Customer Reviews (1)

A tale of both love and insanity, with most of the latter
This Vesaas book revolves around an auto-shop yard, and the family that runs it. I won't reveal much of the story, since it's somewhat bad and very little happens. The father and the son eventually have a falling out with the mother of the family, over the blame of the death of their youngest family member. It drives everyone to the brink of insanity, and possibly over it for some of the family members. I found the book to be nothing but depressing and depraved, and the only bright spots are the unconditional love the girl next-door has for our young main character. It's not really a bad book, just very depressing and somewhat slow in it's pace.

All in all, another one of the books by Vesaas you can safely avoid, especially considering the number of great books this splendid author wrote.

(I read a different edition of the book)
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Book Description
tr Anthony Barnett ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"Humanism" at its worst
The book revolves around an isolated island where a madman comes ashore. The small community is brought into frenzy when the madman kills one of their young girls, and in anger a crowd of the islanders kill the madman. The blame for the murder is laid upon one of the most active members of the crowd, a young boy that is the brother of the slain girl. He is forced to deal with the "blame" and the "guilt" by the rest of the community, and the humanist propaganda is just too much to bear. Yes, we get that Vesaas was trying to "warn" the world that no matter how much madmen and minorities annoy "mainstream society", we aren't allowed to retaliate against their actions. But this is utter nonsense, and one of the reasons we as Europeans have become utterly powerless and weak creatures, is because of this kind of philosophy. Not one of his good books, to put it shortly.

(I read a different edition of the book) ... Read more