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nydstilheden's review against another edition
3.0
I watched "I am Dina" the first time when I was about 12 years old. I loved absolutely everything about it. Last year I bought the book, which I do not regret.
This is the story of the untamable Dina who lives in Norway in the 19th century. She does what she wants and never listens to any man. She caused her mother's death, is hated by her father, and marries an old man.
Her life is full of exciting - and horrifying - events, and she causes trouble here and there. She is not shy, not behaving like a woman - she is the seducer. And you will probably be seduced by her story too.
I 'only' gave the book 3 stars, because although I was seduced by the story, there were some passages that I had to skip because I thought it took the author forever to get on to the point.
This is the story of the untamable Dina who lives in Norway in the 19th century. She does what she wants and never listens to any man. She caused her mother's death, is hated by her father, and marries an old man.
Her life is full of exciting - and horrifying - events, and she causes trouble here and there. She is not shy, not behaving like a woman - she is the seducer. And you will probably be seduced by her story too.
I 'only' gave the book 3 stars, because although I was seduced by the story, there were some passages that I had to skip because I thought it took the author forever to get on to the point.
kristinvdt's review against another edition
Atter en bok jeg tror vil ha godt av å leses som voksen. Lest på vgs?
liva19's review against another edition
1.0
Tror bare det var en virkelig dårlig og langsom læseproces...
maries_bookverse's review against another edition
5.0
2. read:
Dina’s book still deserves 5 stars!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
When I read this book for the first time, I actually went to middle school (!) and was quite young - it was still a book that left deep traces: I loved it. I loved every part of it. I loved Dina, how brave she is. How naturalistic the author has written the story. How dark everything in the story is. All the complicated relationships.
I thought the book deserved to be read again - but from a slightly more mature perspectiv - I also got more out of the story this time.
__________________________
1. read:
5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A dark, beautiful and twistedly dangerous book with a story so raw and unforgettable that when I finished reading the last page, I felt a kind of sadness at not being able to look further into the characters' mindsets and lives.
Dina's book is one of the darkest and strongest books I have ever read, and with a uniquely engaging protagonist that takes you on a roller coaster of emotions; anger, tenderness, pain, sadness, worry, irritation, awkwardness, disgust. Happiness. Imprinted me with wisdom and insight into how complex and complicated a personality can become and how a gloomy, painful childhood shapes one's future. Also, Dina's book shows how a trauma becomes quicksand that sticks, without the ability to come loose, the traumas freezes the body to ice from the inside and out, experienced again and again. Impossible to move on from.
The story takes place in the 1860s. Dina experiences a trauma as a child - she accidentally kills her mother by being the cause of a tub with lye ending up over her mother; skin melts into porridge and she dies. The scream is something Dina never forgets and it haunts her like a ghost and shapes Dina for the rest of her life. Then, her father gives her away as a child bride to an old family friend - Dina becomes a housewife at Reinsnes. Already in the first pages of the book, you realize that Dina brings death to many people she meets on her way.
Following Dina's erratic nature is exciting. Nerve-wracking. I really love this character. You never know what she's going to do next. Dina has such strong contradictions in herself that make her a dangerous person. On the outside, she seems strong as a antiheroine. Inside, her psyche is as fragile as glass. Fury lies and trembles at the bottom of all her emotions, in everything from desire to tenderness for those she cares about. When Dina enters a room, she gets everyone's gaze on her - whether she wants to or not - she has a magnetic attraction. It gives her power - and she knows how to exploit it, is manipulative and relentless.
Dina is a feminist female figure who dares to speak straight from the liver - something that was very unconventional behavior for a woman in the 1800's - she also refuses to be submissive to a man, dresses as she likes; whether it is in skirts or in trousers. In terms of interest, she delves into the world of men. Dina plays cello, hunts, smokes cigars, rides a horse in a man's way, she is concerned with finances and takes on the role as a husband - she doesn’t allow herself to be poked on the nose by the dominant male culture she lives in.
Herbjørg Wassmo writes strong and realistic women's literature that moves into realism with Dina's Book The story of Dina is portrayed in northern Norwegian surroundings - Wassmo really excels with her lush depictions of place and environment. The atmosphere is cold, brutal and realistic. Gives chills.
