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A Change of Time
A penetrating study of a woman who, in the wake of her domineering husband's death, must embrace her newfound freedom and redefine herself.
Set in rural Denmark in the early 20th century, A Change of Time tells the story of a schoolteacher whose husband, the town doctor, has passed away. Her subsequent diary entries form an intimate portrait of a woman rebuilding her identity, and a small rural town whose path to modernity echoes her own path to joyful independence.
Set in rural Denmark in the early 20th century, A Change of Time tells the story of a schoolteacher whose husband, the town doctor, has passed away. Her subsequent diary entries form an intimate portrait of a woman rebuilding her identity, and a small rural town whose path to modernity echoes her own path to joyful independence.
245 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
18 people are currently reading
1106 people want to read
About the author
Ida Jessen
87 books89 followersIda Jessen, Danish author. Born 1964 in Sønderjylland. She holds an M.A. in History of Literature and Communication from Århus University 1990. Ida Jessen made her literary debut in 1989 with the collection of short stories Under sten (Under Stones) and has since then written a number of novels and short stories for both children and adults. Since 1995 she has lived on Sealand. Jessen has translated a number of novels also for young adults from Norwegian and English to Danish, amongst others novels by Lars Saabye Christensen and Karin Fossum.
Ida Jessen has been awarded a long list of prizes and awards for her work: The Danish Art Foundation (several times), The Danish Arts Council (several times), Gyldendal’s Book Grant, The Egholt Prize, The Albert Dam Grant, The Holger Drachmann Grant, The Jytte Borberg Prize and BG Bank’s Literature Prize to name but a few.
In April 2009 Ida Jessen was awarded the prestigeous Søren Gyldendal-Prize. Since 1958, on Søren Gyldendal’s birthday the 12th of April, the Prize has been awarded an author with a strong and distinctive work of creation. In the justification is said: Through gentle descriptions of atmosphere and conflicts and with a firm grip on the Danish language Ida Jessen shows great insight in modern individuals. Along with the honour Ida Jessen receives 200.000 Dkr.
In January 2010 Ida Jessen was awarded The Golden Laurels 2009 for her latest novel, Børnene (the Children). This is the biggest and most significant prize awarded by the Danish booksellers which also has an important impact on the Danish market.
Ida Jessen was nominated for the Prize of the Nordic Council 2010 for Børnene.
Ida Jessen's novels have been sold to a long list of publishers world-wide.
Ida Jessen has been awarded a long list of prizes and awards for her work: The Danish Art Foundation (several times), The Danish Arts Council (several times), Gyldendal’s Book Grant, The Egholt Prize, The Albert Dam Grant, The Holger Drachmann Grant, The Jytte Borberg Prize and BG Bank’s Literature Prize to name but a few.
In April 2009 Ida Jessen was awarded the prestigeous Søren Gyldendal-Prize. Since 1958, on Søren Gyldendal’s birthday the 12th of April, the Prize has been awarded an author with a strong and distinctive work of creation. In the justification is said: Through gentle descriptions of atmosphere and conflicts and with a firm grip on the Danish language Ida Jessen shows great insight in modern individuals. Along with the honour Ida Jessen receives 200.000 Dkr.
In January 2010 Ida Jessen was awarded The Golden Laurels 2009 for her latest novel, Børnene (the Children). This is the biggest and most significant prize awarded by the Danish booksellers which also has an important impact on the Danish market.
Ida Jessen was nominated for the Prize of the Nordic Council 2010 for Børnene.
Ida Jessen's novels have been sold to a long list of publishers world-wide.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
November 5, 2022
I feel like a person standing in a landscape so empty and open that it matters not a bit in which direction I choose to go. There would be no difference: north, south, east or west, it would be the same wherever I went.
Thyregod, Denmark at the beginning of the 20th Century. Through diary entries, Ida Jessen conveys the life of a schoolteacher, Lilly Høy, starting with recounts of her visits to her husband Vigand Bagge who is in the hospital in another town, over her response to his death and her attempts to build herself a new life, find herself a new place and identity in the rural community she is living in and find attachment to her life again.
Slowly, as Lilly through subtle allusions, flashbacks, encounters and meaningful silences discloses her past, Lilly’s life turns out to have been far less conventional than one would have expected for a woman living at that time in such a remote rural place. Before she came to live in Thyregod where she met her husband, Lilly was a vivid and intelligent student, who moved to the rural village to put her ideals as a teacher into practise. Contemplating on the past and the present now she is alone, she reflects on her relationship with Vigand, her spouse for 22 years, who was a district physician ‘for fourteen impoverished and far-flung parishes’ – a stern, taciturn, stoic man, thirty years her elder and emotionally aloof – painting a portrait of their marriage in which tiny anecdotes and moments illustrate their inability to connect, revealing Lilly’s struggle with finding a way to live together with her husband, from her angling for a tender word or a caress to her walking on eggshells not to speak a word that would lead to more marital scorn.
Can one ask a person to show that they love you? Reason, that most faithful onlooker to the tribulations of others, says no.
But what says unreason?
There is the mourning for the person her husband was, but also the grieving for the lost life, the grieving for the lost self, a confrontation with the sacrifices made, the self-repression. The voice and thoughts of the one she has lived together with for such a long time continue to resonate in her own thoughts and acts, tending to censure and curb her, showing the slowness and necessity of the process of dislodging. Her grief is in several respects equivocal, mirroring the nature of the marriage (who told me it is worse to be lonely with two than alone?).
In my darkest moments I understand only too well what misfortune can leave a person in such a place. Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it.
The portrait of Lilly and her current life and past which drop by drop forms in the mind of the reader is finely constructed, the silences, understatement and twofold interruptions in the stream of the diary are eloquent as well as potent.
Reading Jessen’s articulate and luminous sentences drew me into the wintry silence of Lilly’s evenings, sitting alone at home, evoking the inwardness of the story magnificently. I smiled at the thought of myself as a woman reading about another woman alone in a silent house at night who also reads in silence, under a lamp – like looking at a painting depicting a person looking at a painting on which someone is looking at a painting.
No love is ever without grief.
Apart from the masterly evocation of the restrained emotions and inner experiences of growth and regained freedom of a woman who gets widowed, the novel through the description of everyday life and Lilly Høy’s personal history throws a light on the geography and history of the rural, poor area and life in a small village community in Denmark early 20th century (the diary spans the period 1904-1932) and the social changes taking place during that time (as aptly illustrated by Laura’s review), developments in which both spouses will play their part. And so the title of the novel ‘A change of time’ (literally from the Danish ‘A new time’) has a dual significance: both for Lilly Høy and for the village community dawns a new life, characterised by change and modernity.
Beautifully slow-paced, poetic and atmospheric, as an intimate meditation on how life goes on after the death of a spouse, A change of time reminded me of Often I Am Happy by Ida Jessen’s compatriot Jens Christian Grøndahl. As much as I loved Grøndahl’s novel, Ida Jessen’s novel touched me even more profoundly by its quiet finesse, elegant prose and subtle depiction of its social context and while reading, I marked numerous sentences that struck me for their insightfulness, honesty and truth. Though quite different, both novels hold a gratifying and heartening ending: Grøndahl’s empowering, Jessen’s of an embracing warmth and tenderness that made me vicariously glow in the dark.
A warmth unfolded and spread – I know now that it was tenderness.
My heart runs ahead of me. And I run after my heart. I cannot be without it.
While typing this review , I discovered that Ida Jessen wrote a pendant to Lilly’s story, this time seen from the perspective of her husband, Vigand (Doktor Bagges anagrammer). I like that premise of creating a diptych embodying an in-depth exploration of his personality by offering him the chance to tell his side of the story and I would love to read that book too if it happens to get translated in English or Dutch. My honest thanks to Net Galley, Edelweiss, Archipelago and Ida Jessen for the review copy of this novel – this excursion to Danish contemporary literature turned out a truly rewarding one.
(Paintings, as the one on the cover of the novel, by Vilhelm Hammershøi)
Thyregod, Denmark at the beginning of the 20th Century. Through diary entries, Ida Jessen conveys the life of a schoolteacher, Lilly Høy, starting with recounts of her visits to her husband Vigand Bagge who is in the hospital in another town, over her response to his death and her attempts to build herself a new life, find herself a new place and identity in the rural community she is living in and find attachment to her life again.
Slowly, as Lilly through subtle allusions, flashbacks, encounters and meaningful silences discloses her past, Lilly’s life turns out to have been far less conventional than one would have expected for a woman living at that time in such a remote rural place. Before she came to live in Thyregod where she met her husband, Lilly was a vivid and intelligent student, who moved to the rural village to put her ideals as a teacher into practise. Contemplating on the past and the present now she is alone, she reflects on her relationship with Vigand, her spouse for 22 years, who was a district physician ‘for fourteen impoverished and far-flung parishes’ – a stern, taciturn, stoic man, thirty years her elder and emotionally aloof – painting a portrait of their marriage in which tiny anecdotes and moments illustrate their inability to connect, revealing Lilly’s struggle with finding a way to live together with her husband, from her angling for a tender word or a caress to her walking on eggshells not to speak a word that would lead to more marital scorn.
Can one ask a person to show that they love you? Reason, that most faithful onlooker to the tribulations of others, says no.
But what says unreason?
