she finds her dreams derailed and her life shattered.

Review:
Jenny is a realist novel from the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, one of my all-time favorite reads. It’s a somber story that reminded me of Theodore Dreiser and EM Forster, delving into the psychology of Jenny, an artist in her late 20s living a bohemian life and not sure why she’s not dreaming of settling down. When she meets Helge Gram, another Norwegian prowling Rome, she allows herself to be captured against her better judgment, and what follows is an exploration of a woman caught between expectation and longing.

I found Jenny to be startlingly fresh. Jenny and her roommate Cesca could have been me and my friends back when I was young and single, even though they were subject to more social constrictions than we were. Further proof that Undset is one of the 20th century’s greatest authors.

The Son Avenger by Sigrid Undset (The Master of Hestviken)

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Synopsis:
With Olav Audunsson facing the end of his lonely days, his children Eirik and Cecilia find themselves trapped in the repercussions of Olav’s as-yet unconfessed sins.

Review:
There was so much I loved in The Son Avenger, particularly Cecilia’s journey of wife- and motherhood with Eirik’s less-than-reputable childhood friend Jorund. She really came alive as a different kind of woman than the others I’ve seen in Undset’s work, with a rigidity that blossomed into self-awareness and even a kind of independence. She’s mirrored nicely with Eldred, the woman Eirik falls in love with later in the book, and together they show that the feudal system and all its concomitant restrictions on people were not enough to break at least two women.

Undset was writing in the 1920s, and I find her approaches to class and sex to be refreshingly ahead of her time. It would probably be stretching things to call her a feminist, but there is an egalitarian quality to her character depictions that questions the power dynamic between the genders in a way that feels radical for both her time and the time she’s writing about. But because she’s deeply Christian, she isn’t going to let go of the notion of necessary submission as a vitally important character quality. In many ways, her characters live out St. Pauls’s teaching that in relation to God, we are all feminine.

Turning to the men, I was less excited by how Undset completed the journeys of Olav and Eirik. I really feel like Olav got let off the hook for his crimes, but that could be my 21st century desire for openness and transparency, since Olav does, in a sense, lose everything. Grown Eirik didn’t resemble boy Eirik enough for me to be swept away in the continuity of his story, and the ambiguous ending that Undset creates for him doesn’t help matters.

I’m so glad I made my way through this series, though it will never eclipse my beloved Kristin Lavransdatter.

In the Wilderness by Sigrid Undset (The Master of Hestviken)

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Synopsis:
Medieval feudal lord now widower Olav Audunsson grapples with the sins of old that make each day a torment.

Review:
In the Wilderness had a strong transitional quality to it. I am hoping that the next book completes his spiritual journey because I was really unsatisfied with where he ended up at the end of the book. All he’s done his whole life is justify his misdeeds by claiming his own rights, and that’s just what he’s doing near the end. At this point I’m actually kind of pissed off by his obtuseness and pride. Nevertheless, I trust Sigrid Undset completely so I’m keen to keep going. The book also offers tantalizing hints towards a storyline with wayward Eirik to play out in the final book, so I’m hoping for a strong finish.

The Snake Pit by Sigrid Undset (The Master of Hestviken)

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Synopsis:
Olav Audunsson finally brings Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter back to his ancestral home as his wife, each harboring a dark secret that threatens the happiness they dreamed of as children.

Review:
The Snake Pit follows closely on the tragic events of The Axe, focusing on the far-reaching effects of sin in the lives of Olav and his childhood love Ingunn, now his wife.

I really don’t want to give too much away about the story thus far, because I loved how it unfolded in the previous book, and that makes it hard to write a comprehensive review. But as in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, Undset excels in showing how sin and unrepentance isolate the sinner from community, even the intimate community of marriage. She also shows the interconnectedness of deceit and grasping ambition with a psychological and theological complexity that you just don’t find very often.

I am loving this series, though I haven’t connected with any of the characters the way I did with my beloved Kristin. I’m okay with that–particularly as we get a nice cameo from Kristin’s father Lavrans and mother Ragnfrid near the end of the book!

The Axe by Sigrid Undset (The Master of Hestviken)

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Synopsis:
Betrothed as children, Olav and Ingunn grew up together, but when Ingunn’s parents die, they take an irrevocable step that jeopardizes their futures and the social system that surrounds them.

Review:
The Axe begins a 4-book series by Sigrid Undset, the Nobel Prize-winning author of the acclaimed and beloved Kristin Lavransdatter books.

Like that series, The Axe concerns itself heavily with matters of sexual morality and the toxic nature of secret sin, only this time we get the man’s perspective as well. Olav isn’t quite the ravishing seducer that Kristin’s Erlend was, but his seduction of Ingunn is no less rapacious, and the act twists and bends him towards other sins. And Ingunn is no paragon of virtue herself–Undset doesn’t stint on portraying her weaknesses, though in such a way as to make her totally sympathetic and relatable.

