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Margi Preus has written lots of books for young people, including the Heart of a Samurai, a 2011 Newbery Honor Award winner. This fall she has another wonderful book coming out about a young boys participation in the Norwegian Resistance in World War II. Shadow on the Mountain begins in October 1940, five months after the German invasion and occupation of Denmark and Norway on April 19, 1940 and finishes just before the war ends. It is written from the perspective of Espen, 14, his younger sister Ingrid, his former best friend Kjell and his newest enemy Askel.
While riding his bike one evening, Espen is stopped by a car full of Nazis. As they search his rucksack, Espen notices that Kjell is sitting in the car and wonders why. Eventually, the soldiers let him go on his way, believing he is on his way to visit his uncle. In reality, Espen is carrying coded information for the Norwegian Resistance, his first task as part of this group. After successfully delivering his information, he receives his code name - Odin, after the Norse god. And so begins Espen's new life as a boy to the world, an operative to the Resistance.
Ingrid has been keeping a diary of the events going on in her village since the Nazis arrival, even though it is illegal to write or read anything against the regime. But Ingrid has also stolen some ration cards and uses them to help feed some of the starving prisoners held by the Germans.
Kjell denies having been in the German car when Espen was stopped, but seems to have sympathetic leanings towards the Nazis. Or does he really? Well, suddenly his grandmother has no trouble getting the medication she needs so badly despite shortages.
But there is no doubt that the naturally mean-spirited Askel is completely sympathetic to the Nazis and that he hates Espen, especially after the joke he played on him during a soccer game. Now his goal is to move up the ranks with the Nazis and to catch Espen at the illegal activities Askel suspects him of taking part in.
The novel runs until the end of the war and follows the lives and activities of each of these characters, though it is Espen who is the novel's main protagonist. Preus has set the tension bar quite high and succeeded in producing a well researched, well documented work of historical fiction that had me on the edge of my seat in a number of places. Each passing year is introduced with a quote relevant to the situation in Norway, by either a Nazi or an anti-Nazi Norwegian and is followed they the activities of each of the four characters.
I read an uncorrected proof of Shadow on the Mountain, but when it is published in September 2012 it will be chock full of relevant photos, maps and other bit of archival information and I can't wait to see them. There is also pronunciation guide for Norwegian names and words, followed by a brief history of the Germans in Norway in WWII and, because more Norwegians were not sympathetic to the Nazis, the resistance organizations that sprang up as a result. Norway was important to the Nazi cause, and when Hitler talked about the perfect Aryans he was really speaking about the Norwegians, with their blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin. It was his hope that Germany and Norwegians would marry and produce a real master race together. All of this comes out in Shadow on the Mountain.
At the end of the novel, Preus has written about the events in the story and their real-life counterparts.
4 Comments on Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus, last added: 7/21/2012
Hi Alex. Found the link to your book review on book blogs. This book sounds great and it's my kind of thing. I'm busy right now with my own novel, based on SOE in France in '43-'45 but it's adult historical fiction. Doubt I'll be finished until later this year but I love anything to do with both world wars and this one sounds great. Thanks. Love your blog by the way and will be following.
This is indeed a fascinating book and, yes, it might appeal to a reluctant reader because of all the intrigue, suspense and excitement. It is always worth a try, anyway.
This is an X-ray of my head right now. That's exactly what's going on in there at the moment. I get on into a project and I live and breathe it.
I was hoping to post this drawing over the weekend but it took far longer than I'd anticipated. I reckon there's, at a guess, around 16-20 hours work in this spread. I suppose in the grand old scheme of things that's not so long. When you think of how long people take making books or albums then it's a drop in the ocean.
I often think about the making of an album when, late at night when the rest of the world is dreaming, I'm scribbling away creating this crazy stuff. I suppose it's a way of comforting myself. Have you ever seen the film about the making of a Springsteen album ('The Promise; The Making of the Darkness at the Edge of Town')? It's all about that crazy obsessive manic compulsive demanding compelling destructive beautiful creative drive. I bloody love that film, mainly because it reminds me that I'm not alone.
I also think that if I were making an album I would not want to listen to it for at least a year after it's completion. I'm just putting this sketchbook away for a couple of days.