There is the mourning for the person her husband was, but also the grieving for the lost life, the grieving for the lost self, a confrontation with the sacrifices made, the self-repression. The voice and thoughts of the one she has lived together with for such a long time continue to resonate in her own thoughts and acts, tending to censure and curb her, showing the slowness and necessity of the process of dislodging. Her grief is in several respects equivocal, mirroring the nature of the marriage (who told me it is worse to be lonely with two than alone?).
In my darkest moments I understand only too well what misfortune can leave a person in such a place. Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it.
The portrait of Lilly and her current life and past which drop by drop forms in the mind of the reader is finely constructed, the silences, understatement and twofold interruptions in the stream of the diary are eloquent as well as potent.
Reading Jessen’s articulate and luminous sentences drew me into the wintry silence of Lilly’s evenings, sitting alone at home, evoking the inwardness of the story magnificently. I smiled at the thought of myself as a woman reading about another woman alone in a silent house at night who also reads in silence, under a lamp – like looking at a painting depicting a person looking at a painting on which someone is looking at a painting.
No love is ever without grief.
Apart from the masterly evocation of the restrained emotions and inner experiences of growth and regained freedom of a woman who gets widowed, the novel through the description of everyday life and Lilly Høy’s personal history throws a light on the geography and history of the rural, poor area and life in a small village community in Denmark early 20th century (the diary spans the period 1904-1932) and the social changes taking place during that time (as aptly illustrated by Laura’s review), developments in which both spouses will play their part. And so the title of the novel ‘A change of time’ (literally from the Danish ‘A new time’) has a dual significance: both for Lilly Høy and for the village community dawns a new life, characterised by change and modernity.
Beautifully slow-paced, poetic and atmospheric, as an intimate meditation on how life goes on after the death of a spouse, A change of time reminded me of Often I Am Happy by Ida Jessen’s compatriot Jens Christian Grøndahl. As much as I loved Grøndahl’s novel, Ida Jessen’s novel touched me even more profoundly by its quiet finesse, elegant prose and subtle depiction of its social context and while reading, I marked numerous sentences that struck me for their insightfulness, honesty and truth. Though quite different, both novels hold a gratifying and heartening ending: Grøndahl’s empowering, Jessen’s of an embracing warmth and tenderness that made me vicariously glow in the dark.
A warmth unfolded and spread – I know now that it was tenderness.
My heart runs ahead of me. And I run after my heart. I cannot be without it.
While typing this review , I discovered that Ida Jessen wrote a pendant to Lilly’s story, this time seen from the perspective of her husband, Vigand (Doktor Bagges anagrammer). I like that premise of creating a diptych embodying an in-depth exploration of his personality by offering him the chance to tell his side of the story and I would love to read that book too if it happens to get translated in English or Dutch. My honest thanks to Net Galley, Edelweiss, Archipelago and Ida Jessen for the review copy of this novel – this excursion to Danish contemporary literature turned out a truly rewarding one.
(Paintings, as the one on the cover of the novel, by Vilhelm Hammershøi)
January 20, 2022
A novel set in rural Denmark in the early 20th century, written mainly in diary form, charting the emotional recovery of a woman following widowhood and, prior to that, 22 years of mostly unhappy marriage to a controlling and emotionally distant husband, who was the town doctor and who was two decades older than her. I read the book in English translation.
Before I move to the main theme, I should highlight that the geographic setting is important in this book. The author has set the story in her own real-life hometown of Thyregod in Jutland, although she makes it clear in a note that this is a work of fiction. The main character, Lilly Høy (who for most of the book is referred to as “Fru Bagge”, after her husband) travels to Thyregod from the island of Fyn to become a schoolteacher. The book suggests that Thyregod is one of the poorest areas of the country. The landscape is barren heathland, and the locals use peat for their fires.
“From the age of ten, the boys could drive a pair of horses in front of a harrow, and when they were thirteen they could steer a plough and swing a flail and do all the work of a labourer. And before that they water and move the cattle. They removed the rocks from the fields. They cut peat in the springtime. The girls looked after children and hens and did housework. They took up potatoes in the autumn and planted them in springtime with an apron full of dung tied about their waists so they could place a dollop on top of each potato.”
It would seem that, in the Danish language original, some of the spoken dialogue is in a rural dialect. I always feel that dialect poses a difficult problem for a translator, and in this case it’s rendered into what looks like a North of England vernacular. I don’t know if it works that well, but I appreciate the problem is basically insoluble. Taken as a whole, the translation seemed excellent. I thought the quality of writing was very high.
Lilly’s husband is not a deliberately cruel man, but he regards himself as intellectually superior to everyone else in the community, and generally treats his wife like a child. I wasn’t entirely clear why they married, but I took it from the text that in the time and place of this novel marriage was “socially enforced” and that, as an educated teacher, the doctor was considered an appropriate match. I might have misunderstood that.
This is one of those novels where things are introduced, but where their significance only becomes apparent later in the text. That makes it easy to miss explanations, and I think I may have missed at least one. Personally I would recommend that when you finish the book, you go back and read the first two diary entries.
This was an unusual choice for me but I was really impressed with it.
Before I move to the main theme, I should highlight that the geographic setting is important in this book. The author has set the story in her own real-life hometown of Thyregod in Jutland, although she makes it clear in a note that this is a work of fiction. The main character, Lilly Høy (who for most of the book is referred to as “Fru Bagge”, after her husband) travels to Thyregod from the island of Fyn to become a schoolteacher. The book suggests that Thyregod is one of the poorest areas of the country. The landscape is barren heathland, and the locals use peat for their fires.
“From the age of ten, the boys could drive a pair of horses in front of a harrow, and when they were thirteen they could steer a plough and swing a flail and do all the work of a labourer. And before that they water and move the cattle. They removed the rocks from the fields. They cut peat in the springtime. The girls looked after children and hens and did housework. They took up potatoes in the autumn and planted them in springtime with an apron full of dung tied about their waists so they could place a dollop on top of each potato.”
It would seem that, in the Danish language original, some of the spoken dialogue is in a rural dialect. I always feel that dialect poses a difficult problem for a translator, and in this case it’s rendered into what looks like a North of England vernacular. I don’t know if it works that well, but I appreciate the problem is basically insoluble. Taken as a whole, the translation seemed excellent. I thought the quality of writing was very high.
Lilly’s husband is not a deliberately cruel man, but he regards himself as intellectually superior to everyone else in the community, and generally treats his wife like a child. I wasn’t entirely clear why they married, but I took it from the text that in the time and place of this novel marriage was “socially enforced” and that, as an educated teacher, the doctor was considered an appropriate match. I might have misunderstood that.
This is one of those novels where things are introduced, but where their significance only becomes apparent later in the text. That makes it easy to miss explanations, and I think I may have missed at least one. Personally I would recommend that when you finish the book, you go back and read the first two diary entries.
This was an unusual choice for me but I was really impressed with it.
September 22, 2024
This is a little gem that, apparently, is not widely read yet. Danish author Ida Jessen (°1964) has only written a limited oeuvre, but judging by this book, she is certainly worth keeping an eye on. In itself, this are no more than diary entries by Fru Bagge, Mrs Bagge, maiden name Lilly, from approximately 1927 to 1934. The start seems dramatic: her husband Vigand, a widely respected doctor, dies and Lilly – who had devoted her entire life to him – does not seem to know what to do. But from the very beginning it is clear that there was quite a distance between the two and that Vigand in particular was a cold, distant man, almost gruesomely so. The diary entries are a mixture of flashbacks to their special marriage (she was 20 years younger than him), sometimes bitter musings about what she really wanted in life and did not get, and considerations on building a new life as a widow. In other words: this is highly introspective. Lilly is a very observant, thoughtful woman who accepts her fate, but ultimately – after deep thought – retains enough strength to get back on her feet. Just look at this truly fabulous quote, which should be close to many of us: “Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it.” Indirectly, this book gives us an idea of the sober life in the Danish countryside at the beginning of the 20th century (including the introduction of elements of modernity). But it is mainly the struggle of women with social conventions, their attempts to give their lives fulfillment, that are central. Jessen writes soberly and minimalistic, perhaps deliberately so, because that modesty makes this book extra powerful. Only the sudden twist in the final chapter, a kind of deus ex machina, disappointed me slightly. But this book and this writer are definitely a discovery.
June 13, 2020
5 stars. Two GR friends who I admire greatly gave this book 5 stars — I believe that was the impetus for me to hunt this book down. I was not disappointed. It is a little book 5 inches by 6 inches, with French covers, 236 pages. It was originally published in Danish in 2015 (En ny tid) and published/translated in English in 2019.
It is written in the form of a diary. I thought that was interesting. The first two entries were brief:
• January 3, 1904, I am on my way now. Everything is packed. I haven’t even the time to write this. I shall continue later.
• May 19, 1905 Yesterday I received a visit —
And then the next entry is 1927, 22 years later. I should say that those first two entries will be meaningful as one proceeds through the rest of the novel. The diary writer, whose first name might have only been mentioned once in the novel (and that was near the end), is 50 years old and a former schoolteacher in the small rural town of Thyregod, Denmark — and her husband, Dr. Bagge, is dying. As he is dying the reader gets the sense that something is off between wife and husband. He eventually dies and we learn of their relationship from the rest of the diary entries. We also learn of some other members of the small town on the heath. It’s a hardscrabble life.
