Jenny<3<3

Trīs draugi, mākslinieki, Itālija, bohēma un mīlestība. Skaista grāmata.

Fantastisk velskrevet, sønderrivende trist og veldig vakker fortelling.

Should rate 5-stars, because it is a work of genius; but I found it somewhat of a 'forced march' (i.e. slog). There is, as in her 3-volume masterpiece Kristen Lavrensdatter (of which I've read the first two volumes) - also brilliant - an overwhelming feeling of modernity (Jenny occurring in the beginning of the 20th Century, and KL in the early 14th Century). This is because of 1) the psychology invoked (internal and external dialogs - all very self-aware and subtle) 2) the reality of the characters (no stereotypes) 3) the universality and timelessness of the situations. The truly stand-out feature is Undset's painterly descriptions of the physical world: in KL this is mostly nature, farms, homes, clothes and such; in Jenny it is all that plus man-made cities. Most authors' descriptions of physical reality are prosaic, other than the occasional clever simile. Undset's descriptions are like Proust's (although, fortunately, no 800-word sentences): deep, original, exquisitely detailed. One other reason for my 4-star (only) rating is that it saddens me (haven't quite finished, but can see where it is heading) - perhaps not a valid reason, but there it is. While other commenters here have discussed the female emancipation angle, I think it's more fair to say that Undset is concerned with human emancipation: her insights about all her characters' psychology and their issues - male and female -are valid. BTW, the picture on the book cover is somewhat lurid and completely at odds with the subject and was probably designed by the publisher just to sell books.

Sigrid Undset riesce ad entrare nella profondità dell'animo femminile con un linguaggio semplice e pacato. Tramite Jenny, il personaggio principale, fa un ritratto di donna in cui molte si possono rispecchiare anche nei giorni odierni. Il libro è stato scritto nel 1911 ma i problemi, le preoccupazioni e i pensieri che affliggono Jenny non hanno età e sono intrinseci dell'animo femminile più sensibile.
Jenny, pittrice norvegese, ha quasi trent'anni ed è una donna indipendente, forte, brillante, talentuosa e intelligente. Forte anche nei suoi valori morali, lo scopo della sua vita è quello di fare sempre la cosa giusta per non avere nulla di cui pentirsi o vergognarsi e di non far mai soffrire nessuno. È una persona buona di cuore, pura, sempre pronta ad aiutare e sostenere gli altri ma è anche una persona molto sola e severa nel giudicare se stessa. Stanca di essere sola, e rendendosi conto che soltanto il lavoro non può riempirle la vita, cerca di aprirsi all'amore per poter sperimentare l'ebbrezza dell'essere amati e dell'amare dando un senso alla propria vita. Ciò che cerca è l'amore vero, quell'affinità spirituale e intellettuale che dovrebbe unire due persone. Purtroppo le cose non vanno come aveva immaginato e quindi inizia un lavoro sempre più intenso e profondo d'introspezione per cercare di capire se stessa e ciò che vuole.
È un libro che con un ritmo lento e rilassato ci fa entrare nelle profondità recondite dell'anima della protagonista; un'anima che lentamente si schiude per essere osservata e compresa dal lettore.

Den første boken jeg leser av Sigrid Undset, og jeg likte den. Undset er virkelig god på dialog, selv om det i starten av boken føles litt i overkant. Hun er også god på å få fram nyansene i følelseslivene våre, og hvor slitsomt og vanskelig det kan være å være å søke etter og feile på kjærlighet. Her er det mye å kjenne seg igjen i. Gleder meg til å lese mer av henne!

This is such a strange little book full of poetic descriptions, melancholy mixed with wilderness and with a touch of Kundera-like "unbearable lightness of being" as it deals with the story of a wonderfully complex human being who tortures herself because she can't help being who she is, and whose suffering at times does seem rather non-sensical.
The book starts off with the description of the spring in Rome and brings in the storylines of a group of young Norwegian bohemians in their mid- to late twenties, who seem to be doing nothing else but engage in their art, travel around picturesque tourist locations, and have long discussions about everything and nothing. Although the author does mention a few times throughout the narrative that these young people have experienced hardships, their lifestyle does seem quite privileged (e.g., the lead character Jenny had to work as a teacher while supporting her mother and three younger siblings, and all of them lived in a house with only two or three bedrooms and couldn't afford to hire a maid to do household work, and then she conveniently had her inheritance from a distant relative and left her job to go to Italy and paint - what a "terrible-terrible" hardship, indeed!). Okay, I thought, I know whether it is all going to - it will be a story about privileged artsy people nourishing their puny sorrows and love affairs.

Then I got hooked on Jenny's background story. Her lonely childhood, being bullied at school, her attachment to her step-father and their travels to the mountains were beautifully described. Her unwillingness to give in to casual relationships, her coldness mixed with "purely mental curiosity" about physical love, her longing for one "grand passion", and someone who would inspire and touch the depths of her being - naive but sympathetic qualities:
"She would be loyal and true to the man to whom she gave herself but he must know how to take her wholly, to possess her body and soul, so that not a single possibility in her would be wasted or left neglected in some corner of her soul - to decay and fester".