11 Comments on she's in my head, she's in my mind, last added: 4/4/2012
I love this new drawing Andrea...your posts keep me going you know..:) I also think your handwriting is a major creative part of the whole creation and it's just amazingly consistent-like you!...I know NOW that working on a book is an enormous undertaking...my first bookis almost done and will be published soon-very happy day it will be...and when I get paid I will be able to purchase some of your fabulous prints!
Thank you, all so much folks. I'm so happy that you like this one because despite being very tired of it at the moment (16 hours or more!), I feel it will be one of my faves in time.
Tahirih, I'm not sure but I am looking into prints currently - where you can choose your drawing and I'll get them printed to order. i think I've found a good high quality prnter.
Cheers, everyone. Watch the movie if you get a chance. It's very good.
From the Infamous foundry, the same studio that brought us Bolda Display, comes a beautiful new display font inspired by French decorative alphabets from the 1940’s and 1950’s. I gave Fancy Antique Display a test run this morning and instantly fell in love with it. Congrats to Morten at Infamous for this stunning piece of work!
Retold by Ashley Ramsden, illustrated by Ed Young, Seven Fathers Roaring Brook Press, 2011.
Age 4-8+
The talented award-winning illustrator Ed Young collaborated with renowned storyteller Ashley Ramsden to bring to life the Norwegian folk tale on which Seven Fathers is based. Young’s cut-paper collages, dusted with splatters of snow white and other colors on kraft paper backgrounds, create a powerfully evocative mood for Ramsden’s account of a traveler seeking refuge in the deep Scandinavian winter.
The traveler sees a light and approaches a house glowing through the heavy snow. He finds on the front porch “an old man busily chopping wood.” Young shows us only large fur-gloved mitts holding a marbled blue ax over a patchwork stump. The traveler asks, as he will again six more times in this story, if there is a room where he could spend the night. And the old man replies, in words that will again be repeated, “I’m not the father of the house.” He sends the traveler to the kitchen to an even older man, who repeats that he is “not the father of the house” either, and who sends the traveler to yet another father, in yet another room.
At last the traveler is sent to a father who lives “on the horn in the hall.” The horn, a cutout of an aerial view of suburban tract homes, holds a “little speck of dust.” On the dust is a pillow; on the pillow are two black dots that turn out to be tiny eyes. Finally the traveler is told by a little man in “a voice as tiny as a titmouse,” that, yes, there is a room for him. Magic happens then; at once a feast appears, and the seven fathers “now the size and age of the traveler himself and each wearing a crown upon his head,” watch as he eats his fill, then lay their crowns at his feet.
Who are these fathers, and why does this tale make such deep, resonant sense? That will be a wonderful question for young readers–and for the adults who are privileged to share this story with them–to discover as they ponder the mysteries, patterns and rhythms of this beautifully-told tale and the strong, sensitive images that illustrate it. Seven Fathers is a work of art to be treasured far beyond the age range its surface simplicity may suggest.
Charlotte Richardson September 2011
0 Comments on Week-end Book Review: Seven Fathers, retold by Ashley Ramsden, illustrated by Ed Young as of 1/1/1900
By Toril Moi
Like other Norwegians I am in shock at the terrible events in Oslo and at Utøya on 22 July. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.
I was not in Norway when the horror happened. On 22 July, I was giving a talk about Ibsen’s 1873 play Emperor and Galilean at the National Theatre in London. I only learned about the bombing in Oslo and the massacre at Utøya later that night. When I discovered that the terrorist in Norway saw himself as
0 Comments on Art, love, and the terror in Norway as of 1/1/1900
This morning, I woke up and learned about the tragedy in Norway . A man killed over 80 people at a youth camp, after bombing central Olso. I've become immune to a lot of the awful things that happen in the world. But this broke my heart. It's so hard to process and understand this type of senseless tragedy.
Tonight I came home and learn about the train crash in China . After I got over the shock of the accident, my first thought was at least only 32 people died. And I felt guilty as hell for thinking that. It's a very sad day when such a thought is possible.
I know it could never happen but today would be a great day for a World do over. My heart goes out to Norway and China.
4 Comments on A Great Day For A World Do Over, last added: 7/24/2011
I am having a difficult time wrapping my mind around what's happened too. We always feel like it's worse when it happens here at home, but somehow, having an event that (if it's even possible) dwarfs the shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech and having it happen in a country that I would have presumed to be immune from that sort of thing drives it home that there is no place safe and there is madness everywhere. On the other hand, it also makes me feel closer to the Scandinavians, who I'll admit, I don't normally think about very much. It is a sad day for the world.
