A review by haazex
The Fall of the King by Johannes V. Jensen

5.0

Sunset Over a Danish Fjord by Peder Mork Monsted

Human Destiny and the Claws of Time
This was quite a journey into the heart of Danish literature. I'm embarrassed to write that I had never heard about Jensen or this novel as I grew up in Sweden. It makes no sense to me that nobody ever mentioned it, assigned the novel or somehow incorporated this Nobel Prize winner into the curriculum. As I started out I did not exactly enjoy the writing style nor the story line, but it quickly grew on me. Jensen has accomplished something unique with his novel with a focal point on a man's life within the tumultuous 16th century within the kingdom of Denmark. One senses the immensity of destiny connecting all life through time and space. The more I read the more I enjoyed the novel. Jensen has a tendency to invoke the landscape, its sounds and flavor with storms and seasons revolving around human destinies. Gateways of mythical connections appear over and over throughout the story. An unpredictable swirl of human destiny prevails as time unfolds. As I completed the novel I started to understand why the Danes regard this work so highly. I had moved my internal rating from three to five stars as I moved deeper and deeper into the story. I sensed a similarity to Hamsun and Laxness in Jensen's work.
The translation was excellent! I can imagine the challenges faced by the translator as he tackled the nuances of the work. This is definitely a novel that I will revisit in a few years or so. Highly recommended!