A review by lilcurious
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don't know how to talk about a book that spans almost the whole life of a character and has 1144 pages, but I will try. First of all, in my personal book tracking sheet I logged each book separately even though I read them one after the other, mostly because the pacing of the second book felt too different to think of them as a single one. And so my rating was also individual: The Wreath has a 4,5; The Wife has a 4 and The Cross has a shiny 5.
The whole trilogy talks about Kristin Lavransdatter and, I dare say, the men around her. It explores family, marriage, motherhood and christianity, all full of love and guilt and shame. We get to know her as a cute 8yo child, with some of the most comforting scenes I've ever read (courtesy of her father, one of my favorite characters of all time), like this one:

She sat there leaning against her father, with one arm over his knee. He gave her as much as she wanted to eat from all the best portions and offered her all the ale she could drink, along with frequent sips of the mead.
“She’ll be so tipsy she won’t be able to walk down to the pasture,” said Halvdan with a laugh, but Lavrans stroked her plump cheeks.
“There are enough of us here to carry her. It will do her good. Drink up, Arne. God’s gifts will do you good, not harm, all you who are still growing. The ale will give you sweet red blood and make you sleep well. It won’t arouse rage or foolishness.”

And it's hard not to love her. Even when she's 17 and starts acting foolish, it's easy to forgive. But she keeps changing and by the time she is a full fledged person, it's difficult to recognize the child she was, not only for the reader, but for other characters and herself. The rest of the trilogy is in one way or another her trying to deal with this loss of innocence, because she can't shake the regret off and it makes her at times bitter and at times tender. And so we follow her through love and through grief, through sin and through repentence, getting to read about fjords and other Norwegian scenery, accompanied with great characters and a simple writing that isn't afraid to gut punching you once in a while.

(At 13 she does starts crying every night before sleep and I wonder if being a 13yo girl really was hell even at Medieval times.)