Thank you, Doret. I'm going to add your "great day for a world do over" to the end of my sermon this morning, giving you credit. The violence in our world may seem more overwhelming nowadays because we hear about these horrible things almost as soon as they happen.
YES, yes, yes, do-over, please. Times like these I'd give blood for a time machine.
Poor China. So, so many blows for those people.
Norway is especially hard for me, because we just met new friends this summer from there, and were invited to visit. The Scandinavian countries have always seemed safe, peaceful and intelligent; it is harrowing that such sadness touches them as well.
Animator/Director Hans Jørgen Sandnes and his new studio Sandnes Media is producing a new mini-series of children’s animated music videos for NRK:
“They’re based on the songs of famed Norwegian singer/songwriter Alf Prøysen (1914 – 1970). The series is hand-drawn, made in-house by me and my five collegues. The episodes are short “music-videos” following Prøysens original recordings. We’re very passionate about our work, trying to master the medium of traditional 2D animation.”
That passion really shows. The first episode (of four) premieres tonight. Here’s a sample of the series:
I already had a post earmarked to share with you from the wonderful Playing by the Book, and today she has another one – so here they both are:
Firstly, this great focus on children’s books from Norway, part of Zoe’s Read Around Europe – so we can look forward to more great country round-ups.
And today this wonderful post about last year’s New Horizons winner at the Bologna Book Fair, Do! by Ramesh Hengadi, Rasika Hengadi, Shantaram Dhadpe, and Kusam Dhadpe, with Gita Wolf (Tara Books, 2010). What makes this post extra special is that Zoe and her children have created a beautiful pillowcase using Warli techniques using the video of Do! from Tara Books, included in the post. Watch, read and be inspired – yes, Do!
0 Comments on Read and Do with Playing by the Book as of 1/1/1900
Hitler invaded Norway in April 1940 for two reasons. The first reason was because he needed the port of Narvik in Norway for transporting much needed iron ore from Sweden to help him wage a successful war. The second reason had nothing to do with war. Hitler believed that the Nordic people were, particularly the Norwegians, a perfect example of the Aryan race and he hoped that the Norwegians and Germans would intermarry. But the Norwegians did not exactly welcome the Germans with open arms, though some did and became traitors to their country, or quislings**, collaborating with the enemy.
This is not the cover to my book, I found it online.
On the Edge of the Fjord, written in 1944, begins shortly after Norway is invaded. Petra Engeland, 14, is home alone when a group of Nazis come knocking at the door. Petra’s mother is helping a sick neighbor when this happens, and her 15 year old brother is away at school.
The Nazi leader, Captain Ebert, demands to speak with her father. Captain Engeland, who is on a fishing expedition, is the owner of one large boat and a small fleet of excellent fishing boats. The Nazis wish to commandeer these boats for their own purpose, along with Petra’s father. In addition to this demand, Ebert and three of his officers billet themselves in the Engelbert home.
Petra decides that she must warn her father not to come home to Valcos. Early in the morning, she sets out with her little boat and fishing gear and sails down the fjord to the quay where her father’s business office is. Surprised at finding him there, she tells him what has happened in the village and warns him not to come home.
A week later, Martin comes home for a visit, and when Petra tells him what is happening, they decide to try to get some of their father’s boats out of Norway to England, where many escaped Norwegians are now training to fight the Nazis in their country. Martin stealthily spreads the word among the men and boys in the village, carefully avoiding Nazis and quislings. That night, two boatloads silently sail away down the fjord, but not before deciding how to get messages through. Sigurd Holm suggests using the signal fire they had always used to invite Petra and Martin up to their mountain house during the summer. His sisters, Margot, Inga and Karen Holm, are up there for the summer tending to the family’s goats and cows.
Eventually that fire signal comes and Petra hikes up the dangerous mountain trail to see what message had been received. On her way, Petra sees three German men, including Kurt Nagler, an old family friend who, though German, had lived in Norway his whole life. She knows enough German to understand that they are talking about something hidden in caves in the mountain. The Holm sisters verify that they heard these men speaking about this when Petra finally reaches them.
