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msand3 's review for:
Hemsöborna
by August Strindberg
The most enjoyable prose I’ve read so far from Strindberg, this pastoral folk tale takes place on a fictional island called Hemsö in the outer Stockholm archipelago. The novel is brisk, bawdy, and often funny (a rarity with Strindberg), with a collection of singular characters headed by Carlsson, the fast-talking mainlander who descends upon the island to try to take advance of a local widow and transform Hemsö into his own personal fiefdom. The final chapter turns very dark, which is to be expected in Strindberg. In fact, I was surprised that the novel remained so lighthearted (relatively speaking) for so long.
Having taken a ferry around a section of the Stockholm archipelago just last year and explored the rural island of Grinda, I was especially taken by Strindberg’s descriptions of the island, which could be quiet and peaceful farmland on one side and raging seascape along the coast. His beautiful descriptions of the natural landscape did justice to those picturesque Swedish islands that I enjoyed visiting and wished I had more time to explore.
This makes for a great starting point for Strindberg’s fiction, and I would recommend it first before getting into his darker (and more eccentric) autobiographical novels.
Having taken a ferry around a section of the Stockholm archipelago just last year and explored the rural island of Grinda, I was especially taken by Strindberg’s descriptions of the island, which could be quiet and peaceful farmland on one side and raging seascape along the coast. His beautiful descriptions of the natural landscape did justice to those picturesque Swedish islands that I enjoyed visiting and wished I had more time to explore.
This makes for a great starting point for Strindberg’s fiction, and I would recommend it first before getting into his darker (and more eccentric) autobiographical novels.