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A review by elliemcc11
The Blue Room by Hanne Ørstavik
4.0
I was attracted to this book because I like reading stories about relationships between parents and children; this is a Norwegian novella which has been beautifully written and then translated. The story is narrated by the daughter, and this is one odd relationship though, with the mother locking the twenty-something university student daughter in her room to prevent her from taking a holiday with her new boyfriend. Whilst I might not wish my daughter to go on holiday with a man she's known for 2 weeks, I wouldn't think that locking her all day in her room was the best way of dealing with the situation. The daughter / narrator seemed more adult than the mother, who needed both looking after, and who also seemed to have no awareness of boundaries, particularly emotional and social.
The blurb suggested to me that it might be related to psychology, and although I was not expecting to read a psychological thriller I was also not expecting to be wading through psychological theory, which, admittedly, was cleverly weaved through the story. Fortunately I have both an interest and (some) knowledge of psychological theory and found the narrator's frequent references to theory interesting, but the heavy emphasis on psychological theory (used as a means for the narrator to understand her situations) might be off-putting for some.
I was also slightly surprised by the references to God throughout, and initially I thought I'd stumbled unaware into Christian fiction. The narrator appeared to have a close relationship to God but as her relationship to her man grows the relationship with God is questioned. Again, like the references to psychological theory, it is used as a mechanism to allow the narrator to make sense of her world.
Finally, this novella does contain infrequent sexually graphic references so please be aware of this if you prefer not to read this type of material. The sexual references are related to the story, although sometimes I struggled to understand whether she was fantasising whilst locked in the room, or it was experiences the narrator was actually going through.
Overall I enjoyed this novella and thought it beautifully written. I didn't award it 5 stars because I sometimes struggled to understand whether it was present, past, or future that was being referred to within the narration.
The blurb suggested to me that it might be related to psychology, and although I was not expecting to read a psychological thriller I was also not expecting to be wading through psychological theory, which, admittedly, was cleverly weaved through the story. Fortunately I have both an interest and (some) knowledge of psychological theory and found the narrator's frequent references to theory interesting, but the heavy emphasis on psychological theory (used as a means for the narrator to understand her situations) might be off-putting for some.
I was also slightly surprised by the references to God throughout, and initially I thought I'd stumbled unaware into Christian fiction. The narrator appeared to have a close relationship to God but as her relationship to her man grows the relationship with God is questioned. Again, like the references to psychological theory, it is used as a mechanism to allow the narrator to make sense of her world.
Finally, this novella does contain infrequent sexually graphic references so please be aware of this if you prefer not to read this type of material. The sexual references are related to the story, although sometimes I struggled to understand whether she was fantasising whilst locked in the room, or it was experiences the narrator was actually going through.
Overall I enjoyed this novella and thought it beautifully written. I didn't award it 5 stars because I sometimes struggled to understand whether it was present, past, or future that was being referred to within the narration.