That night, a plane lands in the Holm’s cow pasture. It is Sigurd with a British flyer called Ruggles. They also know the Nazis are up to something, but don’t know exactly what. They decide to come back in a week after Martin has had time to investigate. After the
4 Comments on On the Edge of the Fjord by Alta Halverson Seymour, last added: 3/25/2011
Before setting out on our journey Reading Round Europe the only children’s fiction I had read from Norway was Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World, and that was about 15 years ago so researching this leg of our adventure involved lots of new discoveries for me. Here’s what I found, a mixture of books about Norway and from Norway:
Stian Hole, winner of the 2007 Ragazzi award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, has written three well received picture books, two of which are available in English translations. Booklist says of Garmann’s summer “As Michael Rosen’s Sad Book did with grief, this poignant picture book, originally published in Norway, looks at uncertainty from the inside out, not as the by-product of the first day of school but as an organic thread in the fabric of life. Rather than simply tackling the worries that come with change, this rare book plumbs the underneath, capturing the abstract feelings that reside in a child’s heart and reflecting them back.” You can read a short interview with Stian Hole here. I haven’t been able to get hold of this book yet, but it’s definitely on my to-read list.
Based on a true story from 13th century Norway, The Race of the Birkebeiners tells how a small band of peasant warriors, the Birkebeiners, rescued the heir to the Norwegian throne, the infant Prince Hakon from his enemies by skiing across mountain in blizzard conditions. A tale of courage and faith, this exciting story would make an excellent, unusual choice for a Christmas book; the events not only take place at that time of the year but Christian faith is also a central theme throughout. That said, don’t wait till Christmas to look for this beautiful book as it is also a lovely introduction to several aspects of Norwegian culture, history and geography.
Mary Azarian’s illustrations, woodcuts handtinted with quite intense watercolours, are stunning and a perfect match for the historical setting of the book. Like the modern text based on an ancient saga, Azarian’s work also feels fresh yet full of echoes from the past.
The Birkebeiners, literally translated from the Norwegian as “Birch Leggers”, are so called because their armour consisted of birch bark wrapped around their legs. Thus the journey which began with reading The Race of the Birkebeiners continued with us going on a Birch tree hunt. Fortunately Silver Birch trees are pretty easy to spot, and the girls loved looking out for them, in gardens and in the local park.
We found a dead Silver Birch and this gave the girls the perfect opportunity to strip some bark from it – they loved the silver sheets they were able to peel off.
This bug caused a squeal of delight too!
Once home the girls wanted to be Birkebeiners themselves so shields were made…
… and the birch bark we had collected was used to create armour.
Then our
4 Comments on Norwegian Wood(s), last added: 3/14/2011
Wow. You know Zoe if I were a university I’d award you a doctorate in Children’s Literature Studies. We recently had a mini Saffron Tree meet and were all gushing about you and your blog
The birch bark shields look like such fun!
Btw S lent me her copy of Mal Peet’s Cloud Tea Monkeys recently – it is awesome, have you managed to track it down yet?
sandhya said, on 3/13/2011 9:45:00 PM
I’ll second that, Zoe. All of us STers (if that is the right word to use) were immediately full of praise for you the minute your blog was mentioned. We are all confirmed fans. It is a must visit destination for me even if I don’t comment every time. Other than the books you discuss and the way you discuss them, the activities you do based on them are awesome!
Zoe said, on 3/13/2011 11:34:00 PM
Thank you so much Sandhya and Choxbox! Your comments are a wonderful thing to wake up to. It makes all the different to know that I have readers who I can really connect with, readers I would really like to spend time with in real life, talking about books, chatting over tea.
No, haven’t been able to get Cloud Tea Monkeys yet – isn’t in the library system But The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips is by my bedside!
Ali B said, on 3/14/2011 7:22:00 AM
That sounds like a wonderful book! And what great fun the girls must have had.
Anna has been taken by her uncle to his place of work, an art museum. From her body language you sense that she is a reluctant visitor to the galleries and despite her uncle’s reassurance that the visit “will be fun” Anna isn’t convinced.
Things get off to a bad start.
Anna watched the grown-ups who were listening to her uncle.
“Visual art…,” Uncle Harold said in a serious voice, “is a vast subject. I shall attempt to explain, so please keep your questions for later.”
And then they only get worse. Anna needs a pee. In fact she really needs to go to the bathroom. So she slips away from her uncle and his audience and asks a wrinkled old man if he knows where the bathroom is.
