A fine conclusion to an eminently readable classic of modernist historical fiction.
Nobel Prize–winning Norwegian author Undset brings her tetralogy of medieval life to a resounding, memorable, and death-haunted close.
Though she is best known for her 1920 trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter, Undset’s most ambitious work may be her Olav Audunssøn series (1925–27), set in a time when Norway was transforming from a land of Viking war chiefs and blood vendettas to a Christian monarchy based on law. At the opening of this story, a young man named Aslak Gunnarssøn asks Olav, now a wealthy landowner in the fjord country west of Oslo, for sanctuary: Aslak has killed a man and is hiding from the law. The reluctant, morose Olav, still haunted by the long-ago death of his wife, Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, grants Aslak’s wish, but when Aslak falls in love with his young daughter, Cecilia, Olav sends him away. Cecilia’s smile in Aslak’s presence, which “radiated such sweetness and secret joy that Olav couldn’t recall seeing a fairer sight,” soon fades away into gloom. Just so, Olav’s son, Eirik, whom he’s raised as his own although fathered with Ingunn by another man, loses his beloved to an ugly bout of scrofula and, though once a good candidate for the outlaw life, joins a monastery. Lacking heirs, aging and weakening, Olav marries Cecilia off to a loser named Jørund, which introduces still more misery into their daily lives. Cecilia gets her revenge, though, and so, in his own way, does the would-be saint Eirik. The overall glumness of Undset’s concluding volume is of a piece with the earlier books, and it would do a suite of Bergman films proud; the reader should be prepared to accommodate plenty of Nordic darkness punctuated by the occasional flash of a dagger. As always, Undset’s deep knowledge of Catholic doctrine and Scandinavian history informs her work, which, while cheerless and sometimes rather graphic (“Relief set in as soon as he stopped vomiting blood”), is both elegantly written and well translated.
A fine conclusion to an eminently readable classic of modernist historical fiction.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781517915414
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Univ. of Minnesota
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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