Book
Simon's family
Record details
- ISBN: 0345434595 (hc : alk. paper)
- ISBN: 034543630X (sc)
-
Physical Description:
print
347 p. : 21 cm. - Edition: 1st American ed.
- Publisher: New York : Ballantine Pub. Group, 1999.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Mothers and sons -- Fiction |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
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- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlegar Public Library | FIC FRE (Text) | 35146002143451 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Monthly Selections - #1 August 1999
This quietly moving story of family, friendship, and love, by the author of Hanna's Daughters , has already become an international best-seller and will no doubt capture the hearts of American readers as well. Simon Larsson is a pensive and thoughtful boy growing up in Sweden during World War II, fortunate to be safe within a remarkably loving and cohesive community. Half Jewish, he is being raised by his Scandinavian aunt and uncle, who adopted him as their own at birth. In a novel rich in mystical overtones, his adoptive parents take on truly archetypal dimensions. Karin's deep love and compassion is matched by Erik's understated strength and stoicism, and together they create a firm family base from which 11 year-old Simon can grow and dream. But Simon, who doesn't know the story of his birth and adoption, seems set apart from his Scandinavian world by his dark hair and olive complexion, and he often retreats into fantasies to alleviate his feelings of disconnection. When he befriends Isak Lentov, a young Jewish boy from Germany, their families become close in spite of the contrast between Isak's father's religious faith and the Larssons' strictly secular Swedish socialism. These two opposing viewpoints help form a unique framework for Simon and Isak as they come of age and work toward finding meaning in their lives, and as Fredriksson explores relations between fantasy, myth, and reality. ((Reviewed August 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 1999 October #1
Simon's Family ($24.00; Oct.; 336 pp.; 0-345-43459-5). Another highly readable saga from the Swedish author of the popular Hanna s Daughters (1998), this literate romance traces with warm empathy the friendship between the eponymous Simon (Larsson), the son of a family threatened by its own secrets, as well as by the approaching (Second World) War, and Isak Lentov, whose German-Jewish family finds both sanctuary and psychic disintegration in its adopted country. At her best (that is, when not gently lecturing the reader), Fredriksson seems almost a Scandinavian R.F. Delderfield: a chronicler of ordinary lives whose judicious mingling of sentimentality and realism makes for absorbing and satisfying reading. Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 1999 September #2
In the same riveting way that she examined mother-daughter relationships in Hanna's Daughters (LJ 7/98), Fredriksson now explores the bonds that make a family. In the late 1920s, the near-mythic coupling of a German Jewish violinist and a Swedish farm woman produces Simon, who is raised from infancy by his mother's cousin Erik Larrson and his wife, Karin. Simon's friendship with classmate Isak Lentov is the first step in blending the families of the wealthy Jewish Lentovs and the blue-collar Swedish Larrsons. When mentally ill Olga Lentov is institutionalized, Karin assumes resposibility for Isak as well. Erik admires Isak's manual skills, while Isak's father becomes Simon's nurturing and cultured "uncle" and Karin's undeclared lover. But soon the Nazi menace is sweeping over Sweden, forcing the family to keep Simon's ancestry a secret and threatening Isak's sanity. Fedriksson's psychological explorations are exceptional, and she brightens the Swedish landscapes with bursts of description about the beauty of nature, the joy of music, and the wonder of first love. A splendid story of character, time, and place; recommended for all libraries. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 1999 July #1
Swedish novelist Fredriksson follows her international bestseller, Hanna's Daughters, with a chronicle, set before and during WWII, of two families and the schoolboy friendship that links them. When 11-year-old Simon Larsson visits the home of his Jewish classmate Isak Lentov, he discovers how the wealthy live. When Isak visits Simon, he finds nurturing love in the care of Simon's mother, Karin; soon he moves in with the Larssons. As the boys grow up together, Simon emulates the intellectual pursuits of Isak's father, Ruben, while Isak strives to gain the craftsmanship and manual strength of Simon's father, Erik. At first, the evil in Germany seems far away; then as Erik goes off to the army, news of atrocities abroad reach home, and Norwegian ships that cannot return to their Nazi-occupied land seek harbor in the boys' seaside town. Each member of the blended family confronts painful memories that surface in their fears and dreams. Karin and Erik remember bitter manipulative parents. Isak recalls his family's years in Berlin, when he suffered physical abuse, first from his authoritarian grandfather, and then from the new Nazi state; Ruben worries about his mad wife, now confined to an asylum. Roaming the coast in dissatisfied reveries, Simon imagines alternate origins for himself, even after his parents tell him the secret truth about his birth. Fredriksson depicts the psychological aftermath of cruelty through the ebb and flow of interior monologues, adhering to time-honored parallels between the characters' harsh longings and the stark beauty of the remote Swedish seascape. The second half of the lengthy tale follows the boys and their families to adulthood: Simon is involved in an army scandal, Karin falls ill and Isak becomes a father. Fredriksson's prose has, at its best, the clarity of a child's-eye view. At worst, it's distractingly awkward and overliteral: the lathe-worker who trains Isak "could feel a quiet happiness when he occasionally had a boy with intelligence in his hands as well as the passion for being exact." Already a bestseller in Germany, the novel contrasts the human capacity for suffering with a heartfelt optimism: these sentiments, along with the Swedish setting, enhance the story's appeal. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
