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Het meisje dat op het brood ging staan
THE GIRL WHO TROD ON A LOAF immerses us in the lives of two women in a small upstate New York town-a single mother of twin daughters who waits tables (despite her privileged background) and the elderly Danish composer who she brefriends. At the heart of their peculiar friendship is a Hans Christian Andersen tale (the subject of the composer's final opera) about a prideful girl who is damned for using a loaf of bread, intended as a gift for her parents, as a stepping stone.
338 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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526 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Davis
48 books183 followersKathryn Davis is an award-winning American novelist.
Davis has taught at Skidmore College, and is now senior fiction writer in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
She is a recipient of the Kafka Prize, the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 2006.
Davis lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with her husband, the novelist and essayist Eric Zencey.
Davis has taught at Skidmore College, and is now senior fiction writer in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
She is a recipient of the Kafka Prize, the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 2006.
Davis lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with her husband, the novelist and essayist Eric Zencey.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
March 25, 2008
I'm not going to lie - I had shelved this book so many times at Half Price, and each and every time I saw the title I giggled. The words "trod" and "loaf" are possibly the two funniest words in the English language and the mere site of the cover regularly reduced me to immaturity. Second admission: I sometimes kept a copy of the book on the shelf longer than I should have because I enjoyed reading the spine that much.
With those admissions aside, the story itself was actually not at all what I expected. As the title suggests the underlying story-within-the-story is based on a folktale of the same name. Frances is a well-educated waitress, mother of twins, who befriends a Danish lesbian composer, Helle Ten Brix. Her goal is to turn The Girl Who... into an opera, and leaves the unfinished project to Frances who must finish it. Frances, in the meantime, is a less than stellar mother having relations with a married man and not living up to her potential.
I can not say what I actually thought the story would be about all those times of shelving the book. I never opened the jacket to look. I can say that I never thought I would be interested. However, the friendship between Frances and Helle, and the connection between Helle and her operas was fascinating to me. Folktales are incredibly powerful, and when used in just the right way such as Kathryn Davis did for this book with the use of Scandinavian folktales (or as Margaret Atwood has done in many of her own books), they become something even larger. The moral at the end of the story packs more punch, the symbolism and images throughout the book are more vivid.
Hehe, "trod"... hehe, "loaf"...
With those admissions aside, the story itself was actually not at all what I expected. As the title suggests the underlying story-within-the-story is based on a folktale of the same name. Frances is a well-educated waitress, mother of twins, who befriends a Danish lesbian composer, Helle Ten Brix. Her goal is to turn The Girl Who... into an opera, and leaves the unfinished project to Frances who must finish it. Frances, in the meantime, is a less than stellar mother having relations with a married man and not living up to her potential.
I can not say what I actually thought the story would be about all those times of shelving the book. I never opened the jacket to look. I can say that I never thought I would be interested. However, the friendship between Frances and Helle, and the connection between Helle and her operas was fascinating to me. Folktales are incredibly powerful, and when used in just the right way such as Kathryn Davis did for this book with the use of Scandinavian folktales (or as Margaret Atwood has done in many of her own books), they become something even larger. The moral at the end of the story packs more punch, the symbolism and images throughout the book are more vivid.
Hehe, "trod"... hehe, "loaf"...
February 8, 2021
I've been reading my way through Davis's oeuvre over the past couple of months having only just taken her up, beginning with Duplex. In this, her second novel, I think I have found what I might call her artistic manifesto (couched in the terms of her narrator, Frances Thorn, describing the musical works of the driving force in the novel, Helle Ten Brix, composer): to create landscapes that duplicate the conditions of the human soul, fantastic landscapes.
Here, we roam back and forth between Denmark, home of Hans Christian Andersen and his fairy tales as well as Helle Ten Brix and hers, and Canaan, New York, home of Frances Thorn and her daughters and most of the rest of the cast. The story roams, too, across the lifetime of Helle Ten Brix, a composer of operas as well as song cycles.
