Comments on: Read-Along: “Kristin Lavransdatter, Part II: The Wife”

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:28:05 +0000

Valerie, sorry you liked part two less than part one–still, you probably liked it way more than I did! I’m not sure what message Undset was trying to convey with all Kristin’s spiritual anguish, but she only has a couple of hundred more pages left to convince me that there was an indeed a message at all.
Richard´s last blog ..The Satyricon

By: EL Fay

EL Fay — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:18:30 +0000

Regarding how sympathetic Ereland seemed compared to Kristin – I think someone else compared him to Kevin Federline suddenly seeming like the sane, decent one after Britney Spears went all crazy. And when Ereland/Kevin seems like the normal one . . . now that can’t be good.

I agree: the writing/translation of KL is well done. It’s like the reaction I had to Henry Miller’s The Tropic of Cancer: great writing, but everything else is questionable.
EL Fay´s last blog ..Maintenance

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:41:26 +0000

Haha, Kristin IS an annoying friend who’s visits are way too long! And yet we keep inviting her back… *sigh*
Sarah´s last blog ..Read. Read. Read-A-Thon!!

By: softdrink

softdrink — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:13:10 +0000

“One is that perhaps trying to read a trilogy over three months is that it may be too much like having a nice, but sometimes annoying, friend coming to visit for several long periods of time in a relatively short time frame. The first time is kind of fun; but then after that, each visit gets more and more annoying. Kristin Lavransdatter is kind of like that.”

Exactly! I was so sick of her by the end of The Wife.
softdrink´s last blog ..French Milk

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:22:12 +0000

Valerie, I’m starting to agree with you about the male-centrism: you might be interested in checking out the conversation in the comments over on Sarah’s post. This time around I just felt like Kristin was made into such a screechy, shrewish wife that the reader was forced to sympathize more with her philandering husband – I mean, at least he seemed like he might be some fun to hang out with. It was troubling.

And yes, as is obvious by now I’m in complete agreement about the agonizing over sins and the CRYING. Oh, the crying. When will it ever stop.
Emily´s last blog ..Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife

By: rhapsodyinbooks

rhapsodyinbooks — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:16:57 +0000

I agree that besides the birthing, the author really leaves out whole chunks of what Kristin does with her life!
rhapsodyinbooks´s last blog ..Review of “All Together Dead” by Charlaine Harris