It is an extensive diverse gallery of characters. Many names and different, complicated relationships. But Wassmo's beautiful, exciting descriptions of them, make you remember everyone anyway. The dialogues in northern Norwegian are fantastically lively. The sentences that are said between the characters burn from mouth to mouth, it is as if they are standing in the same room as you and conversing.
The book really made an impression on me, becoming a ghost of insight to bring along. I read it for the first time when I went to middle school and I felt I peeked into a universe I was not really old enough to see and understand. Dina really screwed with my feelings - I had never read anything like that raw and brutally and honest. Dina immediately became a role model who both comforted me and also scared the crap out of me.
Dina's book burned into my memory and took my breath away. Made my skin cold and hot at the same time. Became a scar that breaths fire into my soul - Still, I know I must read this book again.
Dina’s book still deserves 5 stars!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
When I read this book for the first time, I actually went to middle school (!) and was quite young - it was still a book that left deep traces: I loved it. I loved every part of it. I loved Dina, how brave she is. How naturalistic the author has written the story. How dark everything in the story is. All the complicated relationships.
I thought the book deserved to be read again - but from a slightly more mature perspectiv - I also got more out of the story this time.
__________________________
1. read:
5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A dark, beautiful and twistedly dangerous book with a story so raw and unforgettable that when I finished reading the last page, I felt a kind of sadness at not being able to look further into the characters' mindsets and lives.
Dina's book is one of the darkest and strongest books I have ever read, and with a uniquely engaging protagonist that takes you on a roller coaster of emotions; anger, tenderness, pain, sadness, worry, irritation, awkwardness, disgust. Happiness. Imprinted me with wisdom and insight into how complex and complicated a personality can become and how a gloomy, painful childhood shapes one's future. Also, Dina's book shows how a trauma becomes quicksand that sticks, without the ability to come loose, the traumas freezes the body to ice from the inside and out, experienced again and again. Impossible to move on from.
The story takes place in the 1860s. Dina experiences a trauma as a child - she accidentally kills her mother by being the cause of a tub with lye ending up over her mother; skin melts into porridge and she dies. The scream is something Dina never forgets and it haunts her like a ghost and shapes Dina for the rest of her life. Then, her father gives her away as a child bride to an old family friend - Dina becomes a housewife at Reinsnes. Already in the first pages of the book, you realize that Dina brings death to many people she meets on her way.
Following Dina's erratic nature is exciting. Nerve-wracking. I really love this character. You never know what she's going to do next. Dina has such strong contradictions in herself that make her a dangerous person. On the outside, she seems strong as a antiheroine. Inside, her psyche is as fragile as glass. Fury lies and trembles at the bottom of all her emotions, in everything from desire to tenderness for those she cares about. When Dina enters a room, she gets everyone's gaze on her - whether she wants to or not - she has a magnetic attraction. It gives her power - and she knows how to exploit it, is manipulative and relentless.
Dina is a feminist female figure who dares to speak straight from the liver - something that was very unconventional behavior for a woman in the 1800's - she also refuses to be submissive to a man, dresses as she likes; whether it is in skirts or in trousers. In terms of interest, she delves into the world of men. Dina plays cello, hunts, smokes cigars, rides a horse in a man's way, she is concerned with finances and takes on the role as a husband - she doesn’t allow herself to be poked on the nose by the dominant male culture she lives in.
Herbjørg Wassmo writes strong and realistic women's literature that moves into realism with Dina's Book The story of Dina is portrayed in northern Norwegian surroundings - Wassmo really excels with her lush depictions of place and environment. The atmosphere is cold, brutal and realistic. Gives chills.
It is an extensive diverse gallery of characters. Many names and different, complicated relationships. But Wassmo's beautiful, exciting descriptions of them, make you remember everyone anyway. The dialogues in northern Norwegian are fantastically lively. The sentences that are said between the characters burn from mouth to mouth, it is as if they are standing in the same room as you and conversing.
The book really made an impression on me, becoming a ghost of insight to bring along. I read it for the first time when I went to middle school and I felt I peeked into a universe I was not really old enough to see and understand. Dina really screwed with my feelings - I had never read anything like that raw and brutally and honest. Dina immediately became a role model who both comforted me and also scared the crap out of me.