Davis's manifesto might also be thought of as including service to art. As many writers do, Davis has her composed a paean to art, investigating her own (the novel) by looking through the lens of another (principally opera), and considering how art serves the world in which it exists: "So it happened that once again I found myself ministering to the appetites of others."
Here, we roam back and forth between Denmark, home of Hans Christian Andersen and his fairy tales as well as Helle Ten Brix and hers, and Canaan, New York, home of Frances Thorn and her daughters and most of the rest of the cast. The story roams, too, across the lifetime of Helle Ten Brix, a composer of operas as well as song cycles.
Davis's manifesto might also be thought of as including service to art. As many writers do, Davis has her composed a paean to art, investigating her own (the novel) by looking through the lens of another (principally opera), and considering how art serves the world in which it exists: "So it happened that once again I found myself ministering to the appetites of others."
December 26, 2017
I read the first chapter and thought, "This is going to be great!" But it wasn't. It was pompous, pretentious, and BORING. Davis has to tell you in the third sentence (seriously: you learn this on the very first page) than one of the main characters is a murderer as a way to give the story a bit of dramatic tension, but it doesn't work. The narrative is so chaotic and disjointed that it feels like nothing is really happening. Like the planet we live on, this book is so busy spinning that you still somehow feel like you're standing still. Ugh. A total waste of my time.
January 12, 2019
The first book I read by Kathryn Davis was The Thin Place. It was a strange book is nearly every way, and I nearly gave up on it. Now it is one of my favourite books of all time.
One of the things I love about the way she writes is that she forces the reader to be an active participant in decoding the story. None of her books are easy reads. This early novel has within it some of the same clever storytelling methods as The Thin Place, including an intertangling between the natural world and the human characters and an emphasis on the importance of place as an integral part of who someone is and how they understand the world.
This is a book that fills me with awe in terms of technical ability as well. The story focuses on a female composer who has penned several operas, and many of them are retold in detail in the book, including portions of the libretto and detailed descriptions of the music itself. These operas are compelling and their descriptions are my favourite parts of the book. I was constantly wondering how Kathryn Davis had pulled this off. She also easily slips back and forth in time, between people, across continents, from opera to everyday life - often in one paragraph and sometimes within one sentence. I truly think she is one of the most technically gifted writers I have come across.
Having said that, this is not a book I would recommend to just anybody. The reader does have to bring a lot to the table to decipher the text, and there is plenty in the story to make a person squirm. However, I think it's an incredible piece of artistry and would be particularly enjoyed by someone who is familiar with opera.
One of the things I love about the way she writes is that she forces the reader to be an active participant in decoding the story. None of her books are easy reads. This early novel has within it some of the same clever storytelling methods as The Thin Place, including an intertangling between the natural world and the human characters and an emphasis on the importance of place as an integral part of who someone is and how they understand the world.
This is a book that fills me with awe in terms of technical ability as well. The story focuses on a female composer who has penned several operas, and many of them are retold in detail in the book, including portions of the libretto and detailed descriptions of the music itself. These operas are compelling and their descriptions are my favourite parts of the book. I was constantly wondering how Kathryn Davis had pulled this off. She also easily slips back and forth in time, between people, across continents, from opera to everyday life - often in one paragraph and sometimes within one sentence. I truly think she is one of the most technically gifted writers I have come across.
Having said that, this is not a book I would recommend to just anybody. The reader does have to bring a lot to the table to decipher the text, and there is plenty in the story to make a person squirm. However, I think it's an incredible piece of artistry and would be particularly enjoyed by someone who is familiar with opera.
August 23, 2007
This book was exhilirating and difficult. The narrative moves through various storylines/eras and operas, building information slowly, often favoring deliciously layered and confusing paragraphs over straightforward scene-making. I loved the feeling of not understanding how in the hell Davis put this story together. I was at her mercy, and I'll admit, sometimes I wasn't exactly clear how I got somewhere. Did it matter? I'm not sure.
