This beautifully written book did not capture my full attention. I read it while on a trip to Norway so maybe the beautiful Norwegian landscape overpowered my experience with the novel. Olsson's description is excellent; often I felt myself in the places she described (on a deck in New Zeland overlooking the ocean, for example, but the ordeal of the protagonist, to learn about his past after the death of his daughter, did not capture me. The protagonist's mother and the mother of his child are a bit similar in their desire for secrecy and isolation, and his acceptance of their neuroses, especially the lover's decision that he can have her or the child, not both, seemed unrealistic to me. This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time and quite mesmerising, like a Sonata. I loved the unfolding of Adam's family history and the characters. It is when the storyline turns to Cecilia, his long lost love, that I get confused. Olsson does not explain at all why Cecilia has forced Adam to choose between her and their yet unborn child. Are we supposed to assume that she had been abused by her stepfather? And, if so, why is that an explanation? The choices that both make seem artificial and, in spite of the writing, one is left with a feeling of unfinished business at the end.
What do You think about Taushetens Konsekvenser (2008)?
I did not find the writing in this flowed well at all. It was too much back and forth for me.
—vic
I thoroughly enjoyed this book although I didn't like it as well as Astrid and Veronika.
—SLIM
Sonata for Miriam: A Novel by Linda Olsson (no date)
—FOREVERwithYOU