Dina's book burned into my memory and took my breath away. Made my skin cold and hot at the same time. Became a scar that breaths fire into my soul - Still, I know I must read this book again.
sloatsj's review against another edition
3.0
This is a dramatic story about Dina, who at the age of 5 inadvertently causes a vat of hot lye to engulf her mother, causing her excruciating death. Dina is then neglected by her father, a sheriff, who doesn’t know what to do with her, and spends her life haunted by her mother’s screams and ghostly presence. While Dina’s in her early teens, her father finds a tutor for her who’s a bit of a godsend, teaching her arithmetic and music. He also learns about the tragedy, and tells the girl her mother is better off, having gone to a better place, which in a way makes Dina feel it’s ok to mete out her own biblical justice for years to come. She’s able to do so by the power she acquires through marrying a rich merchant at age 15, whom she soon sends to his death.
There is an appeal in the strong female character - undaunted, unconventional, feminist, brave. She’s also not very easy to like. I had to ask myself several times if I was being unfair and if I’d give a man more leeway, but no: if anything, I’d probably hold all that ‘lording it around’ more against a man than a woman. And Dina has a good point in a lot of cases, but she is selfish and often unsympathetic.
The good points about this story are the characters, the plot and the Norwegian landscape. It’s a sensuous book full of hot meals, birch branches, rowan berries, snow, fires, the smell of stables, blood, sex, and the sea. It has some satisfying moments.
On the downside I wasn’t crazy about the style. A bit of short internal monologue is frequently interjected that invariably starts “I am Dina,” followed by what Dina could do or her experiences. It’s a little over the top, as if Dina were a goddess declaring herself. And the sex scenes were awkward, as sex scenes often are, sometimes dressed up in metaphors about “spears” and “fish” such. I was soon judging guys by the size of their penises.
This was a good wintertime read and engaging, but I didn’t think it was a great work of literature. If you are interested in potent female characters, Norway or the shipping trade, it’s worth a read.
There is an appeal in the strong female character - undaunted, unconventional, feminist, brave. She’s also not very easy to like. I had to ask myself several times if I was being unfair and if I’d give a man more leeway, but no: if anything, I’d probably hold all that ‘lording it around’ more against a man than a woman. And Dina has a good point in a lot of cases, but she is selfish and often unsympathetic.
The good points about this story are the characters, the plot and the Norwegian landscape. It’s a sensuous book full of hot meals, birch branches, rowan berries, snow, fires, the smell of stables, blood, sex, and the sea. It has some satisfying moments.
On the downside I wasn’t crazy about the style. A bit of short internal monologue is frequently interjected that invariably starts “I am Dina,” followed by what Dina could do or her experiences. It’s a little over the top, as if Dina were a goddess declaring herself. And the sex scenes were awkward, as sex scenes often are, sometimes dressed up in metaphors about “spears” and “fish” such. I was soon judging guys by the size of their penises.
This was a good wintertime read and engaging, but I didn’t think it was a great work of literature. If you are interested in potent female characters, Norway or the shipping trade, it’s worth a read.
kiriamarin's review against another edition
4.0
This is a story about a orphan child, a child bride, a young widow , a passional woman ,rebel, ,full of rage ,vengeful person,all this is Dinah,a enigmatic and fascinant person born below a death star who follow her life like plague, poisoning her lost soul and touching her relationships,especially with men and her only son.
Set in rural Norway, in 1840, a idyllic and beautiful place and still more abundant of human creatures,displaced in time, a land of masters and serfs,nature vs people. Norwegian literature is so entangled with lyricism and nature,that transport us to a place almost magical but its real,dangerous,where hard people lives with hidden secrets all his lives,desire,ambition,dreams,
sweetness and violence. The writing prose remember me a bit of Hardy and Undset,with the description of places like a character essencial of the book,who demands and influences all the actions and decisions of persons. But hardly matches in quality of story with the fierceness of Dinah . This is so sad. No one specially womem should be confinated in "one place" all her life. This is a tale of madness,repressed feelings and childhood traumas who one carries for all her adult life .
Sometimes I dont understand nothing about Dinah's stranger behaviour although I fell everything about her emotions. A powerfull and bitter female character.
