Customer Reviews

The Tricking of Freya

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(0)
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If, by chance, you are interested in Iceland then this book will reach out, grab your heart and keep your interest for hours. A mother, sister, Grandmother, and friend join forces in the raising of Freya. A young girl, clumsy and eager, visits Canadian Gimli with her mother. Over many years, the story unwinds, with surprising twists and turns that create a story where an underlayment of Icelandic history becomes a foundation for growth.

I completely loved this book. I am Scotch-Irish and still found myself totally involved in the characters, their intertwined relationships, and the link of Icelandic culture, language, and geography. In the telling of the tale, this author intertwines geneology, cultural paradigms, and the awkwardness of teenage social acceptability regardless of culture.

If you are interested in stretching your horizons through an excellent read, learning about Icelandic culture, and the link between countries and cultures, then this book is an excellent adventure betwixt your ears.

History being what it is, I gained a depth of understanding of the culture of Iceland that I never would have acquired watching the news. Perhaps readers of today are ready to stretch their horizons, adventure beyond the comforts of home and dive into a book that will draw in their hearts, their dreams and broaden their horizons as well.

It took me a while to get "into" this novel. The writing style is a bit convoluted, in that the author strives to include lots of Icelandic lore and words. Nothing wrong with that, but the words in particular tend to cause speed-bumps in the reading process.

However, I still rated this novel with five stars. The character development is excellent, the mystery (although slow to unfold), is very good. The ending is a bit predictable (I saw it at least two chapters before it was revealed), but overall the book is very satisfying.

At first I wasn't enthused about the author's use of the reader as a "cousin", but as time went on I got used to it - although it seemed a bit contrived, even to the end of the book. The literary device just seemed to cause me to pause in my reading; I suppose it is because just being CALLED cousin doesn't make the reader seem like a relative, and to me the book didn't draw the reader in from that aspect.

The descriptions of Iceland are very good, and I got a good feel for the immigrant culture.

There are a few adult moments in the book, but it should be fine for early teenagers and older. I think it would be confusing for younger children.

I recommend this book for people who are interested in Iceland, Icelandic traditions and culture, and those who want a slowly unfolding mystery.

I love Iceland. I find it a magical island with some of the most polite people I have met. So, when I had the opportunity to read this book I jumped at it.

The book did not disappoint. Although there were times it seemed like the author had a list of Icelandic cultural information that she forced into a short passage, on the whole it is a very realistic and interesting look at the land and culture.

Although Iceland features prominently in the book, this is way more than just a book about Iceland. "The Tricking of Freya" is primarily about family dynamics and family secrets. Bi-polar illness is prominently featured. Readers who had been fortunate enough to not been exposed to this disorder will find this book a realistic look at the nerve-racking world of those who love someone suffering from the disease.

Excellent book on many levels. Recommended, especially for fellow Iceland lovers.

Iceland, which I had the pleasure of visiting in 2005, is a beautiful, fascinating country, so I jumped at the chance to read The Tricking of Freya, which promised an inside look at its culture and history, along with an intriguing plot.

On the cultural, historical and linguistic front, Freya absolutely delivers. The book successfully depicts the richness of Iceland's heritage, and I found myself wishing we'd had the author along on our trip. On the fictional front, however, the narrative is less satisfying. While the writing itself is strong and the character of Birdie in particularly is vividly portrayed, the overall storyline is hobbled by too much detail, and the pacing really drags in places. Certain themes recur too often: I got tired of Freya's endless self-flagellation, and the description of her life in New York at times is as dreary as her life itself. It's as if the author was so in love with her subject, she lost the objectivity to know when to back off. I kept wanting to say, "Enough already! I get it!"

Then there were the logical gaps. How, realistically, could Birdie have whisked 13-year-old Freya away to Iceland? Wouldn't Freya have needed a passport, which few young kids in America had in the 1970s? And what did Birdie live on? Where did she get the money for their trip?

The book's main conceit--a LONG letter to a long-lost cousin--is an interesting device, but ultimately awkward, especially when the author abandons it in the last few chapters. My biggest criticism, though, is that the denouement is utterly predictable; I had it figured out about halfway through, which made me less motivated to finish the book than I might otherwise have been.

