Book Review: ‘The Ice Palace’, Tarjei Versaas — lament from the fjords
It was an enchanted palace. She must try to find a way in! It was bound to be full of curious passageways and doorways — and she must get in.
While he doesn’t demand that we reevaluate our relationship with the natural world, the celebrated Norwegian writer Tarjei Versaas reminds us of its ambiguity. The layered and sometimes disarming metaphors he conjures in The Ice Palace (Is-slottet) show why this novel, and his work, are so lauded in Norway. Still, I only heard about it from an obscure book blog — that’s a shame, and I hope to remedy that by talking about it here, on my even more obscure book blog. The English translation by Elizabeth Rokkan has maintained all of its Nordic strangeness, as essential as it is disconcerting.
The Ice Palace finds fissure-like depth in a simple premise. An orphaned girl moves in with her aunt in a remote village. Though quiet and secretive, the young Unn is befriended by Siss, a popular and outspoken girl. Versaas captures the bliss of this friendship, which is tinged with mystery — Unn discloses to Siss ‘I’m not sure I will go to heaven.’ When Unn disappears into the ice palace, a cavernous structure formed from a frozen waterfall, Siss believes she is the last link to her. But Siss hasn’t been left with a clear idea of where her friend went — in the punishing winter ahead, she must come to terms not only with Unn’s absence but the absence in what Unn has told her.
This is an emotionally heavy novel with light, sometimes lyrical language. The characterisations are lucidly believable — Siss’ stubbornness, her parents’ concern for her as she shuts off from others, and the silent exasperation of Unn’s aunt drew me into this icy community. With resolute faithfulness, Siss sticks to an imagined promise to preserve Unn’s memory — but at the cost of her engagement with those around her.
On the surface, Versaas offers a frank yet sensitive exploration of difficult emotions. Still, the reader is bound to find their own meanings. You could easily see this as a story about growing up, and what it means to let go of perspectives that once defined us. It’s also possible to see Siss and Unn as two sides of the same person — their brief but intense friendship a moment of self-understanding.
Versaas is not afraid to take a few stylistic diversions, to remind us of the enigmatic power of this environment, whilst himself toying with the formless potential of language. There is a hawk who is death, strange ‘black creatures in the snow’ and a dreamlike vision of woodwind players who enmesh Siss ‘in sad and joyful enchantment’ in the novel’s conclusion. Like the eponymous ice palace, these images are intricate but out of reach. They might seem to detract from the fable-like elegance of the plot, but they reinforce it — in the vein of many classic fairy tales, Versaas’ vision is peculiar, moralistic and disturbing. He updates the formula by giving the two girls, particularly Siss, a sense of psychological depth. This is communicated in an immediate, interior writing style that makes us feel like we too have made a promise to Unn. In terms of readability, this style, and Versaas’ use of sparse paragraphs and short chapters means the novel has aged extremely well.
If you are put off by symbolism and broody descriptions of nature, you should avoid The Ice Palace — the plot is driven largely by internal developments, rather than action. Yet I admired the restraint of Versaas’ writing and admit to being captivated by this brief spell.
