The Ice Palace (Peter Owen Modern Classics)

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He ran the business from home, with a typewriter as his only equipment. Soon, however, the company started to flourish, enabling him to employ some staff – his first editor was Muriel Spark. He was able to bring some of the very best international literature to what was a very insular British market. So also the other children want things to be the same as always after Unn's disappearance, to return to that predictable childhood constancy of before; Siss finds it harder than the others, unwilling -- and scared of -- letting go of her memory of Unn, of what she shared with Unn. I loved the descriptions of the changing of the season in a small Scandinavian town and the use of the frozen waterfall as something monstrous, profound, beautiful but inanimate. This is the way I felt about the book as well. Inanimate.....too cold to allow near my warm heart. I was not moved nor did I believe what is happening. I did not believe in the thought processes of Siss. I did not believe in her grieving. It was lovely art-house but not flesh and blood emotional processing. I did not believe in the children. I did not believe in the adults. I did not believe in the thinking or the dialogue. I did not in the end, believe in this book or the author's vision.

Only one fatal meeting is granted by the author between the two girls. Inside Unn's closed bedroom, through a looking glass, they spot the connection that occurs from their common nature, they undress to further justify their mutual attraction and proceed no more because of guilt and their inability to find the right words to describe what is happening to them: The pieces are all set for the magic to start. Siss, the popular leader of her peers at school and the beloved daughter of a well-off family, begins the journey with no return to become Unn, the introverted, mysterious girl, who leads an isolated life with her aunt, wrapped up in an irresistible and unsettling aura. Two gleaming faces in a mirror become one in a radiant moment, memory and dreams are fused into an impossible reality and Unn becomes Siss and Siss becomes Unn, scorching twin souls emerge amidst the implacable coldness of their existence, producing a miracle. Or a curse. For this world is made for the living, and that is a lesson Siss will have to learn if she wants to break free from a heavy burden which is drowning her in the mesmerizing but already thawing chambers of The Ice Palace.The train journey is cold and uncomfortable for Sally Carrol. Harry and his family welcome her. Sally Carrol notices the contrast of the Bellamy library and the one at her home. Harry tries to counsel her in how different the North is, as they do not have the family histories of the South. She is affronted when he implies that she may make unwelcome comments. Sally Carrol is confused, and does not feel at home. Vesaas' descriptions of Unn's exploration are masterful, a sense of menace and dread -- it's clear what will happen -- hovering over a narrative that describes a voyage of discovery that is all childish innocence and slow (self-)recognition and wonder. The Ice Palace / translated by Elizabeth Rokkan. - New ed. - London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1993. - 176 pp. - ISBN 0-7206-0881-3 (hardcover)

Siss leaves promptly and Unn suffers pangs of doubt. Had she overshared? Did Siss feel the same way? Was she imagining their connection? I’m a worthless creature,’ said Auntie shortly afterwards, when they were nearing her house, nearing the end of the evening. She began again: ‘Worthless. The people here have done everything for me during this misfortune, and now I’m going like this when I ought to take my leave properly". Reads like Hemingway--a simple, clipped style. In the beginning, an 11-year-old girl named Siss, reigning queen in the schoolhouse, is beguiled by the mysterious newcomer Unn. Gets invited to her house. They go to Unn's bedroom and talk about things 11-year-old girl's talk about, but the weird part is the power of their attraction to each other's auras. Create character profiles using interesting adjectives (create a new mysterious character who Ivan will meet in the forest)Is-slottet. - Oslo: De norske bokklubbene, 2002. - 124 p. - (Århundrets bibliotek) - ISBN 82-525-5096-7 (hardcover) And she didn't say a word about hiding." The Ice Palace is full of what wasn't said, and especially of Siss reacting to and dealing with what remains unspoken. They've found each other, and for each it's both a terrifying discovery and a relief, even as so much has been left unsaid.