This book also includes some terrific words, from "eidolon" ("An abstract idea of a cake, a cake elevated to the realm of pure thought, a cake eidolon" (119)), to, "cerements" ("Unlike Lazarus, he rose without divine assistance, and then, trailing cerements, shuffled down the hall to the kitchen, where he came upon Gunhild kneading dough in the dark" (297)). Also: caracul, sphagnum, umbellula, tisanes.
I realized that while I may know a lot of words to describe the abstract, Davis has an unrivaled collection of words to describe the physical world. If only I were so lucky.
This book also includes some terrific words, from "eidolon" ("An abstract idea of a cake, a cake elevated to the realm of pure thought, a cake eidolon" (119)), to, "cerements" ("Unlike Lazarus, he rose without divine assistance, and then, trailing cerements, shuffled down the hall to the kitchen, where he came upon Gunhild kneading dough in the dark" (297)). Also: caracul, sphagnum, umbellula, tisanes.
I realized that while I may know a lot of words to describe the abstract, Davis has an unrivaled collection of words to describe the physical world. If only I were so lucky.
December 29, 2010
I loved this book, although it won't appeal to everyone. The narrative is rich and layered (and fairly slow-moving until towards the end), and it somehow manages to tell the entire life story of Helle Ten Brix, a renowned and eccentric Danish opera composer. The story is told through a musically adept American waitress and close friend of Helle, who manages to keep the narrative moving by focusing on Helle's unfinished last opera, /The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf/. This last opera is based on Helle's childhood near the bogs of Denmark and is fairly dark. Helle is a fascinating character. She lives out in a trailer behind the narrator's house composing this last opera. She's so interesting that her American nemesis is rather dull in comparison, and I'm still uncertain whether the ending works. That said, I'm blown away by how Davis weaves in historical references and opera terminology. She actually managed to keep my attention while describing opera after opera--not an easy feat. Like all of her books, her narrative voice(s) is so fluid and rich that it rarely feels overly researched.
February 13, 2009
The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf is actually Hans C Andersen tale - a rather nasty one at that. The book builds on this tale and weaves it into a story about opera, Denmark and two women, one old and dying and the other a waitress in a coffee shop. Helle is from Denmark and has composed many operas, but hasn't finished the last one (based on the Girl Who Trod) when she dies. Her life, from the early 20th century Denmark to the present time is a panoramic history. Davis obviously knows her opera, and she spins a good story, but I thought she could have gotten rid of about 100 pages of details of the score, the costume designs, and all of the staging options. It takes a few swift passes at magical realism, which does add drama, but in the end I was a bit confused by the entire premise - the gods in the bog that devour the girl who trod on the loaf are meant to represent something in the life of Helle. But it didn't quite come through for me.
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January 25, 2026Yes, it's literature. Davis is brilliant. But what a slog to finish this book. Paragraph upon paragraph upon paragraph describing operas that don't actually exist. Dozens and dozens of characters who are nearly impossible to distinguish from one another. I kept waiting for the whole thing to click together, to begin to care about the people, understand what was going on, keep track of the chronology of the stories, the connections between the characters -- not to mention to learn to care about the production details for imaginary musical performances -- but even after 100, 200, 300, 400 pages, it never did / I never did ... and then it was over and I was so happy to be able to pick up a different book instead.
It's often (but not always) a mistake to buy a book because of its title. But I probably won't stop.
It's often (but not always) a mistake to buy a book because of its title. But I probably won't stop.
January 6, 2021
This loaf was very dense and hard to get through. A satisfying conclusion though.
October 20, 2012
There have been a some other books read in my household since last summer, of course. I'll mention a few here in the next day or two, though there are probably others I've already forgotten.
