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rebeccai's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism
mariafuhl's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
the_bee_writes's review
1.0
This was one of the most depressing books I have read in a long time. Even though the style is ok I just could not connect with the main character. She seemed to be too much apart from real life and the people around her. No real connection. I remember that I felt like that about the main character of "By the Sea" and "The Detour" as well.
Am not quite sure if that is a characteristic of modern women or if it is just bad writing. Even though I do not consider any of these three books a bad novel. Never mind. I could not get into the book and skipped a lot of the passages. Shame....
Am not quite sure if that is a characteristic of modern women or if it is just bad writing. Even though I do not consider any of these three books a bad novel. Never mind. I could not get into the book and skipped a lot of the passages. Shame....
pnwlisa's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
nini23's review against another edition
tense
3.75
I started off lukewarm on this Danish psychological novella but at the end, am wondering who I can entice to read this so we can discuss. May need to reread. An unreliable narrator who is a writer questions reality in the wake of her partner's death. Who shot or murdered Holland becomes almost immaterial. I can almost almost get Pia Juul's sly winks (this is not a standard detective crime thriller meta wink) but like the ample literary references, they're just a hair's breath from being pinned down. At times Bess in existential crisis is unrecognizable to herself and others dear/familiar to her undergo the same metamorphosis. With the fjord as backdrop, this has an unmistakably Nordic feel with its attendant dark foreboding and isolation.
Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken. Pia Juul is also a poet and writer of short stories, with deliberate word choices and a sparse writing style.
Quotes:
Labarnum. Lilac. Drizzle. I needed the rhythm of words to penetrate the headwind.
I never found that the words people say to each other revealed to any great extent what happened between them.
Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken. Pia Juul is also a poet and writer of short stories, with deliberate word choices and a sparse writing style.
Quotes:
Labarnum. Lilac. Drizzle. I needed the rhythm of words to penetrate the headwind.
I never found that the words people say to each other revealed to any great extent what happened between them.
catherineofalx's review against another edition
3.0
Expected a murder mystery, found a meditation on bereavement. I enjoyed the style a great deal but was not invested in the plot or characters. Still, shout out to this epigraph:
“I see you lead a double life. There'll be an extra charge for that.” -a fortune teller
“I see you lead a double life. There'll be an extra charge for that.” -a fortune teller
shimmer's review against another edition
4.0
Inverting the familiar focus of a murder mystery, The Murder of Halland establishes that a man named Halland has been shot outside his house but lets the investigation take place in the background while instead following his not-quite-widowed long time partner. More than once, in fact, she hilariously hangs up on the detective's phone calls to deal with what seem like lesser demands at hand in her house, subverting the expected focus and tension of the story. If it's cliché to say it's a novel in which "nothing is quite as it seems," the cliché is apt because this is a story of what may or may not be double lives, lies, secrets, deliberate omissions, etc. making it difficult — delightfully so — to know quite what's going on. The mystery here isn't Halland's death, but his life, and the life of the narrator he's left behind as she struggles through grief and confusion and delivers misdirections to other characters and to us, the readers. Those misdirections at times seem borne of incompetence or narcissism, but at other points seem calculated or even malicious, raising compelling questions about the privacy of victims and characters alike, and the ambiguity of something that seems as concrete as life and death. It's a story about possibilities rather than facts, as in this favorite passage:
Everyone seems to know something they aren't telling at the same time they know nothing at all, which may not sound like a very satisfying position to be put in while reading a novel, but in this case it very much is.
Through the window I could just see the corner of the jetty where I had recently sat. As I pictured myself out there, a chill ran through me. An easy target for someone with a rifle in the gardens above the fjord. Who had shot Halland? Would that person also shoot me? Why wasn’t I totally preoccupied with this thought? Why wasn’t I frightened? The moment passed. No one would shoot me. No one would shoot Halland, come to that. But someone had.
Everyone seems to know something they aren't telling at the same time they know nothing at all, which may not sound like a very satisfying position to be put in while reading a novel, but in this case it very much is.
leethepea's review
2.0
Pretty disappointing to be honest. The main character I found pretty irritating, and the plot slightly unbelievable and contrived. Felt like it was trying really hard to be a bit abstract, but it failed in my opinion.
fictionophile's review
4.0
What a clever, enigmatic, and disorientating book!
Bess is a writer. A grieving, eccentric, bizarre writer who drinks more than she writes. Her husband Halland has been shot.
The story is told solely from Bess's point of view. Since she is drunk a lot of the time, this view can be skewed and whimsical, not to mention peculiar. Bess seems to be struggling and fighting her way out of a murky gloaming. She seems confused and disorientated. Is is just her way of dealing with loss?
Halland is Bess's second husband. She left her first husband and her daughter to be with Halland. She has been estranged from her daughter, Abby ever since. Recently, the handsome and much older Halland has been ill. Bess longs to be reconnected with her daughter...
First, let me state categorically that this is NOT a murder mystery. We don't know who killed Halland at the beginning of the book, nor do we know at the end. This is more a book about grief, guilt, and of course, love.
Even though the writing is wonderful and almost like the poetry that the author is famous for, I cannot in good conscience give this more than four stars. That doesn't mean that it is not deserving of more, only that my personal taste considers it just a bit too quirky to merit five. Bess was just too 'out there' for me to genuinely connect with her on a personal level.
I recommend this literary novella to everyone on the basis of the brilliant writing and the fact that reading it causes the reader to become ruminative and introspective.
Kudos go out to Martin Aitken who translated "The murder of Halland" from the Danish losing none of its profound nuances.
"The murder of Halland" won Denmark's most prestigious literary prize, Danske Banks Litteraturpris.
Thanks to Coach House Books via Edelweiss for providing me with a digital copy of this novella in exchange for my candid review.
Bess is a writer. A grieving, eccentric, bizarre writer who drinks more than she writes. Her husband Halland has been shot.
The story is told solely from Bess's point of view. Since she is drunk a lot of the time, this view can be skewed and whimsical, not to mention peculiar. Bess seems to be struggling and fighting her way out of a murky gloaming. She seems confused and disorientated. Is is just her way of dealing with loss?
Halland is Bess's second husband. She left her first husband and her daughter to be with Halland. She has been estranged from her daughter, Abby ever since. Recently, the handsome and much older Halland has been ill. Bess longs to be reconnected with her daughter...
First, let me state categorically that this is NOT a murder mystery. We don't know who killed Halland at the beginning of the book, nor do we know at the end. This is more a book about grief, guilt, and of course, love.
Even though the writing is wonderful and almost like the poetry that the author is famous for, I cannot in good conscience give this more than four stars. That doesn't mean that it is not deserving of more, only that my personal taste considers it just a bit too quirky to merit five. Bess was just too 'out there' for me to genuinely connect with her on a personal level.
I recommend this literary novella to everyone on the basis of the brilliant writing and the fact that reading it causes the reader to become ruminative and introspective.
Kudos go out to Martin Aitken who translated "The murder of Halland" from the Danish losing none of its profound nuances.
"The murder of Halland" won Denmark's most prestigious literary prize, Danske Banks Litteraturpris.
Thanks to Coach House Books via Edelweiss for providing me with a digital copy of this novella in exchange for my candid review.