The Ice Palace

as my organs freeze this winter, this Norwegian narrative that deals with loss and grief is def an interesting read!

reading this over a period of three days at a music festival was an experience in itself but adding the layer of torrential rain on tent walls made it even weirder

solid 4-4.5. vesaas’ descriptions of the ice and cold are otherworldly and truly unlike anything i’ve read before. i felt lost within the ice palace myself, and something in me wants so much to experience the purity and immensity of snow once again. the story itself felt a little like a grimms’ fairy tale, but built on top of poetry and myth. the freudian undertones were a little weird LOL but also made the relationship between siss and unn strangely magnetic?? i do wish that vesaas had given us a little more of a window into unn’s secret. i understand the importance of the anonymity, but i also felt there wasn’t enough for me to fully grasp siss’ devastation and her dilemma in remaining silent. overall, deeply felt! a harrowing little gem; i’m very glad i read it.

It was an interesting idea to begin with, but the lack-of-description-as-mystery plot always just seems kind of lazy to me, a rationale for not filling out ideas. I found myself skimming the last third of the book because I knew it was never going to get around to any actual subject.