Customer Reviews

A Blessed Child

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Both GRACE and STELLA DESCENDING, Linn Ullmann's previous novels, were strange and compelling, and I read them at a gallop. This one took longer; I was constantly finding reasons to put it down and come back later. A BLESSED CHILD is more self-indulgent, I believe, drawing on the author's own experiences; more nostalgic; and more episodic and staccato, never really gathering steam and taking off. There are a few puzzles inside for those who care to solve them, part of the novel's appealing ambiguousness, but the characters remain fixed on the page and do not enter the reader's imagination. By all means authors should strive not to repeat themselves, but as an admirer of Ullmann's work I found A BLESSED CHILD to be a step backwards from the original voice of her earlier novels.

"A Blessed Child" is an almost Rashomon kind of story, revolving around the perspectives of three sisters who return to a remote Swedish island to be with their aged father for what they believe may be their last time with him. Each daughter has a different mother, and each daughter experiences her own path to maturity in a different way. Author Ullmann weaves their stories together in a completely believeable way, making each's journey fascinating in itself. There is a seminal event which they all witness in unique ways, and deal with in equally unique ways. A satisfying book, well worth spending time with. The author makes the winter weather and the distant locale into "characters" in the story, giving a real feel for the remoteness and frigidity of a tiny Swedish island as the story builds compellingly to a surprising climax. One word about the translation, by a woman curiously named Death: it's first rate, colloquial and symbolic.