by Vicky, Laura, and Britt
There was a mixed response to The Sorrow Stone at bookclub this month. Those who liked it enjoyed the fact that it drew them into a time, place, and culture that they knew nothing or very little about. They appreciated the way a woman was central to the story and that it was based on an ancient tale that had been handed down over centuries and enjoyed the book as a refreshing change of pace. However, many readers found that the story was hard to follow, the prose was clunky and the characters were underdeveloped and as a result unrelatable. A few readers didn’t persist to the end.
Despite or perhaps because of these differences of opinion we had great discussions all week.
The Vikings and their reputedly violent and merciless sacking, pillaging and invading had been present in much of our knowledge of history and this book afforded us an opportunity to look at the world from their point of view. We talked about the harshness of the Nordic climate and the effect that would have on the inhabitants’ approach to life. The book made us understand that most of their day was spent simply growing and raising enough food to live on and creating sufficient shelter to protect them from the icy wind and cold. There was not much time to spend on chivalry and fancy manners when simply surviving took all their energy. In such a society reliance on family ties for strength and protection was a necessity and this in turn led to frequent violent acts of vengeance whenever anybody from outside the family group threatened those ties. Loyalty to blood relations took precedence over marital ties.
While most readers agreed that the story itself was a good one, the writing style divided readers with many wishing that more of the gaps in the plot and in the characters thought processes had been filled in. We wondered if perhaps a prologue providing more context would have been helpful. Though some were unsympathetic to the author’s stated intention of telling the story in the simple and unadorned style of the Sagas, saying that he should have made it clearer and more relatable to modern readers, others embraced the simple punchy prose and felt it took them straight into the harsh, no-frills life of the Vikings. They were happy to fill in the gaps from their own imagination and looked at the book as a gateway into further research about a fascinating part of history.
We thank the Riverbend Readers for another week of great discussions!