One that I was reading through the crisis moments was Kathryn Davis' The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf. It concerns the life of a proto-feminist opera composer in her last few years, as spent in a New England town in the company of a runaway Julliard prodigy and her twin daughters. The narrative of the relationship of these two women is interspersed with flashbacks to the composer's youth spent in Europe, as well as with scenes from the composer's operas. It is a dense and demanding novel, one I probably would have gotten more from had not the rest of my life at the time been so dense and demanding.
I will say, however, that the opera scenes have raised my interest in that art form in a way that little else ever has. I have almost no experience with modern opera, but this book makes me think that there are possibilities there unopened-- impenetrable, even-- in any other single art form. If the descriptions in this book are to be believed, opera holds the possibility of combining music, poetry, drama, and visual art in ways that seems absolutely foreign to my sadly provincial notions of scenes from The Magic Flute, etc. Not that Mozart doesn't have his appeal, but...
Maybe it's a matter of knowing the language. How many times have I seen students find the same Shakespearean scenes I feel to be dynamic, funny, and deeply moving write essays claiming these scenes are cold, remote fortresses of language? Too many to count. And don't get me started on the average freshman's reaction to contemporary poetry. Part of the problem is that they have not yet learned to think in the way poetry demands, taking intuitive leaps and making dangerous links, while trusting their own intuition. It seems to me that my lack of appreciation for opera could be part of the same syndrome. Certainly this novel makes me want to try a little more.
I don't know if I'll ever go back and reread this novel to see if I can pull more from it, but Davis is assuredly an author who interests me. It's a shame in some ways how our experiences in the imaginative world as readers are so defined by our real-life experiences, but there you have it. The very thing that is supposed to free us from the confines of our real lives, and which often blessedly does, is itself somewhat circumscribed by it.
Coming soon: fairy tales real and imagined.
One that I was reading through the crisis moments was Kathryn Davis' The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf. It concerns the life of a proto-feminist opera composer in her last few years, as spent in a New England town in the company of a runaway Julliard prodigy and her twin daughters. The narrative of the relationship of these two women is interspersed with flashbacks to the composer's youth spent in Europe, as well as with scenes from the composer's operas. It is a dense and demanding novel, one I probably would have gotten more from had not the rest of my life at the time been so dense and demanding.
I will say, however, that the opera scenes have raised my interest in that art form in a way that little else ever has. I have almost no experience with modern opera, but this book makes me think that there are possibilities there unopened-- impenetrable, even-- in any other single art form. If the descriptions in this book are to be believed, opera holds the possibility of combining music, poetry, drama, and visual art in ways that seems absolutely foreign to my sadly provincial notions of scenes from The Magic Flute, etc. Not that Mozart doesn't have his appeal, but...
Maybe it's a matter of knowing the language. How many times have I seen students find the same Shakespearean scenes I feel to be dynamic, funny, and deeply moving write essays claiming these scenes are cold, remote fortresses of language? Too many to count. And don't get me started on the average freshman's reaction to contemporary poetry. Part of the problem is that they have not yet learned to think in the way poetry demands, taking intuitive leaps and making dangerous links, while trusting their own intuition. It seems to me that my lack of appreciation for opera could be part of the same syndrome. Certainly this novel makes me want to try a little more.
I don't know if I'll ever go back and reread this novel to see if I can pull more from it, but Davis is assuredly an author who interests me. It's a shame in some ways how our experiences in the imaginative world as readers are so defined by our real-life experiences, but there you have it. The very thing that is supposed to free us from the confines of our real lives, and which often blessedly does, is itself somewhat circumscribed by it.
Coming soon: fairy tales real and imagined.
August 12, 2024
Just read for the fourth (or possibly the fifth) time ...