This wrinkled old man, however, is none other than Rembrandt: Anna is talking to his self portrait. But without batting an eyelid, Rembrandt answers and sends Anna off on an exploration through landscapes and characters in a variety of paintings in the gallery as she tries to find the toilet painted by Marcel Duchamp. “Had Duchamp exhibited a real toilet or a piece of art? Anna had to find out because she really had to go.”
Anna follows a winding road through an Edvard Munch painting, across a van Gogh landscape, bumps into Picasso on a beach, dreams her way through a Magritte picture and is very intrigued to find Jackson Pollock creating what appears to be a huge mess as he completes a characteristically explosive painting.
As if waking from a reverie Anna finds herself back in the gallery listening to her uncle’s tired voice. Anna thinks to herself, actually
“He doesn’t’ know who really painted that picture or what can happen if you venture into a painting”.
But Anna knew – she had tried it for herself.
If you didn’t know who the author and illustrator were of this book you would have no reason to suppose that this is a picture book from Norway. It’s simply a lovely, detailed, engaging book about art, which happens to have been created by two talented Norwegians. I love how it captures the idea that if you can just let yourself go, allow yourself to let go of any preconceptions, you can escape into a picture and it will take you on an adventure.
The story draws on two common childhood experiences – being bored listening to an adult talking about something rather dull and desperately needing a pee. I’m sure M could identify with Anna’s situation and this empathy immediately drew M into the book.
On each page the illustrations are in the style of the painting through which Anna is walking. Elling, an established fine artist, as well as a book illustrator, vividly captures the essential elements of the different artists; they’re all instantly recognizable to an
4 Comments on What can happen if you venture into a painting?, last added: 3/10/2011
This looks delightful, I am going to look out for it!!!
Zoe said, on 3/10/2011 1:08:00 AM
hi Se7en, We got our copy through the library system so I hope you can too!
maggy, red ted art said, on 3/10/2011 1:21:00 AM
Ooooh we have that book and we LOVE it Was surprised that my son (only just 3) really took to it (he liked the fact that we were looking for a toilet!). LOVE your painting. We will SOOOOO Be copying you this one soon! Thanks for the fab craft and lovely book!
Maggy x
Zoe said, on 3/10/2011 1:31:00 AM
Yes, the hunting for the toilet was a stroke of genius I think, Maggy! It’s a great craft for outside – I also thought about doing it with fabric paint on a bed sheet hanging from the washing line – wanted to create a really big canvas, and think this idea could be lots of fun if you had a whole group of children involved.
Woo hoo! Since writing my last post it has snowed properly! The kids are thrilled, the sledge is getting daily use and the delight in the snow hasn’t yet worn off
M and J have also had their first Christmas presents of the season – the evening of December the 5th is traditionally when (“good”) Dutch children get presents from Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) and so the festive season really has begun here. To add to the Christmassy feel we’ve been reading Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett.
Somewhere in snow-covered Scandinavia it’s almost Christmas and Treva and her family are decorating their house – the tree, the mistletoe and ornaments are all in place. But one morning things mysteriously begin to go missing. An even stranger turn of events is taken when the Christmas pudding appears to scuttle across the snow.
Treva ventures out to investigate and ends up (in a scene reminiscent of Lucie stumbling upon Mrs Tiggy Winkle’s home) discovering the home of two naughty trolls who in their eagerness for Christmas to arrive have been stealing Treva’s Christmas ornaments and more.
Photo: quinet
Rather than being cross Treva enters in to the spirit of things and helps them to get ready for Christmas, first encouraging them to tidy their treehouse, then helping them to decorate it.
“Now if you really want Christmas, you must be generous with each other. If you do that, you will have Christmas right here in your troll house.”
The trolls cocked their heads and squinted. They were trying hard to understand. “How?” they pleaded.
Treva teaches by doing rather than telling, and gives the trolls her most treasured possession – an ornament in the shape of a little red horse. But have the trolls really learned what it means to give selflessly? You’ll have to read the book yourself to find out, but I can assure you a happy, generous ending completes this fun, seasonal story.
