Book Review of Girl, 1983 by Linn Ullmann ( trans Martin Aitken)

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Type of book: 1983, New York, Paris, 1980s to 2020s, counselling, winter, seasons, lost in language, colors, modeling, lost innocence 

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Summary:

Characters:

Main character is the sixteen year old girl, an unnamed narrator who sought fame but paid the price. She is from Scandinavia and lives in New York with her mother. However, one day she catches a photographer's eye and thus begins the story of bildungsroman and lost innocence. She often tiptoe a lot during the book, having the reader go on wild goose chases, at the same time the prose and revelations become less and less shocking as story goes on. There is also the girls mother who acts more as a sister than a mother and who is afraid of exerting her own authority. 

Theme:

Memory and experiences create strength and fragility 

Plot:

The story is in first person narrative from the girls point of view, and yes the time jumps around a lot, going from early 1980s to modern times often going on tangents and exploring the miniscule details surrounding the story. Best way I imagine it is that a dance is going on and there is a climactic scene approaching, but the narrator keeps pausing, focusing on life or movie before the dancing scene or after, or else the author rewinds the scene to watch it again. The story is divided into three parts and are named after colors: Blue, Red and White, which I suspect has to do with either seasons or colors of the clothes she is wearing, although one would explore the meaning of colors as it relates to Scandinavian culture? 

Author Information:

Opinion:

When I was younger, two of my favorite books were North China Lover by Marguerite Duras and The Foreign Student by Susan Choi. The experience of reading Girl 1983 is going back to my girlhood years, of seeing potential and dreams that were not tainted by life. This definitely needs a re read because it's impossible to capture it's spirit and meaning within one time exploration. 

This was given for review 

5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)