Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by marziesreads
Eventide by Therese Bohman
3.0
Here is a book that is something of a mystery to me. It has so many things that should make me love it- the central character is woman contemplating middle age life, it's set in beautiful Stockholm, in an academic world of art and art historians, and deals with a sketchy research situation. Alas, while I have finished the book, I was left feeling dissatisfied.
Karolina Andersson is a uniquely unappealing central character. She is reminiscent of, though less sympathetic than, Leda in Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter. Karolina is lonely, in her forties, rapidly losing the good looks that she's traded off for most of her life to deal with the men in her world. She has been frequently unfaithful to her partner of a decade, with whom she has recently parted ways and who she now misses. Well, maybe she misses aspects of their life, but not really him. She does miss her former lover, who is married with children and decided to stick with that arrangement. By her own reflections, Karolina has little or no idea of what love in a relationship really entails. She has never, it seems, really loved anyone. She has no female friends, and hardly any male ones, either. Her colleague Peter is nice enough and her Danish contact Hans has certainly helped her career. But now she is in her forties, seemingly friendless, childless, manless, and searching for some sense of purpose in her life.
Karolina's academic career has been quietly satisfying. She is respected, albeit in a quieter way than her university colleague Lennart Olsson. And Karolina has a handsome new graduate student, Anton Strömberg, who has shown up, after spending a year in Berlin with minimal communication, with some interesting research into a little-known Swedish artist, Ebba Ellis, who it seems was friendly with German artist Franz von Stuck, famous for his symbolist paintings. Some of von Stuck's paintings are of women and serpents, in obvious sexual allusion to an unrepentant Eve in the garden of Eden. Where did von Stuck get his idea for these paintings? This question was the one part of the book that I enjoyed.
I found most of the characters, even at times Karolina, to be rather liminal, not crossing into the feel of a fully fledged person. This would have made sense had we been focused on a Karolina who felt well-grounded. But for the life of me, I could not fathom how this well-educated woman could have gone through twenty-plus years of adult life with such shallow insight into her choices, their impact on her life and that of others.
The twist at the end of the story at least leaves you respecting Karolina's shrewdness and her ability to be a formidable foe in the academic setting.
Here, have a look at unrepentant Eve...
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Karolina Andersson is a uniquely unappealing central character. She is reminiscent of, though less sympathetic than, Leda in Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter. Karolina is lonely, in her forties, rapidly losing the good looks that she's traded off for most of her life to deal with the men in her world. She has been frequently unfaithful to her partner of a decade, with whom she has recently parted ways and who she now misses. Well, maybe she misses aspects of their life, but not really him. She does miss her former lover, who is married with children and decided to stick with that arrangement. By her own reflections, Karolina has little or no idea of what love in a relationship really entails. She has never, it seems, really loved anyone. She has no female friends, and hardly any male ones, either. Her colleague Peter is nice enough and her Danish contact Hans has certainly helped her career. But now she is in her forties, seemingly friendless, childless, manless, and searching for some sense of purpose in her life.
Karolina's academic career has been quietly satisfying. She is respected, albeit in a quieter way than her university colleague Lennart Olsson. And Karolina has a handsome new graduate student, Anton Strömberg, who has shown up, after spending a year in Berlin with minimal communication, with some interesting research into a little-known Swedish artist, Ebba Ellis, who it seems was friendly with German artist Franz von Stuck, famous for his symbolist paintings. Some of von Stuck's paintings are of women and serpents, in obvious sexual allusion to an unrepentant Eve in the garden of Eden. Where did von Stuck get his idea for these paintings? This question was the one part of the book that I enjoyed.
I found most of the characters, even at times Karolina, to be rather liminal, not crossing into the feel of a fully fledged person. This would have made sense had we been focused on a Karolina who felt well-grounded. But for the life of me, I could not fathom how this well-educated woman could have gone through twenty-plus years of adult life with such shallow insight into her choices, their impact on her life and that of others.
The twist at the end of the story at least leaves you respecting Karolina's shrewdness and her ability to be a formidable foe in the academic setting.
Here, have a look at unrepentant Eve...
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.