Maybe 1/3 of the entries are reminisces feelings/things/events about what happened in the 22 years prior to her husband’s death and 2/3 of the entries are feelings/things/events from after his death. She is sometimes lonely. At other times she is slowly turning her life from a widow to a person who has her own identity.
The book does not have a plot per se, and so I am reluctant to divulge things about it (i.e., giving away too much). It transplanted me to a different country to a different time. It is a quiet book…nothing to get the heart racing. The prose is sparse and elegant. It was all of the above that captivated me and why I gave this slim work 5 stars.
Apparently other people thought highly of this work: Ida Jessen won 2016 Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s Best Novel Award and the Danish Writers Association’s Blixen Award for Best Fiction of the Year.
As an exemplar of the prose:
“…For long periods of time I am able to remind myself to contain the bitterness of my private life so as to not lose my dignity or narrow my horizons. I know people who can only talk about what has gone wrong and who complain about the offenses caused by others to such an extent that one wishes it were possible to cover one’s ears and run away as one sits there nodding and smiling and trying to lead the conversation in some other direction, and to at least interest them in a piece of cake. But in my darkest moments I understand only too well the kind of misfortune that can leave a person in such a place. Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it.”
Note: Ida Jessen also translates English work into Danish —She has translated works of Elizabeth Strout, Alice Munro, and Marilynne Robinson. This book was translated into English by Martin Aitken.
Reviews:
From a blogsite, a very good review, it captured what I felt: https://theidlewoman.net/2018/12/01/a...
Very interesting interview with Ida Jessen in which I learnt there is a follow-up to this novel (!), already published in 2016 in Denmark, about Dr. Bagge (The Anagrams of Doctor Bagge): https://medium.com/@DenmarkinNY/the-d...
https://www.bookforum.com/fiction/a-r...
It is written in the form of a diary. I thought that was interesting. The first two entries were brief:
• January 3, 1904, I am on my way now. Everything is packed. I haven’t even the time to write this. I shall continue later.
• May 19, 1905 Yesterday I received a visit —
And then the next entry is 1927, 22 years later. I should say that those first two entries will be meaningful as one proceeds through the rest of the novel. The diary writer, whose first name might have only been mentioned once in the novel (and that was near the end), is 50 years old and a former schoolteacher in the small rural town of Thyregod, Denmark — and her husband, Dr. Bagge, is dying. As he is dying the reader gets the sense that something is off between wife and husband. He eventually dies and we learn of their relationship from the rest of the diary entries. We also learn of some other members of the small town on the heath. It’s a hardscrabble life.
Maybe 1/3 of the entries are reminisces feelings/things/events about what happened in the 22 years prior to her husband’s death and 2/3 of the entries are feelings/things/events from after his death. She is sometimes lonely. At other times she is slowly turning her life from a widow to a person who has her own identity.
The book does not have a plot per se, and so I am reluctant to divulge things about it (i.e., giving away too much). It transplanted me to a different country to a different time. It is a quiet book…nothing to get the heart racing. The prose is sparse and elegant. It was all of the above that captivated me and why I gave this slim work 5 stars.
Apparently other people thought highly of this work: Ida Jessen won 2016 Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s Best Novel Award and the Danish Writers Association’s Blixen Award for Best Fiction of the Year.
As an exemplar of the prose:
“…For long periods of time I am able to remind myself to contain the bitterness of my private life so as to not lose my dignity or narrow my horizons. I know people who can only talk about what has gone wrong and who complain about the offenses caused by others to such an extent that one wishes it were possible to cover one’s ears and run away as one sits there nodding and smiling and trying to lead the conversation in some other direction, and to at least interest them in a piece of cake. But in my darkest moments I understand only too well the kind of misfortune that can leave a person in such a place. Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it.”
Note: Ida Jessen also translates English work into Danish —She has translated works of Elizabeth Strout, Alice Munro, and Marilynne Robinson. This book was translated into English by Martin Aitken.
Reviews:
From a blogsite, a very good review, it captured what I felt: https://theidlewoman.net/2018/12/01/a...
Very interesting interview with Ida Jessen in which I learnt there is a follow-up to this novel (!), already published in 2016 in Denmark, about Dr. Bagge (The Anagrams of Doctor Bagge): https://medium.com/@DenmarkinNY/the-d...
https://www.bookforum.com/fiction/a-r...
January 2, 2019
I found this book odd in some ways and quietly refreshing in others. The story follows the entries in Lilly Høy's diary covering a period of her life from January 3 1904 to November 1 1932. Although this in itself causes the first of the oddities - she only keeps this diary for just over a year when she first moves to Thyregod as a new teacher in the folk school. Many years later, in fact 22 years later as her husband is in hospital dying, she finds the diary and starts to keep new entries which end some 5 years later with the close of the book - in 1932
Part of the difficulty with this author is that there are no explanations - as a reader you have to do a bit of juggling and work things out for yourself, and this also applies to her plot, such as it is. For example we're introduced to Peter Carlson, but it's only later he reappears as an emotionally significant other to Lilly or as Fru Bagge, which is how she refers to herself.
The book opens with our narrator's husband Vigand Bagge, the parish doctor, dying in the hospital in Give, which is a town, some distance from their home in the village of Thyregod. And this is the other slight difficulty I encountered. I had to keep looking up all these Danish names and places on Google Maps. It wasn't a big deal, but they are all real places, and as I know practically nothing about Denmark apart from the usual - its capital is Copenhagen, there is a statue of the Little Mermaid in the harbour in remembrance of Hans Christiaan Anderson etc. - and so this turned into a real geography lesson for me.
I checked out Ryslinge, which is on the island of Fyn, in the sheltered east of the country - this is where Lilly grows up and then she goes to the teacher training college in Strib - also on Fyn. On a day trip to see her old "college" friends, she crosses to the island from the ferry at Fredericia. Books are ordered from Vejle, the main city in the area. When she first arrives in the hinterland, the train only goes as far as Give, and then she travels for another two hours in Peter's "cart" to Thyregod.
The geography and history of Denmark, however, is part of this book. One of Ms Jessen's interests is an investigation into the changes occurring in this tiny real-life village of Thyregod and the surrounding area. Our narrator, Fru Bagge documents her own observations of the changes in this village over her life span and in deed as the village school teacher, she is instrumental in a number of its developments - the parents's evening for example is to provide the adults with a forum, and place for lectures, and later, she takes on the role of librarian and brings to life the town's Book Collection.
Peder Møllergaard, the town's self-declared leader and organiser speaks to Lilly, after her husband's death.
"For we are indeed happy that you chose to stay, Fru Bagge."
I have no idea what would make him say such a thing.
He told me the parish book collection, housed at the Young Men's and Women's Christian Association, is at present without supervision, and asked if the position would interest me.
"I don't think there's much of a salary," he said, with his back half turned."
I made no comment.
"It would please me," he said, "if you would take it on."
It is in this simple conversation that we understand Lilly is being given a life-line, and at the same time being asked to shoulder her civic duty, even if it is only in a very small way, and yet this is how the town grows and develops and improves - through the hands and goodwill of its inhabitants. I liked the lack of explanation here and the overall use of understatement.
Our author's interests, include local history and land development; which is important as the town and its hinterland is regarded as possibly the poorest area of the whole country. Fru Bagge recounts "that as late as 1870, as much as 90% of the district was heathland", which means it was very poor for agriculture and without other resources. And our narrator gives us detailed and often beautiful descriptions of the weather, the land, the use of peat to keep the cold at bay, how people managed, the children's responses to their first school ever in such a small village in this backwater of the country.
I think quite a few readers will balk at this packing in of a lot of local lore and history, not expecting the plot to be diversified in this way, but it makes sense - lives are always intermingled with a community and how that community develops affects directly the personal development of each individual and this is essential to what this very personal tale boils down to.
Also there is some difficulty in following the narrative; our narrator flicks forwards and back a lot with her memories both personal and wider, and it's not always immediately apparent that there are links and connections between one path and the other. For instance Fru Bagge is given a short "story" written by one of her husband's patients who was treated for tuberculosis. The village pastor gives it to her as a sort of compensation for her husband's refusal to have any kind of funeral, but as it turns out the story documents the relationship between Peter Carlson, and his wife Henriette, - the Peter of whom Lilly had formed a brief, but intense relation. When Lilly reads the story, its effects are not immediately apparent and they are certainly not revealed to us the reader, but later we understand it is connected to her decision not to pursue her long lost interest in Peter Carlson. Peter who has in fact re-initiated the relationship after the death of Lilly's husband. Meanwhile, we are informed somewhere in the middle of these bits of memory, that Peter's wife succumbed to the Spanish influenza of 1918. It's just a brief line and told with more relevance to the effect it has on Carl and his sisters, who are Peter's children.
So the book does not present a particularly easy read - as it does not flow and follow neatly. It is not the case that the reader has nothing to do but turn the pages etc. No: I flipped back and forwards multiple times in my Kindle, trying to pin down various bits of information.
And the ending - well I could hardly believe the ending first time round, I had to go back and re-read all the little snippets of information about Peter and then this other man - all over again, but the feelings strike true, and ultimately the book seems to have done a sound job of representing the messiness of life.
