The Cold Song

Linn Ullmann, daughter of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, has written a book worthy of a Bergman film: a psychological portrait of a family affected by the brutal murder of Milla, a young woman who had been working as an au pair for the summer. The novel moves back and forth in time and shifts perspectives from one character to another with elegant ease.

Jon, a well known novelist unable to complete his next book; Siri, his wife, a busy restaurateur; and their two daughters, Alma and Liv, spend their summers at Mailund, a large country home owned by Siri's mother Jenny. Each of the family members has a different relationship with Milla and perhaps plays a part in her death, wittingly or unwittingly.

I needed to take a break from reading show more the book between each of its six sections because of its intensity. While not a murder mystery -- the murderer is revealed at the beginning of the book -- the psychological thrill of discovery drives the book.

I found this a highly satisfying read. show less

Loved this dark,brooding book until the very last page. The ending left me doing research to see if my e-book was missing pages. Turns out I was the only one missing something, still am.
I do however think the author is a very talented writer. Very good characterization. I would read her again, although I will read a good many reviews before doing so.

The Short of It:

Elegant and sophisticated with flawed, well-constructed characters.

The Rest of It:

Jon & Siri and their two young daughters return each summer to Siri’s childhood home, just south of Oslo. Mailund, the big white house, has been in the family for years and although not in perfect shape, gives them a break from their everyday existence. This time around, Jon has come to finish his novel. A task that seems impossible due to many things, but mainly the writer’s block that he regularly complains of. But there is a lot more going on. Jon’s affair with a woman down the street is what takes him out of the house on a regular basis, and even though he often tells his wife that he’s “walking the dog”, Siri is aware of show more his philandering ways and yet, doesn’t say anything to him, hoping that he’ll come to his senses.

That alone is enough material for a novel but The Cold Song does not stop there. Milla, a young girl hired to care for the children, becomes Jon’s obsession. Although their interactions are innocent enough, the tension is palpable whenever these two are in the room with one another. Milla, is also the focus of Alma, Jon and Siri’s twelve-year-old daughter. Alma seems to note the connection between Milla and her father right away, but Alma is not all there and has issues of her own to contend with. When Milla goes missing, the town is turned upside down trying to solve the mystery and Milla’s mother, Amanda, is convinced that Jon and Siri have something to do with her disappearance.

This is not a flashy, in your face, detective story or a story about a broken marriage. It’s a beautifully constructed story centered around flawed (VERY) flawed characters trying to find their place as the situations around them escalate out of control. These are not the types of friends that I’d like to have, ever, but man, did they make for some good reading. I wouldn’t say that anyone in this house is normal, except maybe the dog but their interactions with each other are awkward and sometimes disturbing and somehow it all works.

What I liked most about this novel is that it’s not any one thing. It’s not a mystery, or a romance or any of the genres that you typically think of when classifying a novel.

Have you read it? Have you read any books by Other Press before? I’ve read at least four and all of them surprised me in a good way.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

zäh wie strudelteig, man nähert sich den figuren immer wieder, damit sie weiter weg sind denn je. jede figur hat genau ein problem, das immer wieder beleuchtet wird, ohne dass man je so etwas wie nähe empfindet. der "fall" selber bleibt völlig uninteressant. mühsame lektüre, letztlich hohl.

A weirdly seductive but ultimately vague novel? I mean, what was it about finally? I understand lack of resolution, particularly in the relationships central to the story--the marriage, the parent/child relationships--but even days later I'm not sure what this novel was getting at by structuring itself around the murder and rape of a young woman. All the choices felt, for the most part, sound and there was always the engaging sense the unsaid was steadily building into something satisfyingly meaningful. But then the end was...well, it was the end of A Small Good Thing and it appeared out of nowhere.

That sense of the unsaid gaining significance finally feels like the novel just gestures somewhat glibly off the page for its significance? show more I found it very readable with its creeping import, its vague but ominous implications, but in the end is the dead girl just a shallow device to create conflict and intrigue? Kinda seems like it. So it's like a cheap thriller in that regard but instead of using The Dead Girl to fuel a plot of twists and turns, it uses The Dead Girl to look lightly at How Families Work.

Buuuuuut I feel like I'm missing something? It's a comment on how The Dead Girl is more a Thing That Happes to Us rather than a tradegy in its own right? I dunno. I'm trying....I guess the main lesson here is--don't just drop a dead girl in for mood. But also there is a lot of energy generated when the parts of novel don't fit neatly together but work cleanly as parts--different story lines are clear within themselves but don't connect clearly to the other story lines. There's a lot of momentum built waiting to see how things will connect. That problem--the problem of many endings--cannot be answered slightly or patly. show less

This story of family and relationships revolves around the disappearance of a family's nanny on the night of the matriarch's 75th birthday celebration. Told from several points of view, the novel moves back and forth in time in unpredictable ways, and therefore seems somewhat disjointed at times. The characters are complex, both sympathetic and flawed, which is the book's strength, along with the suspense of the murder mystery. Themes of secrets, grief, betrayal, and temptation continue from start to finish.

This novel is a story about a family at seaside summer home and the young woman Milla who comes to work as their nanny, but goes missing and is later found murdered. This is not a spoiler as Milla's remains are discovered in the first pages of the book, but the manner of Milla's demise is revealed over the extended flashback that makes up the bulk of the novel. The rest of the cast includes Siri, the A-type restaurateur who hires Milla; Siri's philandering husband Jon, a novelist struggling with writer's block; their non-conforming 12-year-old daughter Alma; and Jenny, Siri's 75-year-old mother who resents the massive birthday party that Siri forces upon her. There's a lot of tension in this novel as the characters navigate around one show more another, and while not a crime novel, the imminent crimes against Milla hang there over the whole story. show less