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A review by toniclark
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
4.0
A can’t-put-this-down kind of read. I didn’t want it to end, but I couldn’t stop reading. A thriller, but not just a thriller. It’s hard to explain how this story works on so many levels. It’s both charming and sophisticated. There’s history, sure, and violence. There are wonderfully drawn characters (touching, gentle, lovable ones and real bad guys) and a riveting plot with police procedural details (though not really a murder “mystery” — we know whodunit, but what will happen after that?). And let me not forget humor. I laughed out loud as often as I held my breath. Probably more often.
We are continually kept guessing by an intriguing conflation of memory and imagination, and of times past and present, so that we are never quite sure what is true vs. untrue, what is factual vs. revisionist history. At one point, Rhea lies awake staring at the ceiling, "her life playing backward and forward." Indeed, the entire novel plays — and plays with us — this way. There are so many tricks and twists of time. (I love the fact that Sheldon made his living as a repairer of watches.) It’s interesting that Sheldon’s memories are questionable, but Sheldon isn’t the narrator. So is the narrator both omniscient and unreliable? Sheldon’s wife certainly thought, and his granddaughter does too, that he’s suffering from dementia. But I don’t know. Is something true only if it’s agreed upon by two or more parties? Sheldon’s version of reality certainly made sense to me. I found myself preferring it to any other possible version. But like Rhea, I wonder: "Rhea . . . wonders when personality lapses into eccentricity. When genius merges into madness. When sanity gives way to — what? Insanity is merely the absence of sanity. It is not a thing in itself It is everything but sane."
The ending wasn't what I expected and i'm not sure I liked it. I can think of others I'd have preferred, but then maybe mine would have been too "Hollywood." If there's a movie, I bet the ending will be different from that of the book. [Later: I backed off from 5 stars as I reconsidered some events late in the book, which I won't disclose here to avoid spoilers.] Even so . . . .
Norwegian by Night is a delicious, delightful, multilayered story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, but also make you think deeply about humanity, inhumanity, tolerance, intolerance, and life’s inevitable regrets as well as its beauty. Okay, I guess I’m pretty blown away by this one.
Some favorite bits:
[When Rhea was a child living in Manhattan, she dreamed of New England, the Berkshires in New England and imagined a giant doll’s house that she and her grandparents could sit inside. As an adult, living in Norway, Rhea shares her husband's summer house.] “The summer house was her doll’s house now; Hedmark, her Berkshires. And so life unfolds itself, and our dreams come true in ways we never imagined.” [And now . . . ] "Lars is her imagination. He tells her stories in their doll's house. They lie on the grass in summer and under the duvet in winter and fly together in worlds both wonderful and sad." p83
"You have no idea what's behind that door. You can't just pick the options within your field of vision. Reality comes from everywhere. At best, you can narrow down the likelihoods. But in the end, it's not a matter of deduction. It's a matter of fact." p169
“it is all clearer now than it was then. Rhea would say it is the vivid fabrication of an aging mind. More likely, though, it is the clarity that comes from aging — from the natural process of releasing the mind from imagined futures, and allowing the present and past to take their rightful place at the center of our attention." p254
"The past is palpable to Sheldon now, in the way the future is to the young. It is either a brief curse or a gift before oblivion.” p254
“He expresses himself not in a torrent of words and ideas and disruptions, revelations and setbacks, but through an ever-expanding capacity to face what comes next.” p19
We are continually kept guessing by an intriguing conflation of memory and imagination, and of times past and present, so that we are never quite sure what is true vs. untrue, what is factual vs. revisionist history. At one point, Rhea lies awake staring at the ceiling, "her life playing backward and forward." Indeed, the entire novel plays — and plays with us — this way. There are so many tricks and twists of time. (I love the fact that Sheldon made his living as a repairer of watches.) It’s interesting that Sheldon’s memories are questionable, but Sheldon isn’t the narrator. So is the narrator both omniscient and unreliable? Sheldon’s wife certainly thought, and his granddaughter does too, that he’s suffering from dementia. But I don’t know. Is something true only if it’s agreed upon by two or more parties? Sheldon’s version of reality certainly made sense to me. I found myself preferring it to any other possible version. But like Rhea, I wonder: "Rhea . . . wonders when personality lapses into eccentricity. When genius merges into madness. When sanity gives way to — what? Insanity is merely the absence of sanity. It is not a thing in itself It is everything but sane."
The ending wasn't what I expected and i'm not sure I liked it. I can think of others I'd have preferred, but then maybe mine would have been too "Hollywood." If there's a movie, I bet the ending will be different from that of the book. [Later: I backed off from 5 stars as I reconsidered some events late in the book, which I won't disclose here to avoid spoilers.] Even so . . . .
Norwegian by Night is a delicious, delightful, multilayered story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, but also make you think deeply about humanity, inhumanity, tolerance, intolerance, and life’s inevitable regrets as well as its beauty. Okay, I guess I’m pretty blown away by this one.
Some favorite bits:
[When Rhea was a child living in Manhattan, she dreamed of New England, the Berkshires in New England and imagined a giant doll’s house that she and her grandparents could sit inside. As an adult, living in Norway, Rhea shares her husband's summer house.] “The summer house was her doll’s house now; Hedmark, her Berkshires. And so life unfolds itself, and our dreams come true in ways we never imagined.” [And now . . . ] "Lars is her imagination. He tells her stories in their doll's house. They lie on the grass in summer and under the duvet in winter and fly together in worlds both wonderful and sad." p83
"You have no idea what's behind that door. You can't just pick the options within your field of vision. Reality comes from everywhere. At best, you can narrow down the likelihoods. But in the end, it's not a matter of deduction. It's a matter of fact." p169
“it is all clearer now than it was then. Rhea would say it is the vivid fabrication of an aging mind. More likely, though, it is the clarity that comes from aging — from the natural process of releasing the mind from imagined futures, and allowing the present and past to take their rightful place at the center of our attention." p254
"The past is palpable to Sheldon now, in the way the future is to the young. It is either a brief curse or a gift before oblivion.” p254
“He expresses himself not in a torrent of words and ideas and disruptions, revelations and setbacks, but through an ever-expanding capacity to face what comes next.” p19