I love my book group.  We're small (just 5 of us) and very laid back, but we have good discussions.  This month's book was Kristin Lavrensdatter by Sigrid Undset, who won the 1928 Nobel Prize for literature.

The book is mammoth.  It was initially published (in Norwegian) as a trilogy.  The titles in English are translated The Wreath, The Wife, and The Cross.  Two of us read the 1929 translation, which reads like the King James Bible.  (I like to call it the King Magnus translation.)  The other two read the 2001 translation, which was much more readable. 

The book is the story of Kristin, Lavrens' daughter (hence her name), in the middle ages in Norway.  It is an amazing chronicle of the history of the time.  The writing is evocative: I could see the dale and feel the cold.  Initially, I didn't like the book, but my response was really a reaction against Kristin's poor choices.  (She is seduced and throws off her fiance to marry her seducer.)  But once I pushed through this, the rest of the story really held me captive.  I followed her life as Erlend's wife, the mother of many sons, and finally a widow.  The characters were all so complex and true to themselves-- "integrated personalities", as my friend likes to say-- that I believed them all.

It's a lot of reading, though I suspect the new translation is a quicker read.  I learned a ton (relative to my previous ignorance, that is) about Norway's history in the middle ages.  And I learned about myself and my own stubbornness through the lens of Kristin.

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