I read someone's review recently who said - you have to get to the end of your life before you can make sense of it, and so novelists start at the end, with all their plans laid out neat and straight - not so with this novelist and for this I particularly like her.
Some of the shifts are quite jarring - so be warned. I don't want to gloss over some of my personal irritations. I want my reviews to be as honest as possible.
On the other hand, however, I would like to include this gorgeous description of Lilly's hens that she kept at Rose Cottage, just to demonstrate how wonderful Ida Jessen's writing can be:
April 19 1929
I find much pleasure in the hens. When I have been down to open the hatch in the mornings, they dash to the fence and watch me wistfully as I go back to the house. After lunch I let them out of the run, and shortly afterwards they are clucking and scraping all over the garden, except the kitchen garden, which Carl has fenced off. Most have particular friends whose company they prefer. One encounters them unexpectedly in some snug little hiding place or enjoying a dust-bath down by the pond. They love the spring and sunshine. They tidy their feathers as if they were shaking sand from a towel, settle themselves more comfortably and cluck softly to each other. ... In the summer, when the french doors were left open, they would often venture into the dining room to see me. They were the politest of visitors, calling out to ask if they were welcome, and whenever I appeared too abruptly from another room they would scatter and fall over themselves in a rush to be gone.
I think a lot of readers will complain about the abrupt ending, but I think it complies with the diary format. She kept the diary through the painful lonely years after her husband's death and then when she meets an old friend at the age of 50 and falls in love once more, she no longer needs the diary and so it breaks off, quite suddenly - but true to life.
Ms Jessen is certainly pushing against the parameters of what a novel is, and this experimentation will unsettle quite a few readers. On the whole, however, I think this is good. This is what Virginia Woolf did, she didn't bother with Her Following, or her sales and income etc. Ms Jessen like Ms Woolf wants to see what can be done with this tried and tested format - let's push it somewhere new. And I say - Good for her.
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC.
Part of the difficulty with this author is that there are no explanations - as a reader you have to do a bit of juggling and work things out for yourself, and this also applies to her plot, such as it is. For example we're introduced to Peter Carlson, but it's only later he reappears as an emotionally significant other to Lilly or as Fru Bagge, which is how she refers to herself.
The book opens with our narrator's husband Vigand Bagge, the parish doctor, dying in the hospital in Give, which is a town, some distance from their home in the village of Thyregod. And this is the other slight difficulty I encountered. I had to keep looking up all these Danish names and places on Google Maps. It wasn't a big deal, but they are all real places, and as I know practically nothing about Denmark apart from the usual - its capital is Copenhagen, there is a statue of the Little Mermaid in the harbour in remembrance of Hans Christiaan Anderson etc. - and so this turned into a real geography lesson for me.
I checked out Ryslinge, which is on the island of Fyn, in the sheltered east of the country - this is where Lilly grows up and then she goes to the teacher training college in Strib - also on Fyn. On a day trip to see her old "college" friends, she crosses to the island from the ferry at Fredericia. Books are ordered from Vejle, the main city in the area. When she first arrives in the hinterland, the train only goes as far as Give, and then she travels for another two hours in Peter's "cart" to Thyregod.
The geography and history of Denmark, however, is part of this book. One of Ms Jessen's interests is an investigation into the changes occurring in this tiny real-life village of Thyregod and the surrounding area. Our narrator, Fru Bagge documents her own observations of the changes in this village over her life span and in deed as the village school teacher, she is instrumental in a number of its developments - the parents's evening for example is to provide the adults with a forum, and place for lectures, and later, she takes on the role of librarian and brings to life the town's Book Collection.
Peder Møllergaard, the town's self-declared leader and organiser speaks to Lilly, after her husband's death.
"For we are indeed happy that you chose to stay, Fru Bagge."
I have no idea what would make him say such a thing.
He told me the parish book collection, housed at the Young Men's and Women's Christian Association, is at present without supervision, and asked if the position would interest me.
"I don't think there's much of a salary," he said, with his back half turned."
I made no comment.
"It would please me," he said, "if you would take it on."
It is in this simple conversation that we understand Lilly is being given a life-line, and at the same time being asked to shoulder her civic duty, even if it is only in a very small way, and yet this is how the town grows and develops and improves - through the hands and goodwill of its inhabitants. I liked the lack of explanation here and the overall use of understatement.
Our author's interests, include local history and land development; which is important as the town and its hinterland is regarded as possibly the poorest area of the whole country. Fru Bagge recounts "that as late as 1870, as much as 90% of the district was heathland", which means it was very poor for agriculture and without other resources. And our narrator gives us detailed and often beautiful descriptions of the weather, the land, the use of peat to keep the cold at bay, how people managed, the children's responses to their first school ever in such a small village in this backwater of the country.
I think quite a few readers will balk at this packing in of a lot of local lore and history, not expecting the plot to be diversified in this way, but it makes sense - lives are always intermingled with a community and how that community develops affects directly the personal development of each individual and this is essential to what this very personal tale boils down to.
Also there is some difficulty in following the narrative; our narrator flicks forwards and back a lot with her memories both personal and wider, and it's not always immediately apparent that there are links and connections between one path and the other. For instance Fru Bagge is given a short "story" written by one of her husband's patients who was treated for tuberculosis. The village pastor gives it to her as a sort of compensation for her husband's refusal to have any kind of funeral, but as it turns out the story documents the relationship between Peter Carlson, and his wife Henriette, - the Peter of whom Lilly had formed a brief, but intense relation. When Lilly reads the story, its effects are not immediately apparent and they are certainly not revealed to us the reader, but later we understand it is connected to her decision not to pursue her long lost interest in Peter Carlson. Peter who has in fact re-initiated the relationship after the death of Lilly's husband. Meanwhile, we are informed somewhere in the middle of these bits of memory, that Peter's wife succumbed to the Spanish influenza of 1918. It's just a brief line and told with more relevance to the effect it has on Carl and his sisters, who are Peter's children.
So the book does not present a particularly easy read - as it does not flow and follow neatly. It is not the case that the reader has nothing to do but turn the pages etc. No: I flipped back and forwards multiple times in my Kindle, trying to pin down various bits of information.
And the ending - well I could hardly believe the ending first time round, I had to go back and re-read all the little snippets of information about Peter and then this other man - all over again, but the feelings strike true, and ultimately the book seems to have done a sound job of representing the messiness of life.
I read someone's review recently who said - you have to get to the end of your life before you can make sense of it, and so novelists start at the end, with all their plans laid out neat and straight - not so with this novelist and for this I particularly like her.
Some of the shifts are quite jarring - so be warned. I don't want to gloss over some of my personal irritations. I want my reviews to be as honest as possible.
On the other hand, however, I would like to include this gorgeous description of Lilly's hens that she kept at Rose Cottage, just to demonstrate how wonderful Ida Jessen's writing can be:
April 19 1929
I find much pleasure in the hens. When I have been down to open the hatch in the mornings, they dash to the fence and watch me wistfully as I go back to the house. After lunch I let them out of the run, and shortly afterwards they are clucking and scraping all over the garden, except the kitchen garden, which Carl has fenced off. Most have particular friends whose company they prefer. One encounters them unexpectedly in some snug little hiding place or enjoying a dust-bath down by the pond. They love the spring and sunshine. They tidy their feathers as if they were shaking sand from a towel, settle themselves more comfortably and cluck softly to each other. ... In the summer, when the french doors were left open, they would often venture into the dining room to see me. They were the politest of visitors, calling out to ask if they were welcome, and whenever I appeared too abruptly from another room they would scatter and fall over themselves in a rush to be gone.
I think a lot of readers will complain about the abrupt ending, but I think it complies with the diary format. She kept the diary through the painful lonely years after her husband's death and then when she meets an old friend at the age of 50 and falls in love once more, she no longer needs the diary and so it breaks off, quite suddenly - but true to life.
Ms Jessen is certainly pushing against the parameters of what a novel is, and this experimentation will unsettle quite a few readers. On the whole, however, I think this is good. This is what Virginia Woolf did, she didn't bother with Her Following, or her sales and income etc. Ms Jessen like Ms Woolf wants to see what can be done with this tried and tested format - let's push it somewhere new. And I say - Good for her.
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC.
January 16, 2019
Award-winning Danish author Ida Jessen tells the story of a teacher who, after losing her husband, has to make a new life for herself - what makes this novella so compelling is the voice of the widow as the unreliable narrator who slowly reveals the true nature of her marriage, and the possible contrasts between her and the reader's assessment of her husband's behavior. On top of that, Jessen paints a vivid picture of rural Denmark in the early 20th century and the dynamics in the town which are often equally a form of control and support.
The widow tells her story through diary entries, often depicting nature and encounters with townfolk, but more and more also flashbacks into her past as she strives to find closure. The book does require a patient reader who is willing to settle into the contemplative mood of the text, but once you really dive into it, the current will take you along and pick up speed.
A beautiful book.
The widow tells her story through diary entries, often depicting nature and encounters with townfolk, but more and more also flashbacks into her past as she strives to find closure. The book does require a patient reader who is willing to settle into the contemplative mood of the text, but once you really dive into it, the current will take you along and pick up speed.
A beautiful book.
February 11, 2022
Ida Jessen has created a story of spiritual and emotional transformation by imagining a diary of a woman in early twentieth century rural Denmark. The diary offers brief thoughts and segments of her life and ultimately molds disparate thoughts and facts into a coherent whole. Our glimpse into this life begins cryptically with the first set of entries.