I read this gorgeous novel first when it came out. I loved it then for the way it swept me up as an opera does, with a vivid plot and resonating trills and flourishes of language. The older I get (and I now feel very, very old), the more I appreciate Franny's story, which is often overshadowed by Helle's artistic formation. Frances's life may be more relatable, even recognizable, and often more than a bit seedy--but all the elements that make a haunting fairy tale or opera are there (love, betrayal, fall from grace, ambition) ... There's an opera-worthy thread in every life. Maybe it's even a good thing that we make such terrible mistakes--tread on our own loaves of good fortune and duty thereto--because our faults and transgression yield a kind of terrible beauty that's richer and deeper and more lasting than any inexplicable moments of happiness. I'm going to believe that for a while, anyway.
I read this gorgeous novel first when it came out. I loved it then for the way it swept me up as an opera does, with a vivid plot and resonating trills and flourishes of language. The older I get (and I now feel very, very old), the more I appreciate Franny's story, which is often overshadowed by Helle's artistic formation. Frances's life may be more relatable, even recognizable, and often more than a bit seedy--but all the elements that make a haunting fairy tale or opera are there (love, betrayal, fall from grace, ambition) ... There's an opera-worthy thread in every life. Maybe it's even a good thing that we make such terrible mistakes--tread on our own loaves of good fortune and duty thereto--because our faults and transgression yield a kind of terrible beauty that's richer and deeper and more lasting than any inexplicable moments of happiness. I'm going to believe that for a while, anyway.
May 12, 2009
Doesn't seem particularly didactic to me. Not that Murdoch really is, but certainly more so than Davis. Fluid with time, richly adorned like a theater set (and none of that modern minimalist aesthetic either), a symbol-laden tragedy whose narrator (heroine) doesn't think very highly of either symbols or tragedies. I like it, but it also irritates me that the lesbian characters are unstable and melodramatic eccentrics. It's not like the hets are angels, either, but still.
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It says everything about me that I am excited to read this book because its genre, in the SFPL catalog, is "Didactic fiction." Also because of its title. Loaftrodden!
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It says everything about me that I am excited to read this book because its genre, in the SFPL catalog, is "Didactic fiction." Also because of its title. Loaftrodden!
August 8, 2013
Fascinating story of a Danish feminist opera composer and her idiosyncratic, often fairy-tale like oeuvre. Scenes in Copenhagen made me especially happy as I could picture them from a long-ago visit. Flashbacks to her past were more compelling than the present-day first-person narration by her younger American friend (a Julliard-trained musician herself who is waiting tables in a diner, and later trying to complete Helle's final opera as requested in her will). A number of reviewers here found it offputting, and Helle herself certainly is, but it's a deeply imaginative work which drew me in as I continued.
January 17, 2009
Fantastic and gripping despite being in the first person(a personal dislike of mine). The use of musical terminology never feels clumsy or tiresome, though the bits about tattooing seem a bit off, if anything. She makes opera really interesting, I found myself really wishing that Helle Ten Brix's operas were real so that I could rush out and find copies of them. Instead I have the vain hope that I can find some like it, any ideas? Was sad to see this one end but am happy knowing that we have a couple more of her books on the shelf.
September 28, 2009
Rare book I didn't finish after starting it. Interesting concept, but an over-complex execution. Maybe an opera lover would find it more enjoyable. This book is basically a personal history through examination of the inspiration for the main themes in an imaginary opera. I was not exactly dying to hear what real life event was the inspiration for an opera that we know nothing about at the beginning of the book.
October 24, 2022
"Wasn't it wonderful, she asked Dancer, how music could make you feel that way, as if you didn't know who you were or what you were doing? As if suddenly hollow avenues were branching out in your body, all of them waiting like streambeds in the spring to fill with water, but also like the water itself, a watery hand getting ready to pour into the waiting fingers of a glove? Of course it depended on your outlook whether this process indicated the presence of a soul or its absence."
September 7, 2007
For some reason this novel didn't work for me. Perhaps if I were more musically inclined, I would have liked it better. As it was, I had a hard time feeling anything for the characters or investing myself in the plot or the outcome. Given the basic plot, I thought I would enjoy the book, and was disappointed.
