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vivacissimx 's review for:
Repetition
by Vigdis Hjorth
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Women in Translation Month #2
A short and reflective book written in what english-lang readers can comfortably call a Scandinavian rhythm. It deconstructs the coming-of-age novel, first by writing from the POV of a (otherwise alone) middle-aged woman who has a wordless passing encounter with a teenage girl being crushed beneath the weight of her parent's authority; second, by reminiscing on her own coming-of-age (as characterized by her relationship with her mother, losing her virginity, other such genre staples) and then pinning it to moments which happen before and after, the "true" story. Multiple times the author alludes to the fact that the shallow boy meets girl story is the fictional one though it must be told to unearth the darker truth beneath it.
This is a story about not just familial sexual abuse, about hierarchies between generations and genders, but about the 'repetitions' which bring you closer to a truth... though not necessarily one which resolves anything (which is not the job of 'truth' after all). I found the relationship between mother and daughter most compelling (it is never a positive one) but the mother's complex web of complicity, subservience, inferiority, and resentment is really well characterized in her relationship to the father, which only is revealed in the last fourth of the novel. In fact I might even say the helpless yet never passive mother is the main character of this book. She is the person the reader spends the most time figuring out.
Thanks to NetGalley and Verso for this ARC.
A short and reflective book written in what english-lang readers can comfortably call a Scandinavian rhythm. It deconstructs the coming-of-age novel, first by writing from the POV of a (otherwise alone) middle-aged woman who has a wordless passing encounter with a teenage girl being crushed beneath the weight of her parent's authority; second, by reminiscing on her own coming-of-age (as characterized by her relationship with her mother, losing her virginity, other such genre staples) and then pinning it to moments which happen before and after, the "true" story. Multiple times the author alludes to the fact that the shallow boy meets girl story is the fictional one though it must be told to unearth the darker truth beneath it.
This is a story about not just familial sexual abuse, about hierarchies between generations and genders, but about the 'repetitions' which bring you closer to a truth... though not necessarily one which resolves anything (which is not the job of 'truth' after all). I found the relationship between mother and daughter most compelling (it is never a positive one) but the mother's complex web of complicity, subservience, inferiority, and resentment is really well characterized in her relationship to the father, which only is revealed in the last fourth of the novel. In fact I might even say the helpless yet never passive mother is the main character of this book. She is the person the reader spends the most time figuring out.
Thanks to NetGalley and Verso for this ARC.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Incest