“ Diary of L Hoy Schoolteacher. “ These are the words that greet us as we open the book.The first entry is dated January 3, 1904 and tells us: “ I am on my way now. Everything is packed.I haven’t even time to write this. I shall continue later.”
Later comes over sixteen months onward . Dated May 19, 1905, the diary notes: “ Yesterday I received a visit…” After this entry there is a void until October 8, 1927. With this entry, the quiet saga of L Hoy, Schoolteacher begins to unfold.
When we reacquaint with Lilly Hoy in 1927 she is now Fru Bagge.She is visiting her husband in the hospital during the final stages of his life. His illness and death trigger memories for Lilly and begin a process in which she reconstructs and recalibrates the twenty two years that were a void in her diary. Slowly a picture of Lilly’s life begins to form through these entries. She was married for twenty two years to Vigand, a district physician for fourteen parishes surrounding Thyregod, their rural hometown. Several decades older than Lilly, Dr Bagge was an emotionally distant man whose demeanor was stern and at times supercilious. We learn that Lilly was a vibrant and idealistic young woman when she came to this rural outpost. As the diary unfolds, we witness the cycles of silence and distance that occur in the marriage as Lilly acclimates to her new town and circumstances.
The diary extends through 1932 and also portrays Lilly’s reckoning with widowhood, isolation and the slow reemergence of the intrepid and lively spirit that brought her to this town. At one point Lily recalls her arrival as a young teacher and notes…” Thinking back, I almost feel envious of that young school mistress. In fact, there is no almost about it.” This thought is a catalyst that spurs Lilly to reconstruct her life.
This narrative of Lilly’s life arc is not as linear as I have laid out.Internal musings about one’s life are rarely sequential .Inner thoughts often have abrupt time shifts. Lilly’s diary is an interior landscape of her mind that is a jigsaw puzzle spilling out on her pages. Thoughts and emotions are casually mentioned and then reassembled at a later chronological point. Consequently, the reader is constantly recalibrating information in an attempt to know the inner essence of this fascinating woman. Her emotional life is strongly rooted in the time and physical environment in which she exists. As we traverse her interior journey, we also gain a sense of the social and physical development of the town.
Lilly lived during a period of radical world change. As the novel unfolds over the years, her voice grows stronger. She observes that during the course of her marriage, a world war occurred , cars became more prevalent, electricity was installed and suffrage was achieved. Yet Lilly realizes that despite these changes her twenty two year marriage seemed like one unbroken day.
This superb novel slowly draws the reader into Lilly’s awakening from her emotional slumber. Those who engage with Lilly’s transformation will feel privileged to have witnessed her journey.
“ Diary of L Hoy Schoolteacher. “ These are the words that greet us as we open the book.The first entry is dated January 3, 1904 and tells us: “ I am on my way now. Everything is packed.I haven’t even time to write this. I shall continue later.”
Later comes over sixteen months onward . Dated May 19, 1905, the diary notes: “ Yesterday I received a visit…” After this entry there is a void until October 8, 1927. With this entry, the quiet saga of L Hoy, Schoolteacher begins to unfold.
When we reacquaint with Lilly Hoy in 1927 she is now Fru Bagge.She is visiting her husband in the hospital during the final stages of his life. His illness and death trigger memories for Lilly and begin a process in which she reconstructs and recalibrates the twenty two years that were a void in her diary. Slowly a picture of Lilly’s life begins to form through these entries. She was married for twenty two years to Vigand, a district physician for fourteen parishes surrounding Thyregod, their rural hometown. Several decades older than Lilly, Dr Bagge was an emotionally distant man whose demeanor was stern and at times supercilious. We learn that Lilly was a vibrant and idealistic young woman when she came to this rural outpost. As the diary unfolds, we witness the cycles of silence and distance that occur in the marriage as Lilly acclimates to her new town and circumstances.
The diary extends through 1932 and also portrays Lilly’s reckoning with widowhood, isolation and the slow reemergence of the intrepid and lively spirit that brought her to this town. At one point Lily recalls her arrival as a young teacher and notes…” Thinking back, I almost feel envious of that young school mistress. In fact, there is no almost about it.” This thought is a catalyst that spurs Lilly to reconstruct her life.
This narrative of Lilly’s life arc is not as linear as I have laid out.Internal musings about one’s life are rarely sequential .Inner thoughts often have abrupt time shifts. Lilly’s diary is an interior landscape of her mind that is a jigsaw puzzle spilling out on her pages. Thoughts and emotions are casually mentioned and then reassembled at a later chronological point. Consequently, the reader is constantly recalibrating information in an attempt to know the inner essence of this fascinating woman. Her emotional life is strongly rooted in the time and physical environment in which she exists. As we traverse her interior journey, we also gain a sense of the social and physical development of the town.
Lilly lived during a period of radical world change. As the novel unfolds over the years, her voice grows stronger. She observes that during the course of her marriage, a world war occurred , cars became more prevalent, electricity was installed and suffrage was achieved. Yet Lilly realizes that despite these changes her twenty two year marriage seemed like one unbroken day.
This superb novel slowly draws the reader into Lilly’s awakening from her emotional slumber. Those who engage with Lilly’s transformation will feel privileged to have witnessed her journey.
February 7, 2019
An intensely quiet, private novel told in diary entries as a schoolteacher in Denmark in the 20th-century deals with her husband's passing and sifts through her memories. The language is luminous and precise, rendered in a beautiful translation by Martin Aitken. The narrator herself is prickly, odd, thoughtful, and unique, and her relationship with her husband reveals itself slowly. Rural Danish society is slowly brought to life. A small gem.
April 7, 2020
A layered unfolding of a woman's life, subtle and exquisite. Its quietness hides human depth and unexpectedness. Something makes me want not to say more, to keep it a secret beyond the few quotations I have posted, to allow others to discover it on their own.
Because of its understatement and a structure that weaves back and forth in time, there will be more hidden connections to discover -- as there were when I returned to the beginning to retrace a strand of the tale. So the pleasure of re-reading the beautiful prose and challenging, satisfying story will encompass both familiarity and newness.
Because of its understatement and a structure that weaves back and forth in time, there will be more hidden connections to discover -- as there were when I returned to the beginning to retrace a strand of the tale. So the pleasure of re-reading the beautiful prose and challenging, satisfying story will encompass both familiarity and newness.
September 10, 2021
Ha egy író két tükörnaplóból eszkábál egyetlen regényt, akkor több dolgot tehet. Csinálhatja azt, hogy az egyiket elmondja először, aztán elmondja a másikat is, vagy összekeverheti az egészet, akár egy pakli kártyát. Akárhogy is, az osztó ő lesz, és úgy cinkeli a kártyákat, ahogy neki tetszik: pusztán döntésével valamilyen olvasat felé irányítja az olvasót. Jessen viszont fogja a két történetet (Lilly Hoy tanítónő vallomását, és férje, a mogorva Bagge doktor elmélkedéseit), és egy csavaros kötéstechnikai trükkel úgy illeszti össze őket, hogy mi magunk döntjük el, honnan kezdjük. Én Emma lányom javaslatára Lillyvel kezdtem (valószínűleg a kék-sárga tipográfia jobban megragadta, mint a "másik" borító enyhén agresszív vörös tónusa), és csakhamar kiderült, ezzel jól fel is borítottam a linearitást. Mert Lilly története tulajdonképpen csak Bagge halálálával kezdődik, következesképpen előbb szembesültem az özvegylét keserveivel, és csak utána nyerhettem betekintést a férj szemszögéből magába a házasságba. Azt gondolom, optimális volt így - hisz az élet amúgy is maga az alkalmazott linearitás, ami olyan mindennapi, hogy fel se fogjuk. Jó legalább egy regény erejéig valami mást megízlelni.
Különben pedig ez a könyv - szerintem - a változásról szól. Aminek bizony két oldala van. Az egyiket nevezzük mondjuk fejlődésnek. A szemünk előtt alakul át a dán társadalom, a diftéria mint népbetegség megszűnik, mert jön az oltás, szép lassan nem lesz sikk megverni a feleségünket, mert a végén elválik tőlünk, és általában: a sárba ragad mélyszegénység helyett mintha teret nyerne egy általánosabb egzisztenciális biztonság. Ugyanakkor ott van a másik aspektus: az elmúlás. Mindenekelőtt az egyén elmúlása. Aki - párhuzamosan az előbb említett fejlődéssel - egyre inkább elveszíti a testével folytatott birkózást, és minden lépéssel közelebb kerül az enyészethez. Ebben a játszmában nem győzhet, legfeljebb arra blazírozhat, hogy méltósággal nézzen szembe azzal, amivel előbb-utóbb szembe kell nézni. Méltósággal - de ez nem azt jelenti, hogy egyedül. Azt hiszem, ez Bagge doktor nagy tévedése. Hogy szerinte a méltóság: nem zavarni senkit, tisztes távolt tartani mindenkitől. De ez nem méltóság. Ez csak a magány.