Set in rural Norway, in 1840, a idyllic and beautiful place and still more abundant of human creatures,displaced in time, a land of masters and serfs,nature vs people. Norwegian literature is so entangled with lyricism and nature,that transport us to a place almost magical but its real,dangerous,where hard people lives with hidden secrets all his lives,desire,ambition,dreams,
sweetness and violence. The writing prose remember me a bit of Hardy and Undset,with the description of places like a character essencial of the book,who demands and influences all the actions and decisions of persons. But hardly matches in quality of story with the fierceness of Dinah . This is so sad. No one specially womem should be confinated in "one place" all her life. This is a tale of madness,repressed feelings and childhood traumas who one carries for all her adult life .
Sometimes I dont understand nothing about Dinah's stranger behaviour although I fell everything about her emotions. A powerfull and bitter female character.
lisefaerch's review against another edition
4.0
At læse Dinas bog er som at få et kram af en person, du har kendt i årtier, eller en varm kop kakao efter en hel dags hygge i sneen. Det er comfort læsning for mig. Jeg kommer til at læse denne bog igen og igen i mit liv.
Dina er en storm, der river dig med fra første side. Det er Dinas bog, og hun har sit jerngreb i historien, men samtidig er hendes indre også selv tabt i stormvejret. En rå, vild, stærk og hård kvindeskikkelse uden nåde. Men også et såret, følsomt og håbløst offer, som for alt i verden ikke vil forlades. Hun lader dig ikke finde fodfæste igennem hele bogen, og hun er umulig at kende helt. Som læser føler man sig både ukomfortabelt tæt på og i sikker afstand fra hende på en og samme tid. Wassmo har med denne karakter skabt en enestående og gennemskærende kvindeskildring, der fortsat er en af de bedste, jeg er stødt på.
Jeg elsker miljøet. Man føler, at man rider uden sadel på hesteryg sammen med Dina igennem det barske, norske landskab i den forfrosne vinter. Eller man sidder med hende i birkens grønne trætop om sommeren og ser ud over Reinsnæs, som ejer man stedet allerede, selvom man lige er ankommet. Og når dagen er slut, kan man mødes ved middagsbordet med mor Karen i skæret af levende lys, efter en lang dags arbejde på gården. På denne måde er Wassmos skrivemåde unik. Hun puster ubesværet liv i både karakterer og steder.
Hvis jeg skulle sammenligne denne bog med en anden storartet roman om skyld, kærlighed, traume og død, så ville det være Stormfulde højder. Den isnende stemning i Nordnorge er lige så nådesløs som Brontës ensomme hede. Og du er lige så splittet over karakterens skæbnesvangre valg.
Fire stjerner i stedet for fem pga. mændenes konstante, cringy besættelse af Dina og de akavede sexscener.
Dina er en storm, der river dig med fra første side. Det er Dinas bog, og hun har sit jerngreb i historien, men samtidig er hendes indre også selv tabt i stormvejret. En rå, vild, stærk og hård kvindeskikkelse uden nåde. Men også et såret, følsomt og håbløst offer, som for alt i verden ikke vil forlades. Hun lader dig ikke finde fodfæste igennem hele bogen, og hun er umulig at kende helt. Som læser føler man sig både ukomfortabelt tæt på og i sikker afstand fra hende på en og samme tid. Wassmo har med denne karakter skabt en enestående og gennemskærende kvindeskildring, der fortsat er en af de bedste, jeg er stødt på.
Jeg elsker miljøet. Man føler, at man rider uden sadel på hesteryg sammen med Dina igennem det barske, norske landskab i den forfrosne vinter. Eller man sidder med hende i birkens grønne trætop om sommeren og ser ud over Reinsnæs, som ejer man stedet allerede, selvom man lige er ankommet. Og når dagen er slut, kan man mødes ved middagsbordet med mor Karen i skæret af levende lys, efter en lang dags arbejde på gården. På denne måde er Wassmos skrivemåde unik. Hun puster ubesværet liv i både karakterer og steder.
Hvis jeg skulle sammenligne denne bog med en anden storartet roman om skyld, kærlighed, traume og død, så ville det være Stormfulde højder. Den isnende stemning i Nordnorge er lige så nådesløs som Brontës ensomme hede. Og du er lige så splittet over karakterens skæbnesvangre valg.
Fire stjerner i stedet for fem pga. mændenes konstante, cringy besættelse af Dina og de akavede sexscener.
fredrikrosberg's review against another edition
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0