Undset really knows how to tell a gripping story. The historical detail never overwhelms the plot, and the characters are as complex as they come. My only criticism is that Tiina Nunnally didn’t do the translation. This one has some archaisms that interrupt the flow of the story, but honestly this is a very minor issue.

And I was pleased to learn, via Lars Walker, that yesterday, May 20, was Sigrid Undset’s birthday. I was so pleased to find I was reading one of her books in celebration of one of my favorite authors.

The Alphabet Meme

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Picked this meme up from Melanie, in honor of two YA books I read for work this weekend.

The goal of this is to list favourite authors according to last name (with a representative fave book as well).

Atwood, Margaret — Cat’s Eye
Bronte, Charlotte — Jane Eyre
Card, Orson Scott — Ender’s Game
Dragonwagon, Crescent — The Year It Rained (with Paul Zindel)
Eager, Edward — Half Magic
Forster, EM — Howard’s End
Gibson, William — Neuromancer
Hobb, Robin — Ship of Magic
Ishiguro, Kazuo — And Never Let Me Go
Jackson, Shirley — Hangsaman
King, Stephen — The Gunslinger
Lewis, CS — Till We Have Faces
Martin, George RR — Game of Thrones
Novik, Naomi — His Majesty’s Dragon
Oates, Joyce Carol — Blonde
Percy, Walker — The Last Gentleman
Queenan, Joe — If You’re Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble
Rendell, Ruth — Judgment in Stone
Smith, Wesley — Culture of Death
Tolkien, JRR — The Return of the King
Undset, Sigrid — Kristin Lavransdatter
Vine, Barbara — A Dark-Adapted Eye
Wharton, Edith — Twilight Sleep
X — I’ll read the next book someone recommends by an author whose last name starts with X.
Yancey, Phillip — Where is God When It Hurts?
Zarr, Sara — Story of a Girl

123 Meme

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The kind and well-read Walrus tagged me for the 123 meme. Thank you!

I’m currently reading Renegade’s Magic by Robin Hobb, which is sitting at the top of the stack next to my nursing glider. Also in the stack: The Axe by Sigrid Undset, the New King James Bible (not that I have bothered to read it lately), and Lose Your Mummy Tummy.

“Let me be forgotten by them. And what did I hope for myself? Hope. It seemed a bitter word now.”

Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I’m tagging:

Bybee
Dewey
Eva
Sensawunda
Sheila

The Smartest Book Meme in Town

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As created by Eva, who will enter you in a drawing if you leave a comment on her post. Thanks for the, Sheila! I’m tagging Alissa, Terri, Megan, Rhinoa, and Ian–or Ian’s dad

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. I was in the midst of a horrific breakup while reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and I put it down halfway through and have not Chabonned since.

In addition, he just can’t shake the stink of pretension in my eyes. He’s in the same company as Jonathan Lethem.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

Now that I’m a mom, I’m flooded with insecurity and questions about child-rearing. So I’d like to spend a day at the park with Marmee from Little Women, Meg Murry’s mom from A Wrinkle in Time, and Kristin Lavransdatter from The Cross. I’d just sit and listen to them tell me everything they’ve learned from raising such fantastic children.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

Christian Metz’s The Imaginary Signifier. I hope I don’t have my master’s revoked for admitting that I could never get past page one.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

Um… see previous?

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?

That has never happened to me. I can’t imagine what that would be like.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, because it was an intoxicatingly pleasurable reading experience.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Like Sheila, I’m going to go with Russian. My second choice would have to be French (and dammit, at one point I was so close).

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread one a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

War and Peace… having finally read it, I feel like it’s an imperative to read this book as regularly as possible.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

Booking Through Thursday has been fun. Author-wise, I don’t think I would have read Henry Green or Robertson Davies if it hadn’t been for blogging.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

Well, Sheila basically described what would be my dream space, I’m going to also add a touch of magic. Bookshelves that never run out of room. Books that never go missing. Books that are always available to lend out–even if they never come back, there’s always a copy available. And a magic clock, so I can stop the hands of time and steal an hour to read.

Highlights (Booking Through Thursday)

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From Booking Through Thursday:

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?

List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

It was a good year, reading-wise. Here are my highlights, with links to my reviews.

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer

The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter 3) by Sigrid Undset

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Joel Carmichael)

Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell

And a few series:

Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word and A Handful of Men

Megan Lindholm’s Ki and Vandien Quartet

Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset (Translated by Arthur G. Chater)

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Synopsis:
Callously ravished by the man she hoped to love, an 11th Century Norwegian woman shapes her life around dreams of vengeance.

Review:
Gunnar’s Daughter is an early novel from the Sigrid Undset, author of the Nobel Prize-winning Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, and it is no less of a powerful, shocking work not just for a book set in medieval Norway, but for a book written at the beginning of the 20th Century. Continue reading →