Különben pedig ez a könyv - szerintem - a változásról szól. Aminek bizony két oldala van. Az egyiket nevezzük mondjuk fejlődésnek. A szemünk előtt alakul át a dán társadalom, a diftéria mint népbetegség megszűnik, mert jön az oltás, szép lassan nem lesz sikk megverni a feleségünket, mert a végén elválik tőlünk, és általában: a sárba ragad mélyszegénység helyett mintha teret nyerne egy általánosabb egzisztenciális biztonság. Ugyanakkor ott van a másik aspektus: az elmúlás. Mindenekelőtt az egyén elmúlása. Aki - párhuzamosan az előbb említett fejlődéssel - egyre inkább elveszíti a testével folytatott birkózást, és minden lépéssel közelebb kerül az enyészethez. Ebben a játszmában nem győzhet, legfeljebb arra blazírozhat, hogy méltósággal nézzen szembe azzal, amivel előbb-utóbb szembe kell nézni. Méltósággal - de ez nem azt jelenti, hogy egyedül. Azt hiszem, ez Bagge doktor nagy tévedése. Hogy szerinte a méltóság: nem zavarni senkit, tisztes távolt tartani mindenkitől. De ez nem méltóság. Ez csak a magány.
April 15, 2019
Fru Bragge, a 40-ish diarist who lives in the rural village of Thyregod, Denmark -- the same town the author grew up in -- is married to the older handsome and stoic physician, Vergand, who regards humanity with the cold detachment of a scientist. His death frees her to capture and rebuild what has been missing in her life -- warmth, tenderness, and a feeling of possibility.
The rhythm of nature and the goings-on of the townspeople are meshed with the narrator's thoughts as she gradually comes to an understanding of the yoke she has borne in the past two decades. Ruminations of herself as a young schoolteacher, dedicated to her students, and her current and recently lived experiences reveal her to be a woman who is a part of the shifting winds of life.
The author writes, "One finds oneself with several lives, and may skip from one to another." As the tone shifts from intimate remembrances to poignant moments, from bursts of clarity to reflections spawned by solitude, we begin to know Fru Bragge as the resilient and adaptable woman that she is. "The heart runs on ahead of me," she writes. And indeed, it does.
This spare, contemplative, and beautiful novel, excellently translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken, is a lovely story about a woman who gradually realizes that her best times are still to come.
The rhythm of nature and the goings-on of the townspeople are meshed with the narrator's thoughts as she gradually comes to an understanding of the yoke she has borne in the past two decades. Ruminations of herself as a young schoolteacher, dedicated to her students, and her current and recently lived experiences reveal her to be a woman who is a part of the shifting winds of life.
The author writes, "One finds oneself with several lives, and may skip from one to another." As the tone shifts from intimate remembrances to poignant moments, from bursts of clarity to reflections spawned by solitude, we begin to know Fru Bragge as the resilient and adaptable woman that she is. "The heart runs on ahead of me," she writes. And indeed, it does.
This spare, contemplative, and beautiful novel, excellently translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken, is a lovely story about a woman who gradually realizes that her best times are still to come.
July 1, 2020
Review to come.
August 5, 2020
This was a fascinating read and very atmospheric; moody. So much is told to us but not everything is revealed. We know her as Fru Bagge, she has just lost her husband, doctor Vigand Bagge. Story is laid out in form of journal entries, starting in 1905 to 1932.
Even good marriages are not all hunky-dory and as wives and mothers we ceaselessly compromise our autonomy over responsibility and overtime we are silenced and lose ourselves to a certain extent. That’s what has happened to Fru Bagge, in her 22 year marriage.
“We were married for twenty-two years, and although it has been a time in which many things have happened—a world war, motor cars, electricity, women’s suffrage—indeed an entire world would seem to have wound down and been replaced by a new one, I would still venture that those years have been one long and unbroken day.
For me it has been a quiet time.”
Her mourning is filled with honest reckoning, reflections, real but conflicted grief and eventually an emergence of one’s own voice, a true self, and perhaps a little less lonely one.
I commend both the writer and the translator, highly recommended - 4.5 stars
Even good marriages are not all hunky-dory and as wives and mothers we ceaselessly compromise our autonomy over responsibility and overtime we are silenced and lose ourselves to a certain extent. That’s what has happened to Fru Bagge, in her 22 year marriage.
“We were married for twenty-two years, and although it has been a time in which many things have happened—a world war, motor cars, electricity, women’s suffrage—indeed an entire world would seem to have wound down and been replaced by a new one, I would still venture that those years have been one long and unbroken day.
For me it has been a quiet time.”
Her mourning is filled with honest reckoning, reflections, real but conflicted grief and eventually an emergence of one’s own voice, a true self, and perhaps a little less lonely one.
I commend both the writer and the translator, highly recommended - 4.5 stars
April 16, 2020
This strange gravity, the peculiar peace that descends in the evenings when the houses turn inwards and people retire to bed. I have begun to expect it, to look forward. It requires so very little. That I am alone, and that darkness has fallen. That I light the lamp. That I gaze into its flame. I do not think of day. And yet that is untrue. If I am congealed fat, blood pulses nonetheless in my depths.
*
What will I do when he is no longer here? Who will then remind me of what I am to think? Who will keep me in place? I shall have to find my own place.
*
But if it is the case that I have burned his only written words to me, then so be it. Let them be burned. I have fallen back on myself. It might be night, it might be morning. No light on the stair. No light on the horizon. No lamp lit in the window. No moon held out in the palm of a hand.
*
Now and then, it seems as if I want to fall into a trap. I lay awake last night and felt so embittered. For long periods of time I am able to remind myself to contain the bitterness of my private life so as not to lose my dignity or narrow my horizons. I know people who can only talk about what has gone wrong and who complain about the offenses caused by others to such an extent that one wishes it were possible to cover one’s ears and run away as one sits there nodding and smiling and trying to lead the conversation in some other direction, and to at least interest them in a piece of cake. But in my darkest moments I understand only too well the kind of misfortune that can leave a person in such a place. Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it.
[...]
That silence, it betrays me.
*
How forceful this bitterness, even though I now have everything the way I want. Pause for thought indeed.
*
It was the worst of anything that was said between us. It left a stain on my soul that cannot be erased.
*
What will I do when he is no longer here? Who will then remind me of what I am to think? Who will keep me in place? I shall have to find my own place.
*
But if it is the case that I have burned his only written words to me, then so be it. Let them be burned. I have fallen back on myself. It might be night, it might be morning. No light on the stair. No light on the horizon. No lamp lit in the window. No moon held out in the palm of a hand.
*
Now and then, it seems as if I want to fall into a trap. I lay awake last night and felt so embittered. For long periods of time I am able to remind myself to contain the bitterness of my private life so as not to lose my dignity or narrow my horizons. I know people who can only talk about what has gone wrong and who complain about the offenses caused by others to such an extent that one wishes it were possible to cover one’s ears and run away as one sits there nodding and smiling and trying to lead the conversation in some other direction, and to at least interest them in a piece of cake. But in my darkest moments I understand only too well the kind of misfortune that can leave a person in such a place. Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it.
[...]
That silence, it betrays me.
*
How forceful this bitterness, even though I now have everything the way I want. Pause for thought indeed.
*
It was the worst of anything that was said between us. It left a stain on my soul that cannot be erased.
March 12, 2019
Ida Jessen has deservedly won awards for this novel, and hopefully this won't be her last work in English. A Change in Time takes the form of a diary of a woman in her late 30's, who had been married to the town doctor. As the pieces of her life are revealed, the final picture as well as her name do not emerge until late. Jenssen sets her story in the rural Denmark of the late 1920's, a time of transition and modernization, which has occurred more slowly than in other parts of the world. This is a study of people, traditions, habits -- there is no political upheaval or historical interference.
I know when choosing a translated work from archipelago books that my choice will be immersive, enlightening and so good that it will be a hard act to follow. The authors are uniformly excellent, the translations, spot on.
I know when choosing a translated work from archipelago books that my choice will be immersive, enlightening and so good that it will be a hard act to follow. The authors are uniformly excellent, the translations, spot on.
June 18, 2019
I was drawn to this book because of the Hammershøi piece on the cover - I love his paintings for their atmospheric quality, and it turns out that this is the perfect depiction of Jessen's novel. It is difficult to evaluate a translation (am I impressed by the author or the translator?) but I really enjoyed the sparse, simple narrative and the beauty of barren, rural Denmark. Just like Hammershøi's paintings, the writing here is full of subtlety and grace.
June 6, 2022
"There is a freedom in which one is unseen. Such is the life of a widow. When the days of mourning are gone, the grief has become tiresome to one's surroundings...they must live with becoming grey in the eyes of the world..." (pg 81)
• A CHANGE OF TIME by Ida Jessen, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken, 2015/2019. Archipelago @archipelagobooks
We meet "L" through her diary entries in the early 20th-century rural Denmark. At the beginning of the novel, we learn that L's husband, a prominent community doctor Vigand Bagge, is on his deathbed.
L's diary retraces her life and marriage to Vigand, who is portrayed as an emotional void, neglectful, and cruel. Through 22 years of marriage, L's identity has been worn down by Vigand (we do not even learn L's name until the last quarter of the book!), in many ways rendering her invisible to herself and to society. When he passes away, she enters a new chapter - a change of time - to reanimate and renew her own identity, and to step out of the dark loneliness she has endured for decades.
.
.
"Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once it is decided to settle in." (pg 143)
.
.
