Knots: Stories

Written by Gunnhild Oyehaug

Narrated by Heather Wilds

In both precise short-shorts and ruminative longer tales, Gunnhild Øyehaug meanders through the tangled, jinxed, and unavoidable conflicts of love and desire. From young Rimbaud's thwarted passions to the scandalous disappearance of an entire family, these stories do the chilling work of tracing the outlines of what could have been in both the quietly morbid and the delightfully comical. A young man is born with an uncuttable umbilical cord and spends his life physically tethered to his mother; a tipsy uncle makes an uncomfortable toast with unforeseeable repercussions; and a dissatisfied deer yearns to be seen. As one character reflects, "You never know how things might turn out, you never know how anything will turn out, tomorrow the walls might fall down, the room disappear."

Cleverly balancing the sensuous, the surreal, and the comical, Øyehaug achieves a playful familiarity with the absurd that never overreaches the needs of her stories. Full of characters who can't help tying knots in themselves and each other, these tales make the world just a little more strange, and introduce a major international voice of searing vision, grace, and humor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Translator: Kari Dickson
• Release date: Jul 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781681685809

Reviews for Knots

[bibliodiction · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This little book is full of various short stories. Some told in first person and others in third. Some stories lead the reader to serious discussions, such as depression or true happiness. Some seem to be pointless. Most are well-crafted fables.

I enjoyed this author’s varied writing style. Each of her stories are unique and told in a manner which provides the most impact in the least amount of words. Some stories were extremely short, as in a single scene. I wanted to know what came next, but then I realized it didn’t matter. The important part of the story was just that one scene the author wrote about.

This read was a new experience for me. I’ve been spoiled by typical books which have a definite beginning, middle, and end. This took me out of my comfort zone. I wasn’t sure I’d want to finish reading it, but the more I read, the more interesting it became. I am so happy this book found its way into my hands.

[kaydern_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am frustrated, because I was blown away by Gunnhild Øyehaug's storytelling, Kari Dickson's translation and Heather Wild's reading, but the way the audiobook was formatted left much to be desired.I can't easily tease out the difference in storytelling and translation here, but in particular appreciated the matter-of-fact narration style in all the stories, which I suspect is if not linguistically then culturally appropriate. It didn't pressure you into having an emotional reaction to a story but when you did have one it felt more genuine. I found the stories of "Knots" rich with symbolism, self-aware and painfully real. So many stories were full of people behaving exactly as I've seen myself and my friends behave, even though almost no character was at their best during the story. I was not initially sure I enjoyed these stories and I'm still not sure that's the word I'd use. However almost all of them made me uncomfortable. I kept asking myself "Why would she do that?" "Why does he want this?" "How can they be so unhappy?". Questions I found easy to ask about fictional characters but not often about the circumstances of my own life. That is why I am impressed by Øyehaug's work, and am going to check out any other English translations available. On the downside, and this is stated better elsewhere, the weakest point was the audiobook formatting, which had no chapter titles and no pauses in between each chapter. This might have been less irritating in a novel, but when every story story packs a punch, I really needed a chance to breathe between them. I ended up pausing the book between most chapters to just sit and think, which was made difficult by the non-existent pauses. In summary, I was strongly affected by these stories but found the audiobook formatting and to some extent the audiobook style interfering with my engagement with them.

[ariatracker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was given an audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.There are three elements at play with the audio version of this book: the stories, the recording, and the narrator. Lyehaug’s stories are tightly written, each one a slice of life with the main character dealing with some type of problem. Venturing from the ordinary of a man dealing with agoraphobia while shopping at Ikea to the bizarre of a son tethered to his mother’s umbilical cord, these stories reminded me of Kunlyoshi Hitomi’s Palm-of-the-Hand Stories – thought provoking short fiction which requires several readings to search for the true meaning. Five stars for storytelling.Unfortunately, Lyehaug’s stories do not translate quite so well into the audio world. The nature of these stories demand the reader’s attention to the detail of the story, to savor the nuances of her well-chosen words. The tracks are identified only by a number. While this alone does not make it a bad recording, stories either ran together on the same track or were cut on two different tracks. This type of recording made impossible to return to any particular story to listen again. This problem could have been easily solved by each story having its own track. One star for recording.Sometimes the intensity or flavor of a story can be lost in translation when moving from one language to another. Heather Wilds, the narrator for Knots, had a strong, clear voice ideal for narration. However, her delivery bordered on monotone with little inflection while reading. Additionally, there were no significant pauses from one story to the next to alert the reader when one story ended and another began. Three stars for narration.Overall, three and ½ stars.

