Thomas Robinson > Recent Status Updates

I should confess that I've never reviewed a book before I was finished reading it. ...And once read, I've often been left wondering "What happens next?"

So I've just finished reading this book's first "crossroad"; and this "ending" was so good that I feel like I've read the ENTIRE book!

Suddenly, I'm still left wondering "What happens next?" ...but there's still a chance I'll find out the answer!

To be continued.

I'm still travelling down the first of the three crossroads Christian takes; with the patience of a hurried customer watching his Big Mac get cold; and the only cashier is in the back!

The Norwegian is "old" but can be understood with the focused attention of an investigator; one who's hunting for well-hidden clues in the pitch black night of a messy swamp.

Var dette virkelig livet i Norge på landet under krigen?

...Finally! This book described on the back cover that this is a tale of a young Norwegian man who comes to a crossroad of sorts; where three diverging paths will lead him to 3 separate fates.

On page 43, I arrived at the opening of that literary crossroads. It was as painfully slow getting this far as it must have been for Chris, the main character, to crawl through his swamp!

With renewed energy, I read on.

Apparently this book was written in a time (1949) and dialect (coastal "nynorsk"?) that I would describe as "brutally unenlightened" and "cynically realistic".

Having read mostly Bokmål Norwegian, these first pages read like "whitewater rafting in mud". ...Hard to stay in the story; seemingly getting nowhere fast!

I push on in hopes of catching glimpses of a lost civilization; far removed from the one here and now.

Better "buckle up" for this one "campers"! I've only broken through the (icy cold) surface of this book and it's already such a dark story I need a flashlight to see where it's going.

If you're contemplating reading this, and Norwegian is not your "morspråk", you may consider reading Jo Nesbø's works rather than attempt to understand this "literary Picasso" with a "paint-by-numbers" understanding of Norwegian.

The Foreword and Introduction sections were "heavy lifting"! On the other hand, Thomas Merton's writings have already redefined how I see (and hear) nature now. ...And I live in a simple little cabin in Norway! 😅__🏚🌲🪨🫎🌲🦌