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#Norwegian
blurb
CrowCAH
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I‘m so glad I came across this readalong with @BarbaraJean !

I already read The Wreath, so I‘ll pick up with July‘s book of The Wife!

TheBookHippie One of my fav reads! Enjoy. 1w
BarbaraJean Excited to have you joining in! Thanks for sharing! 1w
39 likes2 comments
review
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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Pickpick

The book's title is suggestive of the half life the narrator lives, bound by an obsessional love to an older man utterly unworthy of her devotion, & trapped by the hypocritical mores of patriarchal religious values.
80 years since publication, Nedreaas's exploration of "pro-life" misogynistic shaming of pregnancy & abortion that also punishes unmarried mothers and stigmatises and willfully neglects their children is, sadly, still relevant. ⬇️

Bookwomble There are also themes of depression and mental illness, class struggle, capitalism, infidelity, and suicide, and some graphic descriptions of self-induced abortion, all couched in a brittly beautiful prose.

The narrative structure of compulsive reminiscence lends a dark foreboding to both the past and present circumstances of the narrator's life: Nedreaas is honest and doesn't play any cheap tricks on the reader. A plangently melancholy 4.5⭐
(edited) 4w
32 likes1 comment
quote
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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“If you can smile today, maybe you can laugh tomorrow.”

This thought of the main character sounds hopeful - it is hopeful - I fear it is likely to be unfulfilled.

While reading I'm listening to Norwegian composer/pianist Ketil Bjørnstad's album "The Nest", which hits the right note of melancholy and light ??
#BooksAndMusic

? https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_noyS9yFqEsSrN8V5wQxVHcnlOIUZ9FDE8&si=i...

Jari-chan A beautiful quote 💖 4w
26 likes1 comment
blurb
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

The episode in Nedreaas's "Nothing Grows by Moonlight" where the unnamed narrator recalls the day she left home to escape a stultifying life for the self-deluding fantasy of a happy life with a lover who insists on the secrecy of their assignations, while not entirely matching the lyrics of "She's Leaving Home", is close enough that the one reminded me of the other. And any excuse to listen to this song is a good one ?

lil1inblue Oooh! I'm intrigued. And yes, any excuse for The Beatles is a welcome one. 1mo
30 likes2 stack adds2 comments
quote
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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“The world has been built crookedly with some kind of arrangement that makes lots of people into hunted animals and a few people so swimmingly well off they can't understand why everybody else isn't happy for them and willing to be beaten to death for their purpose.”

blurb
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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The rain has stopped for what looks like long enough for me to walk to the shops without getting wet.
Each spring is signalled & beautified by this clematis in our front garden that (miracle!) I've managed to not kill
This 1947 Swedish novel, however, has none of the joys of spring. A woman looks back on an affair she had with her former school teacher, and given her adverse coping mechanisms at the point of narration, it's not going to end well!

quote
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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"I am looking for someone."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

review
rwmg
Hunger | Knut Hamsun
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Pickpick

An unnamed narrator wanders the streets of 1880s Kristiana (Oslo) as an impoverished freelance writer suffering hallucinations and physical and mental weakness while on the verge of starving to death.

Personally, I would have given up long before I got to that stage, but that may explain why the author won the Nobel Prize for Literature and I didn't.

26 likes1 stack add
quote
rwmg
Hunger | Knut Hamsun
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Leftcoastzen I remember loving this but I read it long ago. 2mo
25 likes1 comment
blurb
rwmg
Hunger | Knut Hamsun
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Tamra I just saw someone on Booktube praising this one; I‘d never known about it before. Looking forward to your thoughts on it. 2mo
22 likes1 comment