Welcome to Litsy!

Another book in translation and another heavy topic. The narrator is an artist in her 60s who returns home and attempts to reconnect with the mother who cut her off after seeing herself in her daughter‘s artwork. It‘s a story of the trauma of broken mother-daughter relationships and the lifelong effect that can have. Heartbreaking but gorgeously written.

Set in Norway where Johanna returns to after 30 years. Estranged from her mother and sister who still live there. The book is about the family dynamics that go on in our minds, especially around the mother. Johanna‘s ambivalent feelings towards her mother are very relatable. I enjoyed the first half , it reads like a thriller too. But it became a bit of a trudge for me. I‘m glad I‘ve finished ( a sigh of relief ) profound , poignant , memorable.

I liked this much more than Hjorth's Will and Testament, which deals with similar issues. Johanna spends so much time in her own head that at times I wondered if she was a reliable narrator, but I suppose, in the end, she was just as reliable as anyone else would be to tell the "truth." She made me nervous, but I loved her.

Johanna is back in Norway after a long absence. She hasn‘t been in touch with her family for years but now that‘s she‘s back the past catches up with her and she wants to talk to her mother. It becomes an obsession, she continuously imagines what goes in on her mother‘s mind but can‘t understand why her mother doesn‘t want to reconnect. ⬇️⬇️

#WeeklyForecast 21/24

I didn‘t get to the Old Trickster last week but am reading it now. I also started the tagged book and am loving it. The third one is by a favorite Dutch writer.

This book brilliantly documents the painful journey of a woman coming to terms with her relationship to her mother, as a child and now as an adult. Along the way, more and more of her mother is illuminated. It all comes to a boiling point at the end. It is infuriating and heartbreaking and also a story of peace and redemption. I wish it had made the Booker shortlist.

One of my favorite breweries has the perfect combination of a bookish vibe and great beer. I came here to do some work but I brought this book so….

"Marguerite Duras writes somewhere that every mother in every childhood represents madness. That your mother is and always will be the strangest person you will ever meet, I think she's right." I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. It feels so personal and is filled with disconcerting insights about the protagonist's estranged, disturbed "relationship" with her mother. Another person's mind is always the most chilling mystery.

I‘m not sure what to make of this one. It has/had the same issue as Luda for me. Very purple prose and a strange layout- maybe the fault of the ebook. It‘s easy to follow but meandering.

I figure that‘s the point, and the story is good, but it‘s just not my thing.