[rmckeown_9 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Once again, I am the recipient of a new Scandinavian author, Gunnhild Øyehaug. According to the dust jacket, she is an award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist. Her first novel, Wait, Blank, was made into an acclaimed film. She has also worked as a co-editor of two literary journals. She lives in Bergen, where she teaches creative writing. Her collection of short stories, Knots, was first published in 2004. This “radical collection rangers from the surreal to the oddly mundane. It prods the discomfort of mental, sexual, and familial bonds.” For example, one story is of a mother who delivers a male child, but all attempts to cut the cord fail. The two live the remainder of their lives bound together. Then his mother’s ghost appears off and on to comfort him. Bizarre? Yep, but it is also oddly compellingStory.Some of the stories are brief—as little as 3 pages on a small format book. In “Grandma Is Sleeping,” Bragg writes, ‘She got both glaucoma and cataracts early on in life, but she always managed, continued to crochet runners with tiny patterns, weave tapestries of small birds in a tangle of branches, colorful tulips twisting out of the soil and around each other, to the delight of her seven children and her seven children’s spouses and her seven children’s nineteen children. But today it bothers her. Today she stands at the kitchen window and looks up at the mountains and wishes she could distinguish where the mountains finish and the sky begins” (57). She is expecting her family for a large dinner she has prepared. As the family arrives, she does not answer the door.In a story of a single page, “The Deer at the Edge of the Forest,” Gunnhild writes, The seed stood at the edge of the forest and was miserable. He felt like there was no point in anything, like he might as well give up. I walk around here, day in and day ouy, the deer thought, and there’s no one who sees me. Am I invisible, or what? He didn’t think so. I walk around here and could change people’s lives if only they could see me, but no one sees me. Here I am, a hart, and no one cares. The whole point is that I am supposed to be difficult to see, I know that, I am supposed to roam around the forest and not be seen. But it is the very premise of my life that is now making me miserable. I want to be seen. So here I am at the edge of the forest. I am open to being seen, to being shot. If someone doesn’t see me soon, I am going to do something drastic, I mean it. Right now it feels like I’m trapped in deerness. Oh, I would love to change everything, be someone else, something completely different. Oh, imagine if I could be a roe deer, an elk” (88). Several of the longer stories—seven pages—are also appealing. My favorites are “It’s Snowing” and “Two by Two.” One short piece was a play with only the thoughts of a woman about her life.I am not entirely sure why I am attracting all these Scandinavian stories and novels, but I am certainly glad to add these authors to my collection of world literature. Gunnhild Øyehaug’s collection of stories, Knots, are thought-provoking, and at times funny, serious, sad, and mysterious. Only a story or two might be uncomfortable, but teasing out of the imagery and description, offers quite a few thoughts on ordinary events, ordinary people, and that should get your mind whirring. 5 stars--Jim, 1/15/18

[oolalu · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Overall I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. A major problem for me was, however, the transitions between the stories. The reader, who was easy to listen to, would just finish one story and then start the next one. It was a problem occasionally knowing that one story had ended and another one had started. It would have been better to have had a couple of different readers who went back and forth with the stories so that there was a clear delineation between stories. The stories themselves were really good and each one was entertaining. It was necessary for me to really pay attention to the stories so that I would not recommend listen to this audio book while driving or doing a demanding task.

[disco_grinch · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I received this audio-book in exchange for an HONEST review...a review is my OPINION.I am going to write this review the way the author wrote the book.I received a package in the mail. There was no return address. The package I received had no return address. Inside the package were some CDs. I was supposed to review the CDs. The package had no return address. It caused me to hate the CDs.I listened to the CDs that came from the package with no return address. The CDs that I am supposed to review. I did not like the stories. I did not like them at all. They came on CDs in package with no return address. That made me hate the CDs first. The stories made me hate the CDs again. I hated that those things made me hate the CDs.The stories had no purpose. The stories were ramblings. The stories were completely and utterly boring. The stories were a waste of my life. They came on the CDs in the package with no return address. Who doesn't use a return address? I listened to the stories that I hated because I made a promise. I promised to review the CDs that cam in the package without a return address. I didn't know the package would not have a return address.OK, ENOUGH!!!!!The stories had ZERO purpose. There was NOTHING remotely interesting. The narrator also added to the annoying experience with her voice and style of reading. I found my self yelling at the car radio, "Shut up, Shut up, Shut up...please just shut up!"Complete and utterly pointless stories that did nothing but bore me.There are two things I liked: 1) It was short---albeit not short enough2) It gives me hope...if this can get published and made into an audio book and the author can win awards, I can be the next Stephen King! OH YEAH! (maybe I should move to Norway...small talent pool)1/2 star...I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE!

[danajean_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had a tough time with this one. Although I loved the narrator, who gave the stories a very cosmopolitan feel, there was a lot of repetition in words, phrases and sentences in almost every story. It was like an editor hadn't cleaned them up yet. Now, that may have been some stylistic choice on the writer's part, or since English wasn't the author's first language, maybe a miscommunication through the translator. I chose to look at these stories as an awkward translation that made the stories appear to still be in a rough-draft stage.If this was a purposeful technique and had only been used in one or two entries, I might not have been so drawn out of the stories. Because it was overused, I was immediately pulled out every single time.The stories themselves were odd. Some in an okay way, some in a meh way. Overall a quick listen, so I may try them again in hopes I can be a little more appreciative of the style. Not sure an American audience will embrace these as maybe something is missing from the original written language. By no means am I insulting anyone's intelligence or taste, but I think this would definitely be for a niche group.

[acvickers · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm on the fence about this one. No one story was extremely memorable for me. It's a strange collection, almost like the author had all these stories or pieces of stories lying around and decided to make a collection. Many of them seem to have no point whatsoever. Most seem kind of fable-like. Not a terrible read/listen overall but I just wasn't impressed and, in a collection, I expect at least a few stories to standout. Not the case here.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Stories ranging from short to very short. Nothing bad here, but also nothing memorable.