January 25, 2022
i think I need to stop reading so many books about opera and composition. this book is beautifully written and “deeply imagined” as some say, but it made me feel very dizzy and sort of like I’m drowning in the things I don’t know about. how does fiction inform real life? It’s an easy question in regular fiction, but apparently not for opera! i don’t want to think about this anymore
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February 4, 2015This was a bizarre story that stuck with me.
July 16, 2025
A book that took me upwards of two months to finish, but which happened entirely because it was too damn good to read quickly. I give five stars based on enjoyment, gave the rating to a book yesterday even, but I cannot overstate how much THIS one deserves it more than perhaps anything else I've ever rated as such. There are many great writers around, but there's a richness and a complete and utter technical excellence in Davis' prose that makes them look clumsy and amateurish. Because it's constant! It never stops! It's just one sentence crafted to perfection after another.
Kind of a fictional biography on the life of opera composer Helle Ten Brix, kind of following the narrator and friend and one-sided beloved Frances. Lots and lots and lots of discussions of music and composition and opera and Danish folktales, none of which I knew anything about, making way for a story about temerity and obsession and jealousy and perseverance. I'm in love!
Copying this section from The Independent's review:
A queer and pessimistic composition, it seemed to me, characteristically perverse in its view of the created world: God engages in endless replication of His form, the sextet suggests, but whatever diversity He appears to promote is limited by His overwhelming desire to see Himself wherever He looks, to be everything—this is the world “analogous to man’s imagining,” as Inger sings, and clearly we’re meant to understand that she’s making a crucial distinction, that the world as imagined by a woman might be completely different.
Kind of a fictional biography on the life of opera composer Helle Ten Brix, kind of following the narrator and friend and one-sided beloved Frances. Lots and lots and lots of discussions of music and composition and opera and Danish folktales, none of which I knew anything about, making way for a story about temerity and obsession and jealousy and perseverance. I'm in love!
Copying this section from The Independent's review:
In this generation of women writers, love is often shortchanged. Few can counterbalance their intellectual weight with dreams, or their romantic tics with realism. But Davis writes of a love between equals that still has tragic modulations. This is the real thing, caught in a language that hovers enticingly between the laconic and the poetic.
Francie Thorn's heterosexuality is at odds with her other lover's lesbianism, and her American nonchalance is set in contrast with the weight of Helle's European past. Helle's Europe is mythical in an unexpected way - no gay Paree or sunny Rome, but the dark northern temper of Hans Christian Andersen, Coppelia and 12th-century castles. While Francie's America is brittle and bright, a country of azure diners and dusty pink birthday cakes. But despite the outright difference of their backgrounds, we come to believe that as women Francie and Helle come from the same world.
May 15, 2024
(this review will be written entirely in dutch, because that's how I read it. I can't switch languages, I'm sorry😅)
"Hoe waren we toch ooit op dat idee van trouw gekomen? vroeg ik me af. Want wanneer was de geest die een ding bezielde immers ooit trouw gebleven aan de vorm die haar omsloot? De menselijke stem, dacht ik, dat meest tragische van alle instrumenten; de hoopvol zingende menselijke stem, pogend een toon voor eeuwing aan te houden."
Wat een bijzonder boek zeg! Tot aan het einde had ik voor een groot deel geen idee wat er gebeurde en hoewel dat aan mij kan liggen denk ik ook dat dat gedeeltelijk de bedoeling was. Ik raakte geïntrigeerd tot een punt dat het bijna obsessief werd, want ik moest hoe dan ook begrijpen wat het was dat de schrijver wilde zeggen. Het was vreselijk en verwarrend, maar in een interessante, manier. Ik las door en door, maar er kwam geen duidelijkheid. Ik wist in grote lijnen wat er gebeurde, maar de gebeurtenissen leken niet genoeg te zijn. Er waren metaforen, verwijzingen(vaak naar mensen, verhalen of muziekstukken die ik niet ken) en zo ontzettend veel details. Ik wist op een gegeven moment, een moment dat veel eerder kwam dan ik verwachtte, niet meer het verschil te benoemen tussen hoofd- en bijzaak.