At the heart of this story there is a very clear moral message and yet it is explored with a lightness of touch and humour, without once feeling preachy – one of the hardest things to do in children’s books I think. The message – of the importance of generosity and kindness and the importance of living out these values – is also one that works well whatever your beliefs around Christmas. Like Night Tree, Christmas Trolls is a great Christmas book if you’re of a faith other than Christianity, or indeed no faith at all, or simply want a great seasonal story that doesn’t focus on Father Christmas and getting stuff.
3 Comments on What does Christmas mean to your kids?, last added: 12/7/2010
Love it! I’m planning a salt dough project this weekend. Did you have issues with air bubbles in the dough as it cooked? We did the last time I made salt dough and the end result was very fragile ornaments (the kids just broke one the other day).
Zoe @ Playing by the book said, on 12/7/2010 12:52:00 AM
Hi Katie,
I haven’t noticed any problems with bubbles in the dough. As well as the horses we made some dinosaurs and the wing has broken off one pterosaur – but I put that down to undue force on a narrow (5mm) piece of baked dough. From what I’ve seen online kneading the dough is the important thing to get rid of bubbles – and as we make a lot of our own bread kneading is second nature for us so perhaps that’s why we didn’t appear to have any problems with bubbles…
Choxbox said, on 12/7/2010 5:42:00 PM
Thats one cute red-jacketed person there!
Christmas – means loads of fun. My kids are part of a carols group and are performing all the weekends this month. We have Robert Sabuda’s The 12 Days of Christmas (got from a book fair for about 20p!) so they love that one plus the other popular ones. and of course the Christmas tree and loads of cards for everyone they know.
Norway’s Darling Clementine designed this jazzy poster for Blårollinger, a concert series for children and adults in Oslo. I am in awe of all the little creatures and singing and playing instruments; they fit so well with the large type, which have also been personified to have fun! I also really dig the color scheme, with its warm and cool complements…very appropriate for the season and weather.
Ingrid Reithaug & Tonje Holand are the dynamic duo behind Darling Clementine. In addition to graphic design and illustration, these ladies make awesome stationary! See more of their work on their website, and be sure to pick up a notebook and tote bag for me at their shop.
Cecilie Ellefsen is a Norwegian illustrator and animator with a fine talent for creating intricate dioramas made of paper and plastic. Her work incorporates brightly colored cutouts of animals, forests, and mythical creatures. Her compositions pose a lot of depth, and they’re so fun to look at (especially when they’re lit!).
In addition to creating multi-dimentional dioramas, Cecilie also creates lovely 2-D illustrations. She uses bright colors that *POP* and multi-faceted geometric shapes. To see more of her work, check out her website and definitely check out her blog for more images of her dioramas.
The last time we mentioned Bolda Display on Grain Edit we were drooling over its eventual release. Well now its available for purchase. I gave it a test run and I have to say, I love this font. I can’t get enough of those lowercase bubbly round slabs. Definitely one of my faves over the past year. It comes in two styles, regular and outline. This has to be the best (and only) font to be inspired by 1970s ping pong fashion.
Thanks to Sarah Palin’s Vice Presidential nomination, moose have been appearing in the US news quite a bit more than usual. In Scandinavia however—particularly Norway—the largest member of the deer family frequently makes headlines and generates an equally large amount of money for the Nordic country; one estimate puts the value of this year’s meat yield alone at $60 million. For a nation that imported over $5 billion in food last year, this is no small sum. The 5-week hunting season in Norway began last Thursday and will likely result in a lessening of the population by about 35,000 animals. Besides the monetary benefit to sportsmen (and women), this annual culling means safer highways and railroads for Norwegians, and, some would argue, a cleaner atmosphere for the rest of us.
I knew almost nothing about the Norwegian film Reprise before going into the theatre, which is a good thing, because if anybody had told me its central characters are a couple of young novelists, one of whom struggles with mental illness, I would have said, "No thanks, I'll wait for the DVD" and I would have missed the best movie I've seen in months.
Before I get into what makes Reprise so good, I have to pause to describe the audience I and my companion were stuck in while watching the film. We arrived at Lincoln Plaza half an hour before the show, got tickets, and then waited in what seemed, even for New York, a pretty long line for an afternoon on a beautiful day. We also seemed to be the youngest people in the line, which also seemed odd, because, as far as we knew, this was more the sort of movie to attract a crowd of hipster Cinema Studies majors than, well, grandparents -- but this is New York, after all, and if there's anywhere in the world where grandparents will turn out en masse for a Norwegian movie about angsty twenty-somethings, New York is it.