A quiet and layered emotional story of grief, devotion, and restraint. Highly recommended for all, but especially if you like the "quiet /small life" works of John Williams, Hernán Diaz, Willa Cather and others.
• A CHANGE OF TIME by Ida Jessen, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken, 2015/2019. Archipelago @archipelagobooks
We meet "L" through her diary entries in the early 20th-century rural Denmark. At the beginning of the novel, we learn that L's husband, a prominent community doctor Vigand Bagge, is on his deathbed.
L's diary retraces her life and marriage to Vigand, who is portrayed as an emotional void, neglectful, and cruel. Through 22 years of marriage, L's identity has been worn down by Vigand (we do not even learn L's name until the last quarter of the book!), in many ways rendering her invisible to herself and to society. When he passes away, she enters a new chapter - a change of time - to reanimate and renew her own identity, and to step out of the dark loneliness she has endured for decades.
.
.
"Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once it is decided to settle in." (pg 143)
.
.
A quiet and layered emotional story of grief, devotion, and restraint. Highly recommended for all, but especially if you like the "quiet /small life" works of John Williams, Hernán Diaz, Willa Cather and others.
January 21, 2019
this is a tender, meditative book written in the form of diary entries by an on and off school teacher in a small town in rural denmark in the 1920s. the teacher, whose name is revealed, poignantly, only at the end (i won't spoil it for you because it's a sweet, sweet moment) starts to keep journal entries in earnest when her husband is in the hospital dying, and in fact writes consistently only when she is deeply alone, so that most of what we get from this book is how to live alone with snow and nature and long walks regardless of the weather. as she writes, our narrator thinks back on her life before her marriage to the town doctor, and of her life during the marriage, and in the rhythm of the narration, which is also the rhythm of the writer's mind, there is great strength and great acceptance, but also great resolve. she is a formidable character whose qualities emerge slowly as she talks to herself and, because this is a novel, to us.
this is also a portrayal of denmark, a country about which i knew absolutely nothing. it is purely coincidental that i read two books set in denmark back to back, and now i feel i know a little bit more (how could i not?), and also feel that when we think we know a place because of this or that headline in the news we really don't know a damn thing (the other novel is the extraordinary Mirror, Shoulder, Signal). for one, for a country this small, denmark appears to be deeply cleaved by regional differences. this should not be surprising to this italian but it is. for two, denmark seems to have a strange and mysterious area, the heath, sandy and shifting and unforgiving, much of which has probably been conquered by agriculture right now, but which, still, i'd love one day to see.
there is no way a woman can write deeply about her life without talking about men. the men in this particular book are lovely even when they are not. they are also very male, closed off or shy or indecisive, as men are often acculturated to be. our narrator is kind to them all, as they are, in their own ways, to her. there are also meaningful female friendship, grounded in shared pain and tenacious.
this novel makes me nostalgic for a time and place in my life in which people dropped in and out of each other's house, bearing small gifts, invariably being asked to stay for coffee. it seems this is like life should be, and yet i can't imagine its being like this now, in these time and place in which life has placed me. still, we are all a little less lonely when people drop in on us with a few apples or a sapling for our garden, all the while making sure we are okay.
this is also a portrayal of denmark, a country about which i knew absolutely nothing. it is purely coincidental that i read two books set in denmark back to back, and now i feel i know a little bit more (how could i not?), and also feel that when we think we know a place because of this or that headline in the news we really don't know a damn thing (the other novel is the extraordinary Mirror, Shoulder, Signal). for one, for a country this small, denmark appears to be deeply cleaved by regional differences. this should not be surprising to this italian but it is. for two, denmark seems to have a strange and mysterious area, the heath, sandy and shifting and unforgiving, much of which has probably been conquered by agriculture right now, but which, still, i'd love one day to see.
there is no way a woman can write deeply about her life without talking about men. the men in this particular book are lovely even when they are not. they are also very male, closed off or shy or indecisive, as men are often acculturated to be. our narrator is kind to them all, as they are, in their own ways, to her. there are also meaningful female friendship, grounded in shared pain and tenacious.
this novel makes me nostalgic for a time and place in my life in which people dropped in and out of each other's house, bearing small gifts, invariably being asked to stay for coffee. it seems this is like life should be, and yet i can't imagine its being like this now, in these time and place in which life has placed me. still, we are all a little less lonely when people drop in on us with a few apples or a sapling for our garden, all the while making sure we are okay.
October 5, 2022
Halfway to the orchard there is a squint little spruce that I immediately decided I did not care for, and I told Carl I wanted it removed. But then he showed me how to smear the branches with fat and sprinkle them with seeds, and now every day is a field day for the sparrows. The little tree looks like it has come alive. It shivers and shudders, and wings poke out from it all over. Such a lot of chirping. Occasionally it verges on commotion. I have stolen a march on spring. [179]
I begged him that we might have children.
"You can't have children, as you well know," he said.
It was the worst of anything that was said between us. It left a stain on my soul that cannot be erased. I had hoped that Vigand would remove it.
I had hoped for a caress.
The tantrums I have thrown. [211]
On such an evening, when a blackbird sings from the roof of the inn, and another replies from the grocer Rosenstand's roof, one may think nothing to be lovelier than a little town with its high street and shops, its children and all the homes whose lamps are lit in the windows, for outside the town there is only the very dark land. [216]
May 22, 2019
This epistolary novel is a quiet, intimate meditation on a woman's life in rural Denmark following her husband's death. A bit slow to reveal itself, it was ultimately a gorgeous read, and I'll look forward to more of Ida Jessen's work in English.
August 2, 2021
Quiet. Lovely.
February 15, 2022
I discovered Ida Jessen's 'A Change of Time' sometime back and decided to read it yesterday. The English translation of this book is published by Archipelago Books, one of my favourite indie publishers. I'll tell you why, soon 😊
Ida Jessen's book is in the format of a diary. The person who writes this diary is a woman who has just lost her husband. As we read her diary entries, we discover how our narrator navigates life, grief and loneliness after this heartbreaking personal loss. In a soft, gentle voice, the narrator shares her thoughts on life, love – both requited and unrequited, loss, grief, loneliness, friendship, the passing of seasons, the beauty of nature, the beautiful relationship between teachers and students, the charming behaviour of people in a small village – how everyone knows everyone, how everyone is curious about other people's lives and there is no privacy, how people are kind and help each other during difficult times, the way only small-town and village people do. Ida Jessen's prose is beautiful, gentle and meditative, and is a pleasure to read. There is even a delicate love story woven into the book, which we might miss, if we blink. I nearly did.
I loved 'A Change of Time'. Ida Jessen's book shows why Danish literature is awesome and continues to rock. It is one of my favourite reads of the year. I want to explore more of Ida Jessen's work.
Now, a little bit about Archipelago books, as promised. Archipelago books have a very unique design – they are in the shape of a square, rather than a rectangle, which is how a typical book is. I hope you can see this square shape in the picture. I've seen table-top books which are shaped like squares, but have never seen regular books, which are filled with text, in this design. This square design is one of the reasons I love Archipelago books This design poses interesting creative challenges to booklovers and book collectors in how to shelve their books, because bookshelves are not designed for square books. I love the way Archipelago books have defied convention and designed their books in this unconventional square shape.
I'll leave you with some of my favourite passages from Ida Jessen's book.
"I was not a frequent churchgoer in those years. I will not say I am a stranger to the church, for I am familiar with it and with what goes on there, as one might be familiar with an aging aunt whom one has not visited in a very long time, and when eventually one does, one recognizes straight away the smells of her kitchen and the way in which the old armchair so snugly accommodates the frame as soon as one obliges the invitation to take a seat: everything is exactly as it was when one was a child."
"I feel like a person standing in a landscape so empty and open that it matters not a bit in which direction I choose to There would be no difference : north, south, east, or west, would be the same wherever I went."
"Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it."
"With age comes a certain naivety. Perhaps we no longer can bear the things we know and must smooth them away, leveling ourselves in the process. The differences we even out are evened out by human hand. The very old say so very little, not because they are unable, but because they cannot be bothered."
"Widows are a community. I have been aware of it ever since I was a child. It can be seen in the way they seek each other's company, in the pews for instance, where often they will sit in pairs. They do not speak much, for they have no need, and after the service they go their separate ways. In my childhood home, the widows sat together at meals and at work in the workroom. It is a matter of having lived with one person for most of one's adult life, and to have lost that person. To have been set free. Freedom is not always a good thing. There is a freedom in which one is unseen. Such is the life of the widow. When the days of mourning are gone, and grief has become tire some to one's surroundings, one ceases to be an interesting person and must accept the fact. Widows possess an expe rience that is not understood by others. They must live with becoming grey in the eyes of the world, and have lost their right of protest, for they are outside the common community. As outcasts they stick together. But this not the only reason. There is a warmth there, and understanding. They are acquainted with things. We have our dead. Our hope is that we too will be someone's."
Have you read 'A Change of Time'? What do you think about it?