Nu klinkt het alsof elk hoofdstuk, elke zin en elk woord vervloekte, maar dat was niet constant het geval. Ik hou van vaagheid en zinnen die zo vol zitten met metaforen dat er geen woord uit wijs valt te maken.
De karakters waren goed uitgewerkt, vooral dat van Helle, maar om het vaag te houden hield te schrijver Helle's persoonlijkheid ook vaag. Niet dat ik weinig wist over haar, maar dat alles wat er te weten viel over haar vaag klonk. Ze was een bijzonder karakter die speekt in haar eigen taal. Het was interessant, maar ook enorm verwarrend.
Dit boek was over het algemeen gewoom enorm verwarrend. Veel te verwarrend. Soms maakte dat het boek interessanter, alleen vaker was het irritant. De drang om te begrijpen moest ik hierdoor al vroeg loslaten, want ik denk dat het bewust geschreven is op een manier dat het begrijpen van het verhaal zo lastig maakt.
Dus nee, dit boek was niet een, in mijn ogen, goed boek. Het was wel een intrigerend boek en dat is waarom ik dit boek alsnog 3 sterren geef.
"Hoe waren we toch ooit op dat idee van trouw gekomen? vroeg ik me af. Want wanneer was de geest die een ding bezielde immers ooit trouw gebleven aan de vorm die haar omsloot? De menselijke stem, dacht ik, dat meest tragische van alle instrumenten; de hoopvol zingende menselijke stem, pogend een toon voor eeuwing aan te houden."
Wat een bijzonder boek zeg! Tot aan het einde had ik voor een groot deel geen idee wat er gebeurde en hoewel dat aan mij kan liggen denk ik ook dat dat gedeeltelijk de bedoeling was. Ik raakte geïntrigeerd tot een punt dat het bijna obsessief werd, want ik moest hoe dan ook begrijpen wat het was dat de schrijver wilde zeggen. Het was vreselijk en verwarrend, maar in een interessante, manier. Ik las door en door, maar er kwam geen duidelijkheid. Ik wist in grote lijnen wat er gebeurde, maar de gebeurtenissen leken niet genoeg te zijn. Er waren metaforen, verwijzingen(vaak naar mensen, verhalen of muziekstukken die ik niet ken) en zo ontzettend veel details. Ik wist op een gegeven moment, een moment dat veel eerder kwam dan ik verwachtte, niet meer het verschil te benoemen tussen hoofd- en bijzaak.
Nu klinkt het alsof elk hoofdstuk, elke zin en elk woord vervloekte, maar dat was niet constant het geval. Ik hou van vaagheid en zinnen die zo vol zitten met metaforen dat er geen woord uit wijs valt te maken.
De karakters waren goed uitgewerkt, vooral dat van Helle, maar om het vaag te houden hield te schrijver Helle's persoonlijkheid ook vaag. Niet dat ik weinig wist over haar, maar dat alles wat er te weten viel over haar vaag klonk. Ze was een bijzonder karakter die speekt in haar eigen taal. Het was interessant, maar ook enorm verwarrend.
Dit boek was over het algemeen gewoom enorm verwarrend. Veel te verwarrend. Soms maakte dat het boek interessanter, alleen vaker was het irritant. De drang om te begrijpen moest ik hierdoor al vroeg loslaten, want ik denk dat het bewust geschreven is op een manier dat het begrijpen van het verhaal zo lastig maakt.
Dus nee, dit boek was niet een, in mijn ogen, goed boek. Het was wel een intrigerend boek en dat is waarom ik dit boek alsnog 3 sterren geef.
