Jens Christian Grøndahl

Het slot is mooi.

Het verhaal gaat over een vrouw, die de dochter is van een Duitse officier en een Deense vrouw. Moeder wordt als moffenhoer geïsoleerd, maar blijft haar liefde trouw, ook al ziet ze de Duitser nooit meer. Dochter Ellinor, de hoofdpersoon, groeit ook geïsoleerd op. Ook zij blijft haar liefde voor haar eerste man trouw, ook al had hij een affaire met haar beste vriendin. Het amoureuze par overlijdt, waardoor Ellinor samengaat leven met Georg, de man van haar overspelige vriendin. Ze probeert met hem zijn kinderen zo liefdevol mogelijk op te voeden. Als Georg overlijdt werkt ze zich weer terug in eenzaamheid. Ook zij is haar twee liefdes trouw gebleven.

Pas in de laatste alinea verklaart ze haar keuzes: “De foto hing aan de muur zodat de kinderen konden zien hoeveel ze van elkaar hadden gehouden. Dat is het enige wat telt voor het kind. We vergeven onze ouders als ze ons vergeten, zolang ze maar van elkaar houden.“… (mehr)

Irene Beckman is a middle class woman who seems to have it all: a home in a prosperous Copenhagen suburb, two successful adult children, and a husband who dotes on her. But numerous cracks lie beneath the surface: she had had an affair years before, her husband is leaving her for another woman, and her mother inadvertently reveals a secret that threatens her notion of who she is.

Most of this novel takes places in the protagonist's head, and the plot sometimes dips back in time without clear boundaries or takes on a dreamy quality as she imagines a scene as though she were watching it. At times it is as though she were a spectator to her own life, at a safe emotional remove. Only towards the end of the book does she act, although it is only to hear someone else's story.

I had a hard time engaging with this novel, and found the main character insipid. There was very little sense of place, which would have sparked my interest. The most intriguing aspect was that the male author wrote the entire book from the female perspective and did so without cliché.… (mehr)

Irene Beckman, age 50+, seems to have a perfect life in Denmark. She’s beautiful, successful, happily married with two now adult children. She works as a lawyer and the family is well off financially….quite comfortable And then, very unexpectedly, Irene’s husband wants a divorce, and while processing that news, her mother is taken ill.

It’s a lot at once, but more so, in a bedside conversation with her ill mother, Irene is told that her father is not her biological father, but it was another man, who fled Copenhagen for Sweden at the beginning of the war. Understandably, Irene is shocked by the news.

This is a immersive story of one woman’s transformation through personal crisis (or two or three). It starts out a bit slow as the author introduces Irene to us. Interesting to read HER story written by a male author…. hmmmm.

I have read all of Grondahl’s novels available in translation now. He’s another on my list of authors who infuse their storytelling with great compassion.… (mehr)