That said, on balance, I think the book's strengths outweigh its weaknesses. It does offer a fairly realistic picture of mental illness (with a sibling who was schizophrenic, I have some experience with it), and there are some strong depictions of the strained relations that characterize so many families. Sunley is clearly skilled in her use of language, which can be a real pleasure. As long as you're not expecting perfection and have the patience to sit through more pages than were perhaps necessary, you will come away mostly entertained and with a new appreciation for Icelandic culture.

I had never heard of this author but since my husband is born and raised in Iceland and has family in Gimi I was interested in the story. What a pleasent surprise. This was a great read. Very enjoyable and kept me interested and intriqued the whole way through. I highly recommend this book even if you don't have any Icelandic connections. Enjoy!

Freya Morris is a child of conflict. Conflict between Icelandic heritage and American identity. Conflict between her dowdy Americanized Mama and her beautiful, dangerous, Icelandic Aunt Birdie. Conflict between past and present. And conflict between clarity and madness.

Christina Sunley's debut book essentially breaks into four parts. The first describes Freya's childhood, her summers spent on the family homestead in Manitoba, immersed in the culture of Icelandic immigrants. Here, Freya's straightforward, giggly girlhood gives way to the battle between Mama and Birdie. Here Freya learns guilt and hatred, but also love like few are ever privileged enough to experience.

In the second part, Aunt Birdie spirits Freya off to Iceland. What starts as a fairly clear-cut, if illicit, search for an honored ancestor's papers turns into a walk through a new Hell. Birdie's hyperkinetic behavior, stretched to the max at ordinary times, suddenly transcends the limits of "ordinary" and becomes truly deranged and menacing. Freya must walk through new kinds of fire if she hopes to get home safely.

Sixteen years later, with Mama and Birdie safely in their graves, Freya returns to Manitoba to visit her ailing centenarian grandmother. She has lived a haunted half-life ever since Iceland, and now she hopes to put all her ghosts to rest. Such is not to be, as she discovers she can only trade old ghosts for new ones.

While the first three parts are fascinating character glimpses and powerful emotional expositions, the fourth part disappoints. Returning to Iceland, Freya hopes to close the holes in an intense family secret. The problem is, the secret is so poorly concealed that the only reason Freya can't close the book seventy pages earlier is because she doesn't know she's a character in a novel.

The frame story is that this manuscript is being written as a letter to a cousin Freya has never met. This gives Sunley liberty to break the fourth wall and mix past with present, exoteric with esoteric, universal with personal. But like the narrative, it breaks down at the end when even Freya has to admit the frame has become a contrivance.

Sunley's official author biography states she wrote this book based in part on an investigation of her own Icelandic heritage. This is a wonderful jumping-off point as a writer, but it leaves readers wondering how much of the book we should take as fictionalized reality, and how much is story. It's hard to criticize something that may prove to be part of the author's own life.

Still, the beginning and middle of this book are absorbing, insightful looks into a culture often neglected in history class. It also provides a uniquely personal glimpse into an illness that is often unfairly stigmatized or made mythical. If you the reader can suffer the badly flawed, rambling end, this is very much future literary classic, a book to be read, shared, and enjoyed for years to come.

I absolutely loved this book. I loved it so much I even wrote the author a gushing email. : )

First of all, I highly recommend it to Norse Pagans and Heathens, because of the way the Icelandic mythology and poetry is so beautifully woven into this very modern tale.

Second of all, as a person of Hungarian descent who returned to Hungary, learned the difficult language, and felt both appreciation and disdain, even scorn, for doing so, I could really relate with the character of Freya. The feeling of being connected to a culture but standing outside of it. Being welcomed in but held at arm's length because you embody abandonment to everyone who stayed behind. Of course, that's not what the book is about in itself, but it's a piece, and an important piece.

I don't want to say what the book is truly about - you have to read it, I don't want to give away any surprises. There are amazingly powerful, charged passages that I had to go back and re-read during and after I finished reading the book. This author has a lot of talent, and now I know so much more about Icelandic culture as well. I'd love to visit, but for now I'll have to be satisfied with the amazing photos on the author's book tour blog.

