“The story is a retelling of the Norse Beauty and the Beast story "East of the Sun, West of the Moon." A young girl whose mother has rejected her--and hence has no name--agrees to live with a mysterious talking polar bear for a year, in exchange for wealth and success for her family. The story has some nice touches. A talking wolf accompanies the heroine, known as "the lass" or just "girl" to her family and neighbors, on her adventures. The infusion of Norwegian and Old Norse terms firmly root the story in its Scandinavian setting. The young heroine is plucky and resourceful, determined to succeed where a long line of other young women have failed.
The story is not without its problems--the author has chosen to pass over some events in the story and to flatly recall them later on. For example, the young girl is given three horses with significant names by three old crones she meets in the forest, who tell her that the horses must be ridden in a particular order, and dismissed back to their owners in a specific way. Readers end a chapter with the heroine riding away on the first of the beasts. At the beginning of the next chapter, she is inexplicably riding the third horse. The end of the tale, too, is told in a sort of flashback, compressing a long journey into a few paragraphs. The author builds some anticipation early in the novel over the young heroine's lack of a name. The reader knows she has been given a secret name by a magical beast; she is warned by her beloved older brother to never reveal it to anyone, as "there are places in this world where not having a name is a lucky thing, a saving thing." She obligingly never reveals her name to anyone she meets until the very end of the novel, but her hidden name is unimportant to the plot.
However, these are minor flaws. The story is an enjoyable addition to the retold-tales genre.
Try Edith Pattou's "East" for a masterful, 5-star version of "East of the Sun, West of the Moon."”
Turrean wrote this review Tuesday, July 15 2008.
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