Sigrid Undset had a very unusual, and effective, writing technique. Rather than dramatically build up a subplot to a crescendo Miss Undset hid the crescendo, slipped it in sotto voce in fact. "With [Sira Eiliv] she could talk as much as she would of her children;" "Children" circled. On the next page "Erlend was glad that he had two true-born sons now." Out of the blue. Circle around "two." "But the new child," "child" circled; "...they took her new-born son..." circle around new-born. Four question marks around various sentences in one paragraph. Or, more commonly, Miss Undset would lead, dramatically is the wrong word, she would lead down a path that the reader swore he could see, if not the end point at least far in the distance, only to have the path disappear as a mirage.
I am now 42% done with the book, near the beginning of "The Mistress of Husaby," Part Two "Husaby." I probably do not have the right to make this judgment but of course I will anywho. The book is dragging a little. The first, I don't know, 300 pages were briskly paced. Not the last 137. The writerly techniques above can make a book drag. Stuff doesn't get resolved, at least not when you think it is going to get resolved, and, thinking about it as I write, I really do think it is dragging a little.
I think that a novel should be worked out in the novelist's head before he or she puts pen to paper. That’s what I think, beat me, whip me. The more “realistic” the novel, the more it should be all in the writer’s mind at the beginning. Like, if you were writing a realistic novel based upon your own life you'd know where it was going, there would be a firstly and a lastly, and you'd know everything that happened in between. I find Hemingway's novels so extraordinary because they so clearly were based on Hemingway's life experiences that they almost didn't qualify as novels. Not Dickens hoo-doggie. Made it up as he went along. Had no fucking idea where a book was going. And I am getting the impression after 42% that this one was not all worked out in Miss Undset's head. It gives the impression of being written, written in the mind more accurately, in fits and starts. That could account for it seeming to drag and for being overlong, 1,043 pages is long, close to War and Peace long, not Remembrance of Things Past long but long, definitely long. Too long. I get the impression Miss Undset went this way, put the book aside, came back to it, decided to make this way a dead end and went that way, umm no, I’m going to try a third way.
Like, I don't find it really realistic that 17 year-old Kristin is able to so ably manage the Husaby estate, the extensive landed interests, the home furnishings, keep a close eye on the finances, have the deft people skills to navigate her way with the domestic staff--for whom Kristin is Number Two in the mistresses-of-Husaby department, have three more chitlins--Really? At 17? That’s a whole lotta lot on the plate for anyone of any age hoooooo doggie!
Like, her sudden, enduring self-torture about sin, absolution, for which she makes a 20 mile pilgrimage barefoot. Kristin was a lusty lass! She did it with Erlend in the nunnery's field, did it with him in the friendly neighborhood house of ill repute, did it everywhere at every opportunity and when she found no opportunity, MADE one--I find all of that completely realistic; what I don't find so realistic is the immediate onset of deep depression over the sin of pre-marital sex once Lavrans gives her and Erlend the green light to wed. You got your green light, Kristin, you’re legit, keep calm and carry on and live happily ever after. That would be realistic. Yet we just did get done with all of that angst; she just about lost her mind with guilt for about 100 pages. Jesus.
Still 58% to go and maybe all of those paths will converge or the way of each will be lighted. Speaking of paths, Simon Darre just rode up some pages back, on the same path Kristin was making her 20 mile barefoot pilgrimage—What are the odds? Unrealistically, infinitesimally small—speaking of out of the blue, and nameless reference was made to him lately. I grant Miss Undset keeping that path open a ways but that was a thought Miss Undset had after she had decided to close that path down. That wasn’t in her mind when she started to write the novel. Not artfully done.
I have gotten different reads on Kristin's father Lavrans and on Erlend, that’s cool, people “really” are complex and those characters will be resolved, they are too central to not resolve, but it may be also that since Kristin Labransdatter is not based in real life that the author's imagination will “improve" on real life and resolve all of the paths unrealistically--like one of Fennimore Cooper's frantic, absurd wrappings-up. I hope not! since I've got 606 pages to go and Miss Undset did win the Nobel Prize for this but it could be.
I am now 42% done with the book, near the beginning of "The Mistress of Husaby," Part Two "Husaby." I probably do not have the right to make this judgment but of course I will anywho. The book is dragging a little. The first, I don't know, 300 pages were briskly paced. Not the last 137. The writerly techniques above can make a book drag. Stuff doesn't get resolved, at least not when you think it is going to get resolved, and, thinking about it as I write, I really do think it is dragging a little.
I think that a novel should be worked out in the novelist's head before he or she puts pen to paper. That’s what I think, beat me, whip me. The more “realistic” the novel, the more it should be all in the writer’s mind at the beginning. Like, if you were writing a realistic novel based upon your own life you'd know where it was going, there would be a firstly and a lastly, and you'd know everything that happened in between. I find Hemingway's novels so extraordinary because they so clearly were based on Hemingway's life experiences that they almost didn't qualify as novels. Not Dickens hoo-doggie. Made it up as he went along. Had no fucking idea where a book was going. And I am getting the impression after 42% that this one was not all worked out in Miss Undset's head. It gives the impression of being written, written in the mind more accurately, in fits and starts. That could account for it seeming to drag and for being overlong, 1,043 pages is long, close to War and Peace long, not Remembrance of Things Past long but long, definitely long. Too long. I get the impression Miss Undset went this way, put the book aside, came back to it, decided to make this way a dead end and went that way, umm no, I’m going to try a third way.
Like, I don't find it really realistic that 17 year-old Kristin is able to so ably manage the Husaby estate, the extensive landed interests, the home furnishings, keep a close eye on the finances, have the deft people skills to navigate her way with the domestic staff--for whom Kristin is Number Two in the mistresses-of-Husaby department, have three more chitlins--Really? At 17? That’s a whole lotta lot on the plate for anyone of any age hoooooo doggie!
Like, her sudden, enduring self-torture about sin, absolution, for which she makes a 20 mile pilgrimage barefoot. Kristin was a lusty lass! She did it with Erlend in the nunnery's field, did it with him in the friendly neighborhood house of ill repute, did it everywhere at every opportunity and when she found no opportunity, MADE one--I find all of that completely realistic; what I don't find so realistic is the immediate onset of deep depression over the sin of pre-marital sex once Lavrans gives her and Erlend the green light to wed. You got your green light, Kristin, you’re legit, keep calm and carry on and live happily ever after. That would be realistic. Yet we just did get done with all of that angst; she just about lost her mind with guilt for about 100 pages. Jesus.
Still 58% to go and maybe all of those paths will converge or the way of each will be lighted. Speaking of paths, Simon Darre just rode up some pages back, on the same path Kristin was making her 20 mile barefoot pilgrimage—What are the odds? Unrealistically, infinitesimally small—speaking of out of the blue, and nameless reference was made to him lately. I grant Miss Undset keeping that path open a ways but that was a thought Miss Undset had after she had decided to close that path down. That wasn’t in her mind when she started to write the novel. Not artfully done.
I have gotten different reads on Kristin's father Lavrans and on Erlend, that’s cool, people “really” are complex and those characters will be resolved, they are too central to not resolve, but it may be also that since Kristin Labransdatter is not based in real life that the author's imagination will “improve" on real life and resolve all of the paths unrealistically--like one of Fennimore Cooper's frantic, absurd wrappings-up. I hope not! since I've got 606 pages to go and Miss Undset did win the Nobel Prize for this but it could be.