Ida Jessen's book is in the format of a diary. The person who writes this diary is a woman who has just lost her husband. As we read her diary entries, we discover how our narrator navigates life, grief and loneliness after this heartbreaking personal loss. In a soft, gentle voice, the narrator shares her thoughts on life, love – both requited and unrequited, loss, grief, loneliness, friendship, the passing of seasons, the beauty of nature, the beautiful relationship between teachers and students, the charming behaviour of people in a small village – how everyone knows everyone, how everyone is curious about other people's lives and there is no privacy, how people are kind and help each other during difficult times, the way only small-town and village people do. Ida Jessen's prose is beautiful, gentle and meditative, and is a pleasure to read. There is even a delicate love story woven into the book, which we might miss, if we blink. I nearly did.
I loved 'A Change of Time'. Ida Jessen's book shows why Danish literature is awesome and continues to rock. It is one of my favourite reads of the year. I want to explore more of Ida Jessen's work.
Now, a little bit about Archipelago books, as promised. Archipelago books have a very unique design – they are in the shape of a square, rather than a rectangle, which is how a typical book is. I hope you can see this square shape in the picture. I've seen table-top books which are shaped like squares, but have never seen regular books, which are filled with text, in this design. This square design is one of the reasons I love Archipelago books This design poses interesting creative challenges to booklovers and book collectors in how to shelve their books, because bookshelves are not designed for square books. I love the way Archipelago books have defied convention and designed their books in this unconventional square shape.
I'll leave you with some of my favourite passages from Ida Jessen's book.
"I was not a frequent churchgoer in those years. I will not say I am a stranger to the church, for I am familiar with it and with what goes on there, as one might be familiar with an aging aunt whom one has not visited in a very long time, and when eventually one does, one recognizes straight away the smells of her kitchen and the way in which the old armchair so snugly accommodates the frame as soon as one obliges the invitation to take a seat: everything is exactly as it was when one was a child."
"I feel like a person standing in a landscape so empty and open that it matters not a bit in which direction I choose to There would be no difference : north, south, east, or west, would be the same wherever I went."
"Bitterness is a very soft and comfortable armchair from which it is difficult indeed to extract oneself once one has decided to settle in it."
"With age comes a certain naivety. Perhaps we no longer can bear the things we know and must smooth them away, leveling ourselves in the process. The differences we even out are evened out by human hand. The very old say so very little, not because they are unable, but because they cannot be bothered."
"Widows are a community. I have been aware of it ever since I was a child. It can be seen in the way they seek each other's company, in the pews for instance, where often they will sit in pairs. They do not speak much, for they have no need, and after the service they go their separate ways. In my childhood home, the widows sat together at meals and at work in the workroom. It is a matter of having lived with one person for most of one's adult life, and to have lost that person. To have been set free. Freedom is not always a good thing. There is a freedom in which one is unseen. Such is the life of the widow. When the days of mourning are gone, and grief has become tire some to one's surroundings, one ceases to be an interesting person and must accept the fact. Widows possess an expe rience that is not understood by others. They must live with becoming grey in the eyes of the world, and have lost their right of protest, for they are outside the common community. As outcasts they stick together. But this not the only reason. There is a warmth there, and understanding. They are acquainted with things. We have our dead. Our hope is that we too will be someone's."
Have you read 'A Change of Time'? What do you think about it?
January 13, 2019
What an emotional experience reading this story turned out to be. It is made up of diary entries by a Danish woman, mostly written when she is approaching 50 in the late 1920s. Her husband of over 20 years is dying in hospital and she begins to record her thoughts and feelings over the next five years. These include recollections of her student days and her friends at that time, her innovative approach to schoolteaching, the people she knows after moving to Thyregod, her husband’s character and her disappointment with their marriage, her reaction to his death and the change in her personal circumstances, and many observations of the ways the landscape and people’s lives in the central heathland of Denmark evolved in the 20th century. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of daily life at the school and then at the cottage and its garden.
Since the story is told through a diary not intended as anything but an outlet for its writer’s current emotions and recollections, past events are often alluded to in passing, tantalisingly so. She is not explaining anything to anyone but is venting her feelings for herself only, and trying to come to terms with the way her life has turned out. Hints overlooked and motivations misunderstood are key and Lilly struggles not to succumb to self-pity and bitterness. Ida Jessen is a classy writer, conveying emotion with delicacy and sensitivity, and with an understatement reflecting the reticent character of the people here. I was particularly struck by Lilly’s ambivalence towards her new freedom, the sense that her husband took her identity as a wife with him when he died and she must learn how to be a widow, a different kind of single person.
This format is very much to my taste. I like to wonder what might have happened and wait for things to become clear by the end. In fact I don’t even mind being left wondering. The ending is abrupt. Events take place that mean the need for the diary has gone so she stops writing in it, much as she did once before. So that’s that, for the time being at least. I loved it, both the book and the ending. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
With thanks to Archipelago via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this gorgeous book.
Since the story is told through a diary not intended as anything but an outlet for its writer’s current emotions and recollections, past events are often alluded to in passing, tantalisingly so. She is not explaining anything to anyone but is venting her feelings for herself only, and trying to come to terms with the way her life has turned out. Hints overlooked and motivations misunderstood are key and Lilly struggles not to succumb to self-pity and bitterness. Ida Jessen is a classy writer, conveying emotion with delicacy and sensitivity, and with an understatement reflecting the reticent character of the people here. I was particularly struck by Lilly’s ambivalence towards her new freedom, the sense that her husband took her identity as a wife with him when he died and she must learn how to be a widow, a different kind of single person.
This format is very much to my taste. I like to wonder what might have happened and wait for things to become clear by the end. In fact I don’t even mind being left wondering. The ending is abrupt. Events take place that mean the need for the diary has gone so she stops writing in it, much as she did once before. So that’s that, for the time being at least. I loved it, both the book and the ending. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
With thanks to Archipelago via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this gorgeous book.
December 1, 2018
4.5 stars
I have just finished reading a really gorgeous little book: A Change of Time by the Danish author Ida Jessen. Through her diary, a widowed school-teacher in early 20th-century Denmark remembers her late husband and uses her loneliness as a spur to revisit her life and, slowly, anxiously, recover her sense of self. For once, cover and book coexist beautifully: Jessen's novel is like a Hammershøi in prose: a haunting, timeless, intimate exploration of loss, rendered by the translator Martin Aitken into elegantly spare English. Although the book won't be published until March, I just had to write about it now, before the feeling of it fades; and it's deeply suited to these long, dark winter evenings. A little jewel...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/12/01/a...
I have just finished reading a really gorgeous little book: A Change of Time by the Danish author Ida Jessen. Through her diary, a widowed school-teacher in early 20th-century Denmark remembers her late husband and uses her loneliness as a spur to revisit her life and, slowly, anxiously, recover her sense of self. For once, cover and book coexist beautifully: Jessen's novel is like a Hammershøi in prose: a haunting, timeless, intimate exploration of loss, rendered by the translator Martin Aitken into elegantly spare English. Although the book won't be published until March, I just had to write about it now, before the feeling of it fades; and it's deeply suited to these long, dark winter evenings. A little jewel...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/12/01/a...
December 25, 2024
A quietly beautiful meditation on longing and loneliness.
August 1, 2018
Slušný dánský příběh. Bavilo to mě podobně jako Jmenuji se Lucy Bartonová nebo Stoner.
April 27, 2019
This beautifully written and gentle tale is a real joy. Set in the village of Thyregod in rural Denmark, in the early 20th century and narrated in a series of diary entries, it’s the story of Fru Bagge, who, as the book opens is visiting her sick husband in hospital. He’s always been a cold and undemonstrative man, domineering and unsympathetic to her needs, and even on his death-bed makes no attempt to communicate with her. After his death she begins to look back over her life and prepare for her new freedom. A successful and admired schoolteacher, she was indeed once an independent woman and gradually she begins to regain that autonomy. It’s an empathetic and moving story, suffused with sympathy and understanding, and Fru Bagge’s journey of self-discovery and reinvention is a hopeful and relatable one.
January 15, 2019
Beautifully written short novel set in rural Denmark in 1927-32. The main character is a school teacher (married to the village doctor) and I just love her. She is a working woman in an age when not many women were working and she is a strong woman, which you notice especially when her husband dies. Of course she mourns her husband, and she feels vulnerable and lonely. But she is not afraid to make decisions, start driving a car, move houses, start a new life, having friends, and doing new things. She is also very honest about her marriage and her feelings for her husband. She loved him, but she also found him annoying at times and he was not always great to be around with.
All in all, a very impressive read! I'm looking forward to reading more of Ida Jessen's work.
Thank you Archipelago & Netgalley for the ARC
All in all, a very impressive read! I'm looking forward to reading more of Ida Jessen's work.
Thank you Archipelago & Netgalley for the ARC
December 26, 2019
A Change of Time by Ida Jessen is an engaging book. I received a free copy for an honest review from Edelweiss+. This book, I must say, is very unique. The story is set up in 20th century in Denmark. The story unravels itself through the pages of a diary. A woman who just lost her husband struggles to establish her identity as an individual. The sudden freedom in the protagonist's life is too overwhelming for her and she finds a way to find solitude in her loneliness.
The book feels like a poetry. The author beautifully narrated the pain of the protagonist. There are small poems sprinkled here and there in the book which are very beautiful and reminds the reader of old classics. The story is very well written and I'm guessing the translation from Danish is just.
The book feels like a poetry. The author beautifully narrated the pain of the protagonist. There are small poems sprinkled here and there in the book which are very beautiful and reminds the reader of old classics. The story is very well written and I'm guessing the translation from Danish is just.
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