Hanna's Daughters

by Marianne Fredriksson

Saw it at the bookstore on campus. Couldn't tell if it was chick-lit (or women's lit, 'cause it's about older women) or a best-seller, but I went and ordered it from the library.

It was all right. Once you get into the sparse, Nordic way of talking (where elaborations are sparse, and life is hard, but no one complains) it's a really interesting book. More of a women's read though, as it spends a lot of time talking about troubles that it claims uniquely for women. And in the vein of "aren't women strong and put-upon" novels, it's good. It also had the message of that we never appreciate our mothers (and their strife) until we grow up and are mothers ourselves (or at least, these women didn't). I liked the book. I really liked the two oldest women in the generational saga, but by the end, I'd decided I'd liked the granddaughter as well. And, by coincidence, the IKEA here in Atlanta opened the same day that I finished this novel about Swedish women.

"For she knew good fortune was measured out and was costly if you were given too much. But then she straightened up, tossed back her head, and thought she'd already paid.
'Justice,' she said aloud. 'I wouldn't never have believed that God could be just.'"