The Ice Palace (Peter Owen Modern Classics)

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I guess I will be in the minority in giving this novel a ‘3’ when it is highly rated on GR. In addition, this novel from 1963 is considered a classic of Norwegian literature. It won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize for the best novel that year. In my edition Doris Lessing wrote a blurb praising the lyrical writing. The way the children treat each other is, in particular, well-captured, the fumbling efforts and small gestures and big meanings and sudden about-faces effortlessly woven into the story. To appreciate the The Ice Palace audiobook (which was the way I got to know the book) is I feel not the best format to enjoy the writing, which has poem-like section interspersed into it.

It is precisely in this sombre setting, full of darkness lurking in recondite corners, reinforced with this sharp writing style, where the main character of the novel is presented: The eerie giant structure formed by a frozen waterfall up in the lake, called The Ice Palace. Either sanctuary or mausoleum, it arises as the eternally snow covered bridge that defies death, guilt and angst, linking Siss and Unn forever. There’s only one thing to ask in exchange for this everlasting token of friendship: A promise. Siss must never forget. Tarjei Vesaas es uno de los novelistas noruegos más importantes del siglo XX, entre sus obras más famosas destaca «El palacio de hielo» que fue publicado en 1963. Gracias a esta editorial podemos disfrutar de un libro escandinavo excepcional, con una edición inmejorable y una nota de editor que nos vuelve a brindar un cierre encomiable a la par que maravilloso a la lectura. Not only lesbians are broken and mentaly ill, but asexuals too. Auntie is clearly an asexual character- I can tell because it takes one to know one - and the way she is depicted is indicative of Vesaas's worldview. She is the one that urges Siss to forget about Unn: The children are remarkably convincing as characters (and unlike most found in fiction, where the temptation to make them too precocious or cute seems almost impossible for authors to resist). Only one fatal meeting is granted by the author between the two girls. Inside Unn's closed bedroom, through a looking glass, they spot the connection that occurs from their common nature, they undress to further justify their mutual attraction and proceed no more because of guilt and their inability to find the right words to describe what is happening to them:This novel reads like a long form poem as there is so much below the surface and the actual words. It is filled with symbols and metaphors that are very direct to the plot and characters and open up a much broader understanding of Siss and her tribulations. While the prose is swift and the novel is short, you would do well to slow down and really examine what Vesaas has written much as you would do with any poem. Without giving anything away, the ice palace found in the novel can be viewed on many different levels; from a symbol of several of the characters, as death, or even as the novel itself. I don’t want to go into it as not to provide spoilers but after reading this I felt cheated that I didn’t read this for a class and didn’t have an essay to formulate as I had so much to say about all of Vesaas’ hidden messages. The vivacious 11-year-old Siss lives in a rural community in Norway. Her life is changed when a quiet girl, Unn, moves to the village to live with her aunt after the death of her unmarried mother. Siss and Unn can't wait to meet. They finally do, at Unn's house. They talk for a while, Unn shows Siss a picture from the family album of her father, then Unn persuades Siss that they should undress, just for fun. They do, watching each other, and Unn asks whether Siss can see if she is different. Siss says no, she can't, and Unn says she has a secret and is afraid she will not go to heaven. Soon they dress again, and the situation is rather awkward. Siss leaves Unn and runs home, overwhelmed by fear of the dark.

In diesem schmalen Roman folgen wir dem jungen Mädchen Siss, das in einer ländlichen Gemeinde in Norwegen aufwächst. Ihr Leben ändert sich, als Unn nach dem Tod ihrer Mutter zu ihrer Tante ins Dorf zieht. Nach anfänglicher Distanz können die Mädchen der Anziehungskraft, die zwischen ihnen herrscht, nicht mehr widerstehen und treffen sich in Unns Haus. Sie unterhalten sich, Unn zeigt Siss ein Bild ihres Vaters, und überredet sie schließlich, dass sich die beiden aus Spaß ausziehen sollen. Sie tun es, beobachten sich gegenseitig, und Siss fühlt, dass etwas zwischen ihnen unausgesprochen und unerfüllt geblieben ist. Unn erzählt Siss, dass sie ein Geheimnis hat und Angst, nicht in den Himmel zu kommen. Die Stimmung zwischen den beiden ist jedoch so aufgeladen, dass Siss es nicht aushält, sich schnell wieder anzieht und nach Hause rennt. It's been an unusually cold autumn and an unlikely ice palace of epic proportions has formed from a frozen waterfall, and the dark and the cold have dominated the villagers' minds. Doris Lessing was quite right when she said "How simple this novel is. How subtle. How strong. How unlike any other. It is unique. It is unforgettable. It is extraordinary." The train journey is cold and uncomfortable for Sally Carrol. Harry and his family welcome her. Sally Carrol notices the contrast of the Bellamy library and the one at her home. Harry tries to counsel her in how different the North is, as they do not have the family histories of the South. She is affronted when he implies that she may make unwelcome comments. Sally Carrol is confused, and does not feel at home.The book is quite dark in parts, however it is extremely descriptive and creates great imagery for children. After reading the story with year 3 children they produced some brilliant descriptive story writing with a focus on interesting adjectives and adverbs. Sally Carrol realizes that the winter pastimes she enjoys are all activities for children and that the Bellamy crowd is just humoring her. She feels out of place, seeing the North and its people as “innately hostile to strangers.” She is offended that Mrs. Bellamy will not use her full first name, and that she disapproves of her bobbed hair and smoking. Couldn't be simpler after that, actually. If you read it from an 11-year-old's perspective, it makes perfect sense. If you read it from an adult's point of view, not so much. No one quite gets why Siss is so silent, but she feels quite strongly that she owes allegiance to Unn and, in this case, allegiance is silence. Vesaas beautifully captures this so tentative pre-adolescent fumbling towards relationships, both between Unn and Siss, and then among all their classmates.

