The Tricking of Freya
By Christina Sunley
St. Martin’s Press (2009)
Book Review by Debra Louise Scott, October 2009
Excerpt: “It’s a lot of death. I know. Believe me. I know. But we’ll try not to focus on that. The point here is resurrection, wordly reanimation. Infuse the dead with words and they’ll spring to life on the page, just for you.”
The publisher’s review pegs this as a coming of age novel. It’s not. It is about a girl that starts out young and is an adult by the end of the book, but if anything, I would say it’s about a girl that had her coming of age slammed to a screeching halt by death, guilt, and mental instability (not hers). It’s about family and the secrets families hide. It’s about pride in an immigrant heritage, and the culture shock of the reality of the homeland. It’s about language.
Christina Sunley’s protagonist, Freya, soars, crashes, and then soars again like an osprey trying desperately to navigate the bitter north winds with an injured wing. We see the world through Freya’s eyes, and understand what drives the madness and secrecy that surrounds her. When her mother dies, the world stops, and we feel the guilt of a young girl blaming herself and choosing to punish herself for the rest of her childhood. And in the middle of all that, she grows up. One day she realizes she wants some answers. Here a new quest starts, an obsession that leads to her knowing who, and what, she is.
This is an amazing book. The writing is exquisite, from the descriptions of her surroundings and family, to moments of deep reflection, to the pace of the storyline which runs, strolls, twists, stumbles, drags and dances, keeping pace with Freya’s life. As if that weren’t enough of a commendation, Sunley sets the settled acculturation of the Icelandic immigrants against the stark and frighteningly tentative beauty of Iceland’s volatile geology as only someone with firsthand experience can do.
Bravo, Christina.
Word Seeds 