With my husband being one quarter Norwegian and one quarter
Swedish, one would think I would know more about how these men like to keep
things to pertinent facts only. BTW—the
other half is Scots/German! Most of the
family in Minnesota might relate to this book better than I! They love their cold, their woods and their
remoteness. They are also among the most loving people I know. Trond seemed to be both even though he fought
it. His coming to the woods to have time
to think was a return to what he had known as a child. He had been as happy there as I think he
could be.
What an upbringing.
He spent so much time with his father who appeared to love him but then
abandoned the family. He learned so many
things about survival from his father yet, I am not certain he loved his
father—or his mother, his first wife, his children or maybe even the dog! I think he was afraid to show his love for
fear of losing what he loved. The story
developed because he had lost his wife and sister within a year’s span. One thinks it is about mourning their loss
but the whole story is about his friend, his father and his youth. I think the mourning began long before his
wife and sister died.
Thinks I found
interesting:
Out Stealing Horses was both the game played by Jon and
Trond and the code used by the Resistance for getting things between Norway and
Sweden. Maybe his father was
instrumental in getting the heavy water secrets out.
Jon’s mother worked in the Resistance alongside Trond’s
father and I do believe that when his father left the family it had something
to do with an affair the two had developed and continued after the war but we
know that she stayed on the farm until Jon returned and claimed his
primogeniture right to the place. Did
his father abandon her as well?
Trond’s father left the telling of his story to another man,
Franz. Was this because he did not think
he could share such details with a teenage son? Was it because he was gone
before Trond reached adulthood and never had the opportunity to tell him
personally.
Lars and Trond end up at the same place and help each other
out when necessary but both are men seeking solitude from early life. Lars felt
betrayed by Jon who left after the death of Odd. He had stayed, endured the
isolated childhood as the one who killed his twin, worked the farm and lost it
due to laws beyond his control.
Trond spoke very little of his mother but the ending I did
not see coming. It was as though they were happy once relieved of all ties with
the father.
Things I still wanted
to know:
Why would his father leave the family money knowing they
could not take it out of Sweden? And why
leave so little that it probably cost as much to get there as was left?
What did Trond do for his life’s work that he had given up
when he came to the cabin? If he was a
successful businessman then why live such a bare life? Was that to reflect the desire to reclaim
control over his life or was he truly thinking he was an old man (67 is hardly
old and those Scandinavians life to be very old!) who had come to the woods to
live out a short life?
Would Trond develop a better relationship with Ellen? She had driven all the way out to find her
father who barely had a relationship with her to begin with. Was it her mother who died or was she the
child of the first wife?
Would Lars and he become friends and finally find some peace
to ease their souls?
My take on the rest of the book!
Trond comes to terms with his life and even though he loves
the solitude and the time to read Dickens realizes that he does not want to be
his father. Trond uses his newfound lease on life to fix up the cabin, welcomes
his daughter (s) and helps Lars realize that he was not at fault for killing
Odd. He has determined that he is indeed
the leading character in his own life and chooses to life that life as he would
have liked his to be. Yes—the hopeless
romantic here!
Enjoy all—see you in April.
