Winter '09/10 discussion thread: East

[Caryl]

Here is our discussion thread for East, one of our winter group reads. As always, be cautious of reading the posts below if you haven't finished, as they may contain spoilers.

[SusanH]

I'm partway through this and loving it. I'm a sucker for re-imagined fairy tales and this one is particularly well done. It took me a little while to get used to the alternating voices, but now I'm tearing through it.

[SusanH]

I finished this last night and I'm so glad we chose it. I really enjoyed it. Thanks to LisaJo for mentioning it on the boards.

If anyone is interested in the original fairy tale, here's a link to East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The author stayed reasonably true to the original, so there will be some small spoilers if you read the fairy tale first.

ETA: This version has some links on the side to modern books based on the fairy tale, including East, some picture books and another novel.

[Maribeth]

I finished yesterday too Susan! I agree completely - beautiful book and thanks for suggesting it Lisa.

This would be a good book to read in the summer when I'm sweating buckets. The author was so descriptive with the settings that I was cold the entire time I read it - and that's not a good thing this time of year when I'm already cold!

I enjoyed the switching of voices once I got used to it. It seemed to just work with this novel. I haven't read the original fairy tale but being Norwegian, I think I have to

Interesting that Rose chose to live away from her family at the end.

[Lisa Jo]

Thanks for the links, Susan! I'd never read the original fairy tale but the author really did stay pretty true to it. Some of her touches were fascinating, like the mother's superstition about birth direction and how Rose's talent for weaving featured so prominently in the story.

The author did a fantastic job with imagery: the skin descriptions for the trolls and, like Maribeth said, the cold and the landscape. I thought the term "softskin" was a creepy but apt way the trolls viewed the humans.

The only criticism I've heard was from one of my IRL book group members, who liked the book but said she thought perhaps the ice castle destruction scene was written with a movie adaption in mind. That hadn't occurred to me, and if even it were written for that, it still works in the story and didn't seem over the top to me.

[SusanH]

Lisa, I thought several times as I read it that the book seemed like it would adapt quite well as a film or miniseries. I didn't particularly think of that during the castle destruction, but I think the destruction was a good updating of the original fairy tale. It makes more sense in the semi-realistic world of the story to have the castle be destroyed by the queen's rage and magic rather than have every troll spontaneously combust because Rose cleaned a shirt.