A young white forehead boring into the darkness. An eleven-year-old girl. Siss. It was really only afternoon, but already dark. A hard frost in late autumn. Stars, but no moon, and no snow to give a glimmer of light. Kimen; Fuglane; Is-slottet. - Oslo: Gyldendal, 1988. - 509 p. (Norske klassikere). - ISBN 82-05-17630-2 (hardcover) Peter Owen Publishing has one of the most impressive lists of any UK publisher, for example the wonderfully Sebaldesque Panorama : pripoved o poteku dogodkov by Dušan Šarotar from their World Series. Their history is worth quoting: Peter Owen (1927–2016) started his company, aged twenty-four, six years after the Second World War. Create character profiles using interesting adjectives (create a new mysterious character who Ivan will meet in the forest)

The tone of the story becomes uncomfortable with the train journey through the night. Sally Carrol is immediately at odds with her new environment. The contrast between the Bellamy’s library and Sally Carrol’s recollection of the Harper’s library serves to illustrate further the differences between the Southern and Northern culture. The Bellamy library is “simply a room with a lot of fairly expensive things in it that all looked about fifteen years old.” Sally Carrol is used to medical-books, “oil paintings of her three great-uncles” and an “old couch that had been mended up for forty-five years and was still luxurious.” It is clearly a sensitive point for Harry, as he crudely advises her against making “unfortunate” comments about family histories, as he lives in “a three generation town.” A life is made of promises; some made to self, some to others. And like a diffident fuel, it comes into play when life derails to reserve. Aren’t all the promises tested at the brink of uncertainty? Aren’t all the promises repainted at the threshold of patience? Aren’t all the promises questioned at the gates of survival? Though Vessas’s novel The Birds is arguably his finest, The Ice Palace is arguably his most poetic. The tale of Siss and Unn, two eleven-year-old girls living in the hinterlands of Norway, is not merely a tale of childhood friendship, but is also a subtle and palpable excursion into the innocent recesses of sexual exploration." - Mark Axelrod, Review of Contemporary Fiction But whereas Sally Carrol’s headstones mark where the dead lie peacefully at rest (another nod to the ‘sleepiness’ of the South), the underground caverns of the ice palace have the potential to disturb the dead, as the ghostly appearance of Margery Lee suggests.

They've found each other, and for each it's both a terrifying discovery and a relief, even as so much has been left unsaid. Reads like Hemingway--a simple, clipped style. In the beginning, an 11-year-old girl named Siss, reigning queen in the schoolhouse, is beguiled by the mysterious newcomer Unn. Gets invited to her house. They go to Unn's bedroom and talk about things 11-year-old girl's talk about, but the weird part is the power of their attraction to each other's auras. The very next day the new girl skips school and goes to see a giant ice cave formed by freezing water around a waterfall. The girl is never seen again despite days of searching. No doubt this is a beautiful little story, told in a nice simple prose, but it didn't resonate as strongly with me as it clearly did with a lot of other readers. I found The Birds to be the better of the two novels I've read.At first the palace seems difficult to penetrate, but Unn suddenly finds a tiny gap she can squeeze through and then another, journeying through the palace where she finds a succession of rooms: Peter Owen sadly died in May 2016, but his legacy lives on in the publishing house that carries his name and his commitment to publishing talented and exciting writers.And the book that Peter Owen regarded as the crown jewel of that highly distinguished roster? The Ice Palace: the English translation, in 1993, by Elizabeth Rokkan of the Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas 1963 novel Is-slottet.