The strong-willed girl full of ideals and passions meets a meek reticent boy, who is a byproduct of his parents' unhappy family life, and who is naturally drawn to her vitality and inspiring personality because his own character seems to be lacking those qualities. In turn, her maternal instinct is awoken as their romance develops because her attitude to him is rather maternal - she frequently dries his tears as he complaints to her about his dysfunctional family and frustration at not being able to pursue the career of his choice. They are quite an ill-fitted couple because he wallows in self-pity too much and thus drags her down. But the premise of the narrative has become more interesting to me because one does not often encounter a well-developed story about the relationship between a weak man and a strong woman. As one of the main characters mentioned about Jenny: "She is strong and determined, and she knows it, and nobody asks her in vain for help, but nobody can go on for ever giving help and never getting any themselves. Don't you see that it will make her very lonely, always being the strongest? <...> She ought to have a husband she could look up to, whose authority she should feel, one to whom she could say: This is how I have lived and worked and thought, for I thought it right, and who could judge if it was right? Gram cannot because he is her inferior. Jenny should ask, 'Is it not' and 'Don't you think?' - not he".
It is no surprise that their relationship becomes stilted and eventually suffocates her once they go back to Scandinavia and meet with his family. However, as I again became confident that I knew where the story was going, the plot made a completely unexpected turn.

At first I was very frustrated when Jenny got into the relationship with Gram's father. He seemed to me such a despicable character. Weak and insincere. Droning about his amateurish art, his frustration with his family life - and the way he talked about his wife made me roll my eyes. People, who talk ill of their partners no matter what those partners' faults are, call for no sympathy. However, at least he did admit that it was mostly his fault that their relationship had failed, as he initially led his wife on and basically seduced her.
It is interesting but perhaps not surprising that Gram's father led Jenny on and eventually got his way with her. He might have guessed something about her nature - her subconscious inner need to care and nourish for someone, who is weaker and more dependable. His whining and creepy obsession with her really got on my nerves. Although Jenny believed that it was pure and honest love that Gert Gram felt for her, I am not so easily persuaded. He essentially stalked her from the very beginning - frequenting his studio, trying to touch her knee or putting his head on her shoulder, asking her to keep their meetings a secret from his jealous wife, etc. - Really, Gert? Is this how you behave with your son's girlfriend? You should know better than that, and if your wife indeed has a jealous personality, all the more reason not to engage in clandestine meetings and thus involve your son's girlfriend into your complicated family conflict.
To top it off, he turned to his advantage Jenny's vulnerable state of mind after she had broken off with Helge Gram . If he had really loved her, he might have recognized that she is in no state to engage into a healthy relationship, that she is guilt-ridden after what she perceives as her betrayal of Helge's feelings and her own inability to love. The best Gert Gram could have done for her would have been to let her be. Instead he love-bombs her into even more dysfunctional relations.
The way Gram's father continues to stalk Jenny after she gets pregnant, so that she has to move from one place to another and hide her address, and this constant gaslighting: oh poor Jenny, it's all my fault, oh you are so pure and I ruined you, and I love you so that I'm willing to dedicate my life to your happiness.
It is quite sad that Jenny indeed believes that all that has happened is her fault - that it was she who had led him on and gave herself to him without love thus causing him great suffering. While in reality, it is a bit more nuanced. Here we have this older and more experienced man, who has taken advantage of her confusion, vulnerability, and frustrated longing for love. As a result, he is comfortably off - yes, he didn't get to keep Jenny but on the positive side, he finally separated from his nagging wife, and who knows, perhaps, in the not so distant future he might meet some other woman to hang on to and depend upon to feel inspired and young in his soul. By the way, this is yet another thing that annoys me so about Gert Gram - he continuously talks about his youth having been nipped in the bud, and how deep within he is still young and full of life. Well, no Gert, a 45-ish-something man would never be the same as 20ish-something - and if that's what he wants to believe about himself, this simply signifies his immaturity.

The last part of the book is where it became more difficult for me to sympathize with Jenny. This woman is her own worst enemy, she is a trainwreck, and seems bound on the path of self-destruction. It is understandable that she is devastated after her child dies - considering that this is who she really is, a nurturer for whom it is important to have someone or something to deeply care for. At first, it was her family, then her art, and afterwards the Gram men, and obviously her child.
However, it remains a mystery to me why she so persistently denies any possibility of trying to regain if not happiness, then at least the will to live, love and create.
The ending of the story seems somewhat contrived. The way Jenny commits suicide is completely unrealistic - it is impossible to die so quickly after cutting one's wrists considering she didn't even get into a tub with hot water. In reality, chances are that Gunnar and Helge would have been able to stop bleeding until the doctor arrives, and she would have survived although with a significant loss of blood. [See the quote from a research article by Sigrist & Dirnhofer (1983): "Suicide attempts made by cutting the wrist artery (A. radialis et ulnaris) are usually unsuccessful if the vessel wall or blood clotting has not changed pathologically."]
It is touching and poetic though. A young life lost in vain.

