The Ice Palace

by Tarjei Vesaas

Book Overview

In rural Norway, one evening after school, 11-year-old Siss and Unn strike up a deep and unusual bond. When the next day Unn sets off into the wintry woods in search of a mysterious frozen waterfall,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0720608813
• ISBN13: 9780720608816
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A sad but great tale about adolescent life in wintercold Norway

This is one of Vesaas' last books, and quite well-known in literary circles, both in Norway and abroad. The book spins around two girls living in rural Norway in their eleventh winter. One of the girls has just moved to the tiny village, and instantly forms a bond of friendship with the leader of the pack of children at their school; the other girl. Then something sad happens that I won't reveal. The tale spins around these happenings: the struggle against the dark forces of the human mind, and the experience of growing up. The tale is a short read, and is Vesaas at his most typical style of writing. I really enjoy this book, and I've read it several times. So if you want to get to know one of Norway's greatest authors, almost up there at Knut Hamsun's level, then this would be a great place to start. The author died in 1970, but his anti-modern thought was quite present in most of his books, although an annoying streak of pacifism and humanism is present in some of his works. But this is not one of those books, so no reason to avoid this great read from the winter nights of rural Norway. (I read a different edition of the book)

Elegant, completely at ease with words

It is a beautiful piece of poetic prose. The innocent and simple story of two girls and their budding friendship broken by death is at the same time intense and calm. The descriptions of the surroundings, the ice palace at the waterfall, which claims Unn, together with the thoughts of Siss, create the Nordic climate, make the reader breathe the cold air, and show the world as a complicated and unyielding entity, strange for a little girl, hard to understand. Yet Siss understands somehow, her world gets in order and all the events have their place. Only a poet can use words in such a beautiful fashion. This book was a sensual delight. Probably a great bonus is the translation, must have been not a trivial task!

Austere, Primeval, and Haunting

Vesaas's book is beautiful. His style is experimental and modern, which means that he presents information in a slightly elliptical way, perhaps one that more closely echoes the motions of actual consciousness. This means that you may have to read the same passage two or three times: there are very few topic sentences introducing clearly defined paragraphs. Luckily, his vocabulary is pitch-perfect: small words, chosen for precision rather than pretence. A novel has two major compenents, one being the social background of the story and the other being the story itself. The background is crystalline and very, very Norwegian: a harsh climate; reserved, good people; an aura of isolation that may only come from years of cold. The story itself turns on a secret and a promise, and the young girl Siss's reaction to them: not a secret like those in Babysitters' Club books, nor like the secrets in a spy novel: but a compelling one, an all-encompassing one, one that drives people in a way that doesn't make sense in a wholly rational world and yet drives them all the same. I won't say more. Highly recommended. Oh-- and read it quickly. Like, perhaps, Faulkner (though not as difficult), you'll lose track of what's going on if you take too much time between readings.

Absolutely beautiful

A beautiful book. The imagery is lovely, and I got hooked when one of the characters actually wanders into the ice palace. The descriptions of the light, and the interplay of the changing colors and shapes of the ice were mesmerizing--I stayed up late and couldn't go to bed. And in the morning it seemed it should be all ice outside instead of the height of summer. Tremendously atmospheric, simply splendid. The first book in about six months to make it straight to my read-again shelf. And short--a quick read if you're busy.

the burden of a secret

From the first sentence Tarjei Vesaas draws the reader into a world of icy chill and unspoken foreboding ,drawn with language as spare, beautiful and relentless as the wintry nordic landscape. Two girls on the brink of puberty experience a moment of furtive sexual and spiritual awakening that neither is emotionally prepared for; when one of them subsequently vanishes from her home the other is lost in a welter of guilt and confusion. An unusual and evocative exploration of emotional isolation, both real and self imposed