November 24, 2024
As someone who has taken a ‘writing for music’ class, I would consider this a must read for anyone musicologically inclined readers looking for a true modern folk story steeped with an awe and love of music you rarely see outside of an academic work! For anyone looking for a casual mystery story, I won’t say it’s not for you, but I will caution to go in with more of an open mind as, while The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf far exceeds my expectations, it was a also a bit of a surprise experience!
This book was gifted to me by someone who clearly knows what things I love!!! I devoured it in basically one sitting and truly have to say that this book…isn’t for everyone 😅
Personally, as a mythology nerd with a Music History degree this story was a beautifully written modern folk tale! I was deeply familiar with most if not all of the works referred to in this book. I found the writing rich and immersive, with the additional unreliable narratives woven throughout it was more a journey of discovery as a reader than anything else. I enjoyed the entire experience beyond words!
However I can admit, I am very biased! Reviews that find this book tiring are fair, and I would honestly at least recommend being familiar with the actual Don Giovanni opera before diving into this. It’s not that the work is pretentious, but the one flaw a reader may find is that it does rely heavily on other real world works.
This book was gifted to me by someone who clearly knows what things I love!!! I devoured it in basically one sitting and truly have to say that this book…isn’t for everyone 😅
Personally, as a mythology nerd with a Music History degree this story was a beautifully written modern folk tale! I was deeply familiar with most if not all of the works referred to in this book. I found the writing rich and immersive, with the additional unreliable narratives woven throughout it was more a journey of discovery as a reader than anything else. I enjoyed the entire experience beyond words!
However I can admit, I am very biased! Reviews that find this book tiring are fair, and I would honestly at least recommend being familiar with the actual Don Giovanni opera before diving into this. It’s not that the work is pretentious, but the one flaw a reader may find is that it does rely heavily on other real world works.
August 13, 2021
This book is about ostensibly many things: ambition, jealousy, love, perseverance, and obsession just to name a few. Its intricately layered storytelling recalls watching a somewhat inscrutable opera accompanied by the breeze of the audience riffling through their program summaries to place what is happening on stage. That’s fitting for this story about (fictional) opera composer Helle Ten Brix, her outsize life and dramas, and her unfinished last opera bequeathed to the narrator of this story. As the story meanders through Helle’s life and origin story, we learn about her through her compositions. Sometimes the book felt like reading a string of program notes and musical analyses. Personally I loved this innovative way to tell a story, but I could see those with a less personal background in classical music being frustrated by multiple mentions of music theory. The writing often dripped with the showy opulence I associate with opera which I found fitting. Overall a transporting and satisfying read - I felt like applauding at the end.
June 27, 2025
Maybe on me for misreading the vibes but I went into this expecting a fun little fairy tale retelling and instead I got a dense biographical story that almost reads like an academic paper. We follow the life story of Helle Ten Brix and her recounting is interwoven with references to the Hans Christian Anderson folktale which I so wish were just a bit longer. There’s also a lot of hopping around between past & present which personally made it difficult for me to connect with the characters
August 8, 2024
P.314. Thales held that there was no difference between life and death. Well, the, why don’t you kill youtself? A friend asked, to which Thales unperturbed replied “because there wouldn’t be any difference.
January 8, 2018
A good read to start off the new year!
November 2, 2021
An interesting book! Some parts were slow moving.
December 6, 2025
This took me forever to get into and much of the music talk went over my head but I ended up enjoying this stranger story.
December 5, 2009
Oy--this book wore me out. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than an opera lover or composer, and at that I found myself skipping pages at a time because her descriptions were so long and disorganized, obscure and fairy tale like (which is the point, I guess). I felt like stopping many times but am glad I finished it.
July 25, 2014
The title caught my eye in a bookstore long ago and it tugged at me to buy it the next time I saw it. I don't think I had any idea what it was about, but I'm glad I picked it up. Love the writing about music and opera.
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