This would have been simply amusing if, no more than fifteen minutes into Reprise, it had not become very clear that many of the audience members expected something different from the movie than what they were getting, and when they were not sighing, coughing, shuffling their feet, checking their phones (really!), or falling asleep on my shoulder (really!), the people around us were whispering loudly in an attempt to figure out some of the basic elements of the movie -- "Who is he?" "Did he have a car accident?" "Are they taking drugs?" "I thought this was in French -- it's not in French. What are they saying?"
(An aside to this aside: I am extremely sensitive to audience noise. Whispering, chewing, foot-tapping, fidgeting, candy-unwrapping, sighing, coughing -- all these sounds and movements cause me pain while watching movies and plays -- the person who introduced popcorn to movie theatres deserves, I believe, a circle of hell unto him- or herself -- but I know it's something that is peculiar to me, and so I seldom comment on it, thinking it's my own problem. My companion, though, who is a much more balanced and tolerant human being than I, commented on the awfulness of the audience the moment we left the theatre.)
It is a mystery to me what caused this particular audience to gather for this particular movie. (If you are telling people that Reprise is the Norwegian On Golden Pond, please stop doing so!) But despite being stuck in the middle of a dreadful audience, I was still able to find Reprise engaging and thought-provoking, and that fact alone is a testament to the movie's quality.
The basic story Reprise tells is a simple one: two friends in Oslo want to be writers. One, Phillip, succeeds quite quickly with his first novel, then falls in love with and starts dating Kari, a young woman who's not quite sure of her place in the world, and his love becomes obsessive and he begins acting irrationally, then has a breakdown. He recovers from his breakdown slowly and never completely. Meanwhile, Erik eventually publishes his first novel, dates a woman he's not really in love with, wonders what he's doing with his life, thinks about getting out of Oslo. Phillip and Erik's friends from elementary school days are also trying to figure out what to do with their lives. I have now succeeded in making the movie sound, I expect, quite tedious. (You are starting to sympathize with the sighers and whisperers in the audience!) But Reprise is not tedious at all, and the reason is that the story is simply a skeleton of events that gives support to an exploration of the characters, and it is this exploration that provides the film's substance. The structure that writer-director Joachim Trier and his co-writer, Eskil Vogt, created emphasizes the vagaries of memory and yearning within the character's lives, and this structure and emphasis gives a coherence to what is, really, a fragmentary narrative. The first moments of the movie lay out Phillip and Erik's grand, naive hopes for the manuscripts they have written -- that the envelopes will be opened immediately by a top editor who will be awe-struck at the novels' brilliance and publish them to world-wide acclaim that will cause the writers to become cult heroes and even to inspire revolutions in African countries. The reality, of course, becomes more complex, but as we move through this reality, it is peppered with flashbacks and what-ifs, many of them rich with a playful and ironic tone, until, in the end, a narrator returns us to the future perfect tense of the first minutes, but now what is described are less naive scenes, scenes of friendship and maturity, and these scenes are imbued with suspense because we know that what we are watching is wished for, hoped for, ached for -- and by that point, we're wishing, hoping, and aching, too.
There is as wide a range of tones in Reprise as in any other movie I can think of, and it is a wonder they all work together so well. Again, this is a virtue of the film's structure. From early on, we are prepared for light and lively scenes contrasted with moments of quiet: long shots and slow movements, bits of meditation in amidst the storm of living. Hyper-stylization becomes a tool of realism: this is what it feels like to be alive, the movie says. The long, slow shadows of a bedroom at night juxtapose with the fluorescent glare in the bathroom. The vast, cataclysmic hustle and screech of a city's heavy-metal rush turns into a slow, almost static musical phrase from just far enough away to pull patterns from chaos. Friendship becomes smothering in a moment, love flips into obsession with an eyelid's flash, the joy of success shatters into a thousand shards of insanity after too many pressures on too many points. And vice versa and vice versa and vice versa.