The Tricking of Freya takes us from Gimli, Manitoba in Canada, where Freya visits her Icelandic-Canadian relatives each summer, to the harsh, mythological landscape of Iceland and its volcanic history. Freya's Aunt Birdie is her unusual, emotionally-charged relative and there's a strange twist to their true relationship. We follow Freya from her unusual childhood to young adulthood - a difficult and confusing journey. The Tricking of Freya is a fascinating read with twists and turns and wonderfully-created characters and events. It's hard to put down and especially relevant following the recent Icelandic volcanic eruptions.

The Tricking of Freya is the story of a young woman named Freya Morris who grew up traveling to visit family in Gimli, Manitoba and being told stories of her roots in Iceland. Her Aunt Birdie adores her and takes Freya under her wing whenever she visits Gimli--teaching her Icelandic and Norse mythology. However, due to Birdie's erratic behavior, the family's relationship with her is complicated and lends itself to mystery. It is this mystery that eventually sends Freya to Iceland to learn more about Birdie, the rest of the family, and Iceland.

Although I have never been to Iceland, I have been to Scandinavia once. Although this book wasn't written yet, I wish I had read something like this before I went. The story is simply beautiful. Freya's journey is one of self-discovery which I enjoy being a descendant of somewhat recent immigrants myself. I have heard some stories about my family's history so I really enjoyed Freya's journey to Canada and Iceland to discover more about herself. There were little things like the references to pönnökokur and vínerterta that made me want to try Icelandic food, short tellings of Norse mythology that made me want to read more complete versions of the stories, and descriptions of both Gimli and Iceland that made me want to visit both places. I even sat and read Christina Sunley's blog about her journey to Iceland and looked up pictures of some of the places mentioned in the book. It made the book even more beautiful to read her experience and look at the pictures she took while in Iceland. I also enjoyed reading her interview at the end of the book because it brought to life just how wonderful the Icelandic people seem to be.

Miss Sunley's writing was beautiful. Birdie was a difficult character whose mental illness made it difficult to like her, but I loved her at the same time. She gave Freya her Icelandic identity which was invaluable but was also responsible for some less admirable outcomes in Freya's life. The book really does explain the toll mental illness can take on a family in ways that were sometimes quite raw to read. I did enjoy reading about it though because it gives a fair picture of what it must be like to love someone that can hurt you so deeply (even without mental illness, that is part of loving someone--we love every part of them even if we don't like some things about them). This aspect of the book was what impacted me most, and I think it's definitely something that is invaluable to read for those people who have mental illness that runs in their family. The book told this aspect of the story in such a dignified way that it really spoke to me.

I will admit that I figured out the mystery in the book about 2/3 of the way into it, but it didn't make me like it any less. The book was more about Freya's journey of self-discovery as an American of Icelandic descent, and her acceptance of who she was. The essence of the book was her growth as a person from childhood to adulthood, and how she resolved her past in her own mind. It was simply a beautiful telling of a woman who finds out who she really is in life as she processes all the moments of her life.

*Notice of disclosure: I received this book for review from Terra Communications.

THE TRICKING OF FREYA is a profound experience to read. Quite an accomplishment by a first time novelist. The book manages to capture aspects of the fascinating (to me) Icelandic history, geography, culture, tradition, literature, sensibility, spirit and soul. All while telling an engaging, poignant, adventurous modern family 'saga' peopled with fully realistic complex 3-dimensional characters.

The mass of the story takes place in little known 'New Iceland' of Manitoba, Canada, centered in the town of Gimli on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. This (area) is where many thousands of Icelanders emigrated in the late-1870's after a volcanic eruption destroyed much of the farmable land of eastern Iceland.

The book also takes the reader on journeys to Iceland itself: unforgettable journeys that in and of themselves could stand proud with some of the best travel writing. The perspectives/perceptions of our tour guides on these Iceland trips are 'heightened' in just the right way-- To read about. -- 'Inspired' and 'uniquely informed' in a way that is a perfect match for the exotic, inspiring, amazing landscape and culture/heritage of Iceland.

Actually traveling (in reality) with our guides might not be so pleasant... the magic of literature. (You will learn about these italicized descriptions, in all their complexity, when you read the book- a title/name/diagnosis (bi-polar disorder) alone, doesn't suffice in description in my opinion. The handling of this complex topic as one theme of the book, in such an inspired unforced manner, is a good part of what makes the book special.

Interesting people, interesting places, interesting culture. Flowing fast-moving narrative. Definitely a journey worth taking.