Never have I read a novel with such detail given to scene or character that I think and underline and dog-ear, sure that they are clues to plot development only to find them cul de sacs, as Kristin Labransdatter:
-Lavrans drunkenness--cul de sac.
-The church fire, come on! In her sin, while she is pregnant, the church, on a hill, struck and set aflame by lightning, Lavrans and Erlend heroically and dangerously struggling to save the church, Lavrans making the sign of the cross with his arms to hold up a wall; both injured, seemingly seriously at first, ultimately minorly, the church burned to the ground--cul de sac. (?) I'll be a sonofabitch.
-Lavrans and Erlend riding together alone back to Husaby from Lavrans' home after Erlend has delivered the news that Kristin has given birth--I am thinking confrontation, murder: cul de sac.
I am sure that I read inadvertently early on, in review or in Wikipedia, that Kristin ends up alone with her child; I don't know what happens to Erlend and the marriage but though seeing many signs of that coming, they have so far been all cul de sacs. I am more than one-third through the book and where I have left off Erlend is making like husband-of-the-year, hanging with good people, mending the estate, and Lavrans has departed for home with much love and good cheer. Through 357 pages of edging the effect on this reader is to make him hesitant to turn the page, fearful that the demon will at last jump out. That's very well done by Sigrid Undset.
Praised by the Nobel committee for its "realism" (now that's unusual.), maybe that is it. Kristin Labransdatter is true to life. In this novel, if not in some others, life is not made to fit plot. There are seldom true course-altering events in life. We all do good, we all do bad, we fuck up, we make up, "man is the sum of the things he has done and the choices he made in his life." Almost always we just get on with our lives after each high after every low. Life goes on.
I love this book, it is unusual in every way I can think from what I am used to reading, Dickens foremost.
-Lavrans drunkenness--cul de sac.
-The church fire, come on! In her sin, while she is pregnant, the church, on a hill, struck and set aflame by lightning, Lavrans and Erlend heroically and dangerously struggling to save the church, Lavrans making the sign of the cross with his arms to hold up a wall; both injured, seemingly seriously at first, ultimately minorly, the church burned to the ground--cul de sac. (?) I'll be a sonofabitch.
-Lavrans and Erlend riding together alone back to Husaby from Lavrans' home after Erlend has delivered the news that Kristin has given birth--I am thinking confrontation, murder: cul de sac.
I am sure that I read inadvertently early on, in review or in Wikipedia, that Kristin ends up alone with her child; I don't know what happens to Erlend and the marriage but though seeing many signs of that coming, they have so far been all cul de sacs. I am more than one-third through the book and where I have left off Erlend is making like husband-of-the-year, hanging with good people, mending the estate, and Lavrans has departed for home with much love and good cheer. Through 357 pages of edging the effect on this reader is to make him hesitant to turn the page, fearful that the demon will at last jump out. That's very well done by Sigrid Undset.
Praised by the Nobel committee for its "realism" (now that's unusual.), maybe that is it. Kristin Labransdatter is true to life. In this novel, if not in some others, life is not made to fit plot. There are seldom true course-altering events in life. We all do good, we all do bad, we fuck up, we make up, "man is the sum of the things he has done and the choices he made in his life." Almost always we just get on with our lives after each high after every low. Life goes on.
I love this book, it is unusual in every way I can think from what I am used to reading, Dickens foremost.