The changing tones and the general lack of sentimentality are what allow Reprise to be far more than a movie about writers. That Phillip and Erik are writers is important because it allows their struggles with ideas to be dramatized -- their books become external versions of their philosophies and hopes, and when it becomes clear that Phillip has not read Erik's novel, the shock is stunning; Phillip's and Erik's struggles with the public reception of their writing dramatizes the conflict between their dreams and their realities; etc. -- but the movie stays away from offering a romanticized view of writers, and, indeed, through their friends shows that though writers may have struggles specific to their sort of occupation, it doesn't make their occupation a particularly enlightened one. (Although it does seem, at least in Norway, fairly lucrative -- both Phillip and Erik, despite not being bestselling writers, appear to be living off of their royalties. Though Erik lives with his mother, Phillip is somehow able to afford quite a nice apartment.) Though it is a very literate film -- how many movies namedrop Maurice Blanchot? -- it never feels pretentious (which is not to say its characters, being young, are not sometimes pretentious), because it never privileges writers above other human beings. There's nothing mystical or romantic about the literary life in Reprise, nor is it the only life there is.
Reprise does so many things well that I could go on and on and on (the acting, for instance, is a wonder), but I'll point briefly to two elements: The film's portrayal of long-term friendship and its handling of mental illness. Phillip and Erik have been friends since elementary school, and they have other friends who go back nearly as long. Friendships that last through childhood and into adulthood are strange, wondrous things. We wake up one day and discover that our best friends, the people who know us most deeply, are not people we might ever have sought out now, as adults. Our interests are different, our perspectives on the world, our senses of humor and etiquette -- and yet the bond is deeper than anything we could deliberately cultivate with people more like who we have turned out to be. Reprise presents just this sort of friendship, and it does so with rare complexity and subtlety, showing the group from within and without -- the ragtag band that comes to get Phillip when he's ready to be released from the psychiatric ward and that never makes him feel anything but welcome and loved is the same group that causes horror in a smart assistant editor who, in a brief encounter, thinks that Erik's friends are uncouth and boorish.
Phillip's breakdown and never-quite-successful struggle to recover are presented with similar sensitivity. Movies about crazy artists are hardly a rarity, but movies that don't turn the character's illness into either a freakshow or a badge of outsider honor are, indeed, rare. The audience is not led to see Phillip's illness as a necessary aid to his creativity -- it seems, actually, to end his creativity. We are not encouraged to marvel at his oddness or wish that he would stop taking his meds so he could embrace his inner weirdo. Instead, we see a character who is more than a cliche. He lives, having good moments and bad, ordinary moments, moments of clarity even, and yet the shadow of the breakdown is always there. We see the strain on friends and family that the alienating force of illness causes -- the difficulty at communicating from or to a personal cosmos of pain, the soon-to-be-regretted actions brought on by the pressure obsession exerts on reality, the exhaustion attendant with constantly second-guessing your perceptions. The effect, emotionally, is more complex and profound than anything offered by the more melodramatic representations of mental illness we usually get in movies.
There are many other complexities to the film as well -- for instance, there is an ongoing but understated exploration of gender relations (it's a movie about heterosexual men, yes, but it never pretends their immaturity about women or sexuality is anything other than immature, and the women in the film call the men on their bullshit) -- but I fear that continuing to celebrate its many extraordinary pieces will distract from the effect of the film as a whole, because what is most extraordinary about Reprise is not that it contains smart and artfully crafted pieces, but that the pieces all join together in a whole that is more artful, evocative, and affecting than any discussion of the pieces can convey.
Label from Bardola Hoyfjellshotel in Geilo, Norway - c1960s?
I think I’m obsessed with modern Scandinavian design from the 1950s- 1960s. First it was furniture and kids books, then Ceramics and now luggage labels! Where does it end? What’s in that Nordic water?
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Retold by Ashley Ramsden, illustrated by Ed Young,
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Before setting out on our journey 
But The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips is by my bedside!
Ben Keene is the editor of .jpg?picon=160)
Hi Alex. Found the link to your book review on book blogs. This book sounds great and it's my kind of thing. I'm busy right now with my own novel, based on SOE in France in '43-'45 but it's adult historical fiction. Doubt I'll be finished until later this year but I love anything to do with both world wars and this one sounds great. Thanks. Love your blog by the way and will be following.
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, this is a good book. I would also be interested in reading your book when it is done, it sounds very interesting.
This book sounds fascinating, and perhaps a good recommendation for a reluctant reader?
This is indeed a fascinating book and, yes, it might appeal to a reluctant reader because of all the intrigue, suspense and excitement. It is always worth a try, anyway.