The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf: A Novel [Paperback]

Kathryn Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2003

A young woman in flight from her past, and an old woman whose secrets are contained in the grave--with this configuration, Davis begins a novel of true bravura about opera, adultery, and murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her second novel, Kafka Prize winner Davis ( Labrador ) examines the rather labyrinthine friendship of two women, Danish composer Helle Ten Brix and 30-ish airport-diner waitress Frances Thorn, whose lives become entangled in upstate New York. The story opens with Helle's death; her will stipulates that most of her estate go to Frances's 10-year-old twin daughters Flo and Ruby, while her unfinished final opera is left to their mother. (The composition is based on a tragic Hans Christian Andersen story from which the novel takes its title.) Flashbacks to turn-of-the-century Denmark and the unhappy Ten Brix family (seen through Helle's not always reliable or truthful eyes) provide an intriguing contrast to the modern American story line, although they can be confusing--as can the abundant musical references for readers who are not experts in the field. Davis is an accomplished but sometimes heavy-handed writer; the book's two final climaxes seem strained and overly dramatic rather than organically derived from the story.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Davis's second novel is as lyrically intense as Labrador (1988) and is also set in a cold, remote landscape--heightening the operatic passions of this dense, fabulistic invention. A magical evocation of Hawthorne, Dinesen, and Stephen Millhauser, this imaginary biography of a Danish lesbian composer has all the intrigue of a New England gothic romance. Helle Ten Brix--born at the turn of the century and famous for her unusual life and art--ends up living in upstate New York, where she becomes an integral part of the narrator's life. Frances Thorn is a waitress with twin daughters conceived in rape, who was on this account disowned by her wealthy parents. She weaves her own tale of rural adultery into her reconstructed story of Helle, which is based on the old woman's fanciful memory. Though Helle leaves most of her estate to Frances's daughters, she leaves to Frances, a former Juilliard student, her last unfinished opera--``the capstone to a brilliant, if enigmatic, career.'' Like the opera from which the novel takes its title, most of Helle's life and work derives from Scandinavian folk tales. She imagines herself a child of the bogs in Jutland, where she claims to have been abandoned one night by her mother, an unfaithful romantic who died young from TB. When Helle later tries to poison her cruel stepmother, her father kicks her out, and Helle begins her career at the conservatory disguised as a man, supporting herself by teaching piano. As her operas begin to make her famous during the Twenties, she begins an ill-fated romance with an Irish signer, Maeve Merro, who disappears during the Nazi occupation. Eventually, Helle makes her way to upstate New York, and there her life and work find their parallels in Frances's hapless story--as ``the complicated mess of human affairs finally transformed into celestial music.'' Artifice and reality clash, then merge, in this strange and visionary novel. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (September 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316735035
• ISBN-13: 978-0316735032
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,189,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding, February 5, 2002

By 

Barbara (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Girl Who Trod On A Loaf (Hardcover)

Kathryn Davis is a master storyteller in the truest sense of the word. Not only does she cast a spell over her readers, compelling them to read on and on, but her subject matter is unique and uniquely presented.

A fictional romantic mystery involving the intertwining of two unlikely characters, an elderly, Danish composer of operas and a young American single mother, the story begins at Helle's hospital deathbed and is told through Frances Thorn, the young mother and sole support of twin girls who was drawn into an intimate friendship by the elderly female composer. When Helle dies, she leaves Frances a legacy: An unfinished opera. Frances is faced with the task of its completion. Rummaging through the things that Helle has left behind, Frances comes to grips with her own identity as she discovers the hidden secrets of Helle's life.

Readers are treated to a look at Denmark and the Danish not found in a tour guide and a sense of the operatic that will move even the most hardened souls to music.

Through Helle and Frances, Kathryn Davis tells us that even in the darkest corners of our deepest secrets, liberty and salvation may be found.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Story on a Magical Canvas, January 22, 2004

By 

FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf: A Novel (Paperback)

Our dreaded, daily misuse of carbohydrates has even the U.S. Surgeon General concerned. In the Hans Christian Andersen story, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, waste is at issue more than healthy eating.

Inger treasures her shoes more than the bread she was asked to deliver to her family. Therefore, as with any failed diet plan, Inger sinks to the bottom of a bog and turns to stone. The pure weight of Inger's sin holds her in place while her eyes dart about and her ears hear every ugly thing said about her in her absence.

In Kathryn Davis' novel, the idea of Inger's sin is revisited by Helle Ten Brix, a spunky lesbian composer who seeks to change the world's view of the bread sin. Frances Thorn and Helle Ten Brix are unlikely friends in life and odd partners after Helle's death.

As Frances seeks to piece together clues about Helle's unusual life and to complete an inherited unfinished opera for her dead friend, she takes a revealing journey that proves both entertaining and thought-provoking for the reader.