Simon and the Oaks by Marianne Fredriksson

[Diane]

AKA "Simon" and "Simon's Family: A Novel of Mothers and Sons"

Rating: 4 stars

A coming of age story about a Swedish boy of half-Jewish descent who grows up during WWII. Simon is given up my his natural mother and raised by his aunt, and doesn't learn about his heritage until later, when he questions his non-Nordic appearance.

Overall, I enjoyed this book with its well-rounded characters, descriptive prose, dysfunctional family dynamics, and hints of magical realism.

[Diane]

4 stars

I always appreciate a book that tugs at my heart strings, plays with my emotions and makes me think. This book did all that. I enjoyed my time in Sweden with the Larsson and Lentov families. It is a coming of age story of Simon Larsson and Isak Lentov, two boys growing up during and after WWII. Simon is described as “the boy who was lonely amid his happy family” and Isak was traumatized by the Hitler Youth when he was 4 years old, which haunted his youth and adulthood. Family is at the heart of this story. What it means to be a family, growing up and growing old. “But the familiar, the family, children, home – all that I have identified most closely with – will be left behind.” I thoroughly enjoyed this Swedish author and I look forward to reading more of her work some day.

[Amanda]

I also gave this one 4 stars. I thought the way it handled everyone's different traumas, and viewpoints based on their age around the war, and how their lives progressed to be really fascinating and heartbreakingly human.

I think my favorite part was probably Isak having his flashbacks of the Nazis and having a breakdown during him and Simon's horrible military school, and then falling out of it and being accepted at the industrial yard. The contrast of how much more empathy he receives in what his father considers a lesser life compared to how he is supposed to 'rise through the ranks' of society to be safe is palpable and such a great way to challenge a common narrative. The way he tells his story about surviving the holocaust to the yard guys, and the fact that doing so makes him 'part of the family' in their eyes is such a great piece about solidarity among working people (that may have made me tear up), when he didn't get this love from 'Enlightened and lofty' institutions.

This book was quite good at subverting many expectations of stories around the holocaust, and behavior of people who've been through trauma (like Iza the horrible, shallow, and entitled survivor- so inspired!), how motherhood really feels, and who comes out of horrible times expressing empathy and who doesn't, the the different ways that may look.

[Gail]

Other than Gösta Berling's Saga, the only Swedish authors I have read are all mystery writers. Stieg Larson, Henning Mankell and Jussi Adler-Olsen all have a way of writing that is cold, crisp, realistic to the point of causing considerable unease and yet full of some fundamental knowledge about how human beings work.
I was surprised to find much of the same characteristics in Marianne Fredrikson's work; Simon and the Oaks. The story which brings a fully rounded presentation of how the various elements of an extended family work, captures the frustrations, fears, jealousy, hate and horrors and yet the overriding end result is one of total acceptance and love. The book touches on legends and a Nordic version of magical realism but even that is not allowed to overwhelm the realistic struggles but adds a separate layer of motivations to the book.
I particularly appreciated how people struggled and came to terms with their own projected versions of themselves. The Good Mother realizes she has more in common with the "evil" Mother in Law than she would wish. The angry son realizes he has more in common with the violent bully he ultimately beats up than he would wish. I also loved that we have multiple versions of the good father, the good mother, the good wife, the good son and they stand in harsh contrast to each other making clear that there are different ways to live a good life.
As Amanda mentions above, the author also balances the working class and the intellectual class better than most books, making neither "heroic", just human.