Overall, 4 stars out of 5 for poetic imagery and creating such wonderfully complex female characters as Jenny and her friend Cesca.

Все-таки лето - это не время для серьезных произведений. Потому что я не вижу другой причины, почему у "Йенни" шла у меня достаточно тяжело. Роман замечательно написан. Возможно, не вычурно и не увлекаясь окружающей обстановкой, а сосредотачиваясь на диалогах героев, но такой минимализм ему идет.
Более того, мне было очень легко сопереживать главной героине, ставить себя на ее место, а это случается довольно редко. Так что это роман действительно мне подошел, как добротно сшитая одежка.
Внутренний конфликт Йенни показался очень близким и не самым типичным для любовного романа. Может, я просто недостаточно подкована, но впервые читаю что-то подобное.

Несмотря на все вышесказанное, книга читалась с некоторым напряжением. Может, я просто не хотела серьезных и грустных историй, не знаю. А может, сказалась некая ровность произведения: ну совсем не было вау-моментов. Тем не менее, пару очень метких выражений и размышления я добавила себе в цитатник (который, как оказалось, благополучно самоуничтожился, спасибо, смартфон).

Что страшнее безответной любви? Разве что неспособность любить. Oh, I know what you feel, bro.

Audio: Avicii & Sandro Cavazza - So Much Better

Undset writes such real visceral characters and gives them intimate existential truths and lies to speak. This is like The Bell Jar?
Wow.
My personal reaction to Jenny was that this was a world that could not give her what she tried to have from it. The men are horrid - that's my personal reaction - Sigrid Undset spends quite a bit on Gunnar at the end so I think she approved of him and he is the best of them but I didn't feel it that much; he may have been right and could have been there for her, she felt so, but he approached her with the same demanding self-entitlement to her that the others did. Gert utterly appalled me - that's just me maybe. I loved Cesca though. She seems weak, indecisive but was always a survivor. Jenny needed more from the world, from men, and she deserved more. It's very sad really.
Oh and it's available free online: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60741

Overraskende moderne og troverdige karakterer. Til tross for å være litt vel melodramatisk til tider så var dette en fantastisk bok om hvor komplisert og vanskelig livet til en moderne kvinne kan være. Moral, drømmer og virkelighet. Hva er det som egentlig er viktig for oss mennesker? Gleder meg til å lese mer av skarpe Undset.

This is a very sad story of a young woman artist who lost first her father, then a loving stepfather, too early in life and who has learned to put too high a value on independence. One of her best friends describes Jenny as generous, reliable, and always there for others, but with a strong tendency to withdraw when she herself needs help. She expresses doubt about whether it is possible to love someone and also to be dependent on them. I enjoyed reading it because it explores many of the ideas about relationships and the strong emphasis on independence that are so common now, and that are apparently not as new as we think (Jenny was published in 1911, 105 years ago).

4,5 stars.

Some classics are classics for a reason. That being said, I don't understand why this book isn't more famous, at least in Sweden (it may very well be more famous in Norway). Perhaps it's the fatalistic touch, the melodrama, and the female main character that pose a problem - because I had never heard of it before I found it a flea market 3 or so years ago. Undset is of course überknown in Scandinavia for Kristin Lavransdatter (which shares some traits with Jenny), and I read that one at age 14, but I kind of wish I could have read this one earlier as well.

At the same time, it's very fitting to read it now. The book features Jenny, who is 28 (my age!), living temporarily in Rome, pursuing a career as an artist, and who struggles to *be* a person, to be social, to fall in love, etc. This is something as interesting as a book about a woman (hence a book about romance, we all know that), but about a woman who is unable to fall in love. And it's not a coming-of-age type of book, because she's already very much an adult. She has already come out of her shell, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everything will go smoothly from there.

I really, really enjoyed reading this. Undset is a fantastic author; no cardboard characters, no pointless passages, no misplaced lines or weird pacing, everything is really perfectly crafted and thought through. People talk a lot about ideas, but they never, ever sound cliché. People talk naturally, that is they interrupt themselves and each other, they don't finish their sentences, they ramble and lose track of what they were saying. In the dialogue, the only disruptive element for a modern reader is the old-fashioned danified Bokmål!. The humor - what little there is of it in a book of this serious a nature - is still funny today! Not everything in the book is actually featured on the pages; all of a sudden, a new chapter begins, and we understand immediately that some quite big events have taken place, but we are left to imagine them for ourselves. Also, perspectives change throughout the book and there's nothing confusing or unnatural about it.

Extra points, of course, for what was probably quite radical views on women and men and relation between the sexes expressed by various characters in the book (notably Gunnar).

Do they still make authors like these nowadays?