Viking Magazine - June 2014 - 25

" Vikings Across the
Atlantic:
Emigration and the
Building of
a Greater Norway,
1860-1945 "
by Daron W. Olson
NorwegianFICTION
Americans
have often thought of
themselves as straddling two cultures,
children of a Norwegian motherland living
in an American context. This book is an
interesting study of the blending of two
cultures to form a broader identity of a
" greater Norway. " By examining themes
of literature, media, religious expression
and general concepts of ethnicity, Olson
explores the infl uences of the changing
Norwegian-American identity as well
as that of the " homeland " Norwegian
themselves. amazon.com
" The Last Viking:
The Life of Roald
Amundsen "
by Stephen R. Bown
Acclaimed Canadian
writer Stephen
Bown presents a
comprehensive
account of the remarkable achievements
of Norway's foremost polar explorer. In
the fi rst two decades of the 20th century,
Amundsen turned polar terra incognito
into famous and familiar territory. Best
known for his incredible dash to the South
Pole, Amundsen is also credited with
opening the Northeast and Northwest
passages and, in recent years, has come to
be recognized by some as the fi rst to reach
the North Pole. amazon.com
" My Struggle:
Book 1 "
by Karl Ove
Knausgård
Karl Ove Knausgård's
six-volume series has
garnered considerable
publicity for its
deliberate blending of
autobiography and fi ction. But the series,
Scandinavia's biggest literary phenomenon
outside of crime fi ction, is much more than
the literary equivalent of reality television.
Knausgård intelligently probes the realities
of life and death in a media-saturated
age. Intense, unstoppable, rhythmic, and
minutely observed, the fi rst volume of " My
Struggle " is an affecting work either on its
own or as the fi rst installment in the longer
series. amazon.com
" Replacement "
by Tor Ulven
Tor Ulven is the most
infl uential and original
Norwegian poet of
the late 20th century,
known especially
for his minimalism.
By the time of his death in 1995, he had
published several collections of prose
Terje Leiren
is a professor in the Scandinavian
Studies department at the University of
Washington, Seattle.
poems, short fi ction, essays and one novel,
" Avløsning, " which has now been translated
to English under the title " Replacement. "
Much of Ulven's poetry revolves around
the excavation of human meaning from
traces, remains, and inscriptions left in the
landscape. " Replacement " reads more like
a series of prose poems than an ordinary
novel, and its multiple narrative voices
call to mind modernist experiments like
Virginia Woolf's " The Waves. " Readers
should seize this chance to experience one
of Norway's most distinctive literary voices,
given that much of his poetry remains to be
translated. amazon.com
" Through the
Night "
by Stig Sæterbakken
Stig Sæterbakken's
fi rst book centers
on an unbearable
loss: The narrator,
a recently divorced
dentist named Karl
Meyer, loses his teenage son to suicide.
The fi rst half is a grippingly realistic family
drama of adultery, grief and anger. In the
second half, Meyer travels to a house in
Slovakia to face his greatest fears-a place
" where hope turns to dust. " amazon.com
" Days in the History
of Silence "
by Merete Lindstrøm
Merethe Lindstrøm's
investigation of
memory, family
secrets and personal
isolation won the
Nordic Council
Literature Prize in 2012. The narrator, Eva, is
a retired teacher whose husband, Simon,
has withdrawn into a deep silence for
reasons that only gradually become clear
to her and their three adult daughters.
Sparse and mournful, Lindstrøm's novel
is a perfectly paced triumph of quiet
suspense. amazon.com
Dean Krouk
is an assistant professor in the Norwegian
department at St. Olaf College in
Northfi eld, Minn.
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Viking Magazine - June 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Viking Magazine - June 2014
