Stella Descending by Linn Ullmann

Stella Descending Reviews

• 
  Edita

  Unpredictability and distinctive style are the main reasons why I love Norwegian authors. They are revealing the soul...
  
  I wonder what he’s thinking. Maybe he’s not thinking about anything. Maybe he’s thinking about me. Maybe he’s thinking that everything has turned to ashes. That we all went up in flames anyway.
• 
  Teresa

  I read this because I enjoyed her first novel,
  Before You Sleep, was even impressed by it, perhaps because I came to it with no expectations, but I did admire its prose and structure. This, her second book, is just 'eh.' I almost stopped reading near the beginning, but since it read quick, I continued on. If it had been any longer, I think I would've gotten aggravated, as its repetitive prose (which sometimes has its place) was starting to get to me.
• 
  Simay Yildiz

  For English, please visit
  Community BookStop.
  Bu yazının orijinali
  canlabirsene'de yay��nlandı.
  
  Olayımız şu: Stella ve Martin çifti, kitabın başlarında nedenini bilmediğimiz bir şekilde oturdukları binanın çatısına çıkarlar. Ve Stella aşağı düşer. Görgü tanıklarının bazıları kavga ettiklerini düşünür ancak bir noktada kucaklaştıklarını hepsi görmüştür. Tabii polisin ve pek çok insanın aklındaki soru şu: Martin, Stella'yı itti mi?
  
  Öncelikle şunu belirtmem lazım; Stella Düşerken, konusal olarak olmasa da yapısal olarak bana başından itibaren çok sevdiğim Marquez'in en sevdiğim kitabı Kırmızı Pazartesi'yi hatırlattı. Kırmızı Pazartesi'de Santiago Nasar'ın öldürüleceğini en başından nasıl biliyorsak Stella Düşerken'de de Stella'nın öldüğünü ve nasıl öldüğünü en başından biliyoruz. Ve yine Kırmızı Pazartesi'de olduğu gibi Stella Düşerken'de de olayların ayrıntıları, nedeni ve niçini kitabın ilerleyen bölümlerinde ortaya çıkarak en sonunda tamamen anlaşılıyor. Tamamen anlaşılıyor demek de yanlış aslında; 'biraz aydınlanıyor' desek daha doğru çünkü Stella'nın düşüşündeki neden başta tahmin ettiğiniz nedenler olmayacak büyük ihtimalle.
  
  Hikaye, Stella'nın birlikte olduğu ve çatıda onunla olan Martin, Stella'nın ilk kocasından olan kızı Amanda, Stella'ya aşık olan ihtiyar Alex ve dedektif Corinne tarafından anlatılıyor. Arada Stella'nın bölümleri ve görgü tanıklarının ifadeleri de var. Ve hatta bölüm bölüm Stella ve Martin'in sigorta şirketi için çektikleri videodan bölümleri de görebiliyoruz. Sanırım ölen o olduğu içindir, ben en başından beri inanılmaz bir sempati duydum Stella'ya ve Martin'i suçladım durdum ölümü için. Hatta kadını çatıdan ittiğine emindim bile diyebilirim. Stella'yla ilişkisi başlayana kadar abartı bir 'playboy' olduğunu, Amanda'yı hiç sevmediğini, hatta Stella'dan olan kızı Bee'yi bir canavar gibi gördüğü de buna eklenince hiç ama hiç hoşlanmadım adamdan. Tabii kitap ilerledikçe keşfettim ki kitaptaki tüm karakterler (ki insanın içimi en çok sızlatan küçük Amanda'nın durumu oldu) ayrı manyak.
  
  Biraz karanlık, hafiften kafa karıştırıcı, insanların içindeki pislikleri suratınıza vura vura ortaya koyan bir roman arayanlara şiddetle tavsiye ediyorum.
• 
  Sara

  The crux of the story is whether Stella fell to her death, or whether she was pushed?
  But if you are expecting a crime story, you will be disappointed.
  
  This book goes off on so many tangents that are nonsensical and irrelevant to the main plot. And once you have perservered through all of that, you are not even rewarded an answer in the end.
  
  
• 
  Sara

  Usch
• 
  Tom Andersson

  Den här boken får mig att tänka på Flaubert och önskan om att skriva en bok om ingenting. För det är precis vad denna boken känns som. Och då menar jag inte bara ingenting utan som språklig och formmässig fulländning. Språket och hur det formar historierna som berättas är innovativt och välgjort. Men det är också allt.
  
  Ingen berättelse berättas till punkt ordentligt. Boken har heller ingen riktigt huvudkaraktär. Karaktärernas utrymme är asymmetriskt fördelad och en stor del av boken behandlar berättelser bortanför ramberättelsen.
  
  På så vis är det ganska mycket som inte känns viktigt. Axel och hans liv är helt ointressant för mig. Martin och Stellas liv tillsammans har så många quirks staplade på varandra att det känns orealistiskt och mer en produkt av en indie manusförfattare som försöker för mycket. Dessutom är grejen med par som har interna lekar så himla gjord. Kvinnan som utreder känns så konstig att jag först trodde hon bara var en skvallertant - igen med quirksen - hon känns inte alls som en polis.
  Vidare är karaktären Martin en sociopat som man så fort man börjar läsa om honom vill hänga från en köttkrok. Det som berör mig är Amanda, Bi och Stella och deras relation och att förlora sin mamma. Men det är ju en berättelse som redan har skrivit tidigare så författaren kanske tyckte det blev för platt. Men hela familjerelationen skrapas knappt på ytan. Det känns som att jag och författaren har helt olika uppfattning om vad som är viktigt.
  
  Roligt dock att det framgår att en sexuell praktik de har är att Stella slickar Martin i röven (sorry not sorry för den spoilern)
• 
  Trine Salbøg

  Jeg havde forventet mig lidt mere af denne roman; nogle gange rammer en forfatter plet én gang i livet, sådan for alvor. Linn Ullmanns romaner er nærværende og fortæller en god historie - ofte en familietragedie, hvor sjæl og legeme gør ondt. Denne er ingen undtagelse, og man får ondt af de børn, som lever i skyggen af egoistiske og sjælesyge forældre. Jeg vil dog gerne have lidt mere og mærke en litterær puls, se en udlevelse og et udtryk, som tør lidt mere. Romanen bliver lidt som et sikkert stik, men det bliver også uendelig kedeligt. Hvis Ullmann vil nå en klassikerstatus, så må hun smide alt andet væk. Hvis ikke, må hun nøjes med de fem stjerner i ugebladene. Men bevares, - det kan man også leve af.
• 
  John Brookes

  A key reason for reading “Stella Descending” (by Linn Ullmann) was that I was intrigued by the premise, which centres around the repercussions of a single, tragic event. On 27 August 2000 the Stella of the title plunges nine stories off a rooftop to her death. For reasons never fully explained, she was up there with Martin, her husband. It is unclear whether she jumped, fell, or was pushed – and this forms the dramatic crux of this novel.
  
  Stella and Martin were together for over a decade. They have a daughter, Bee who is ten - a silent, introspective child whom, we learn, Martin was never able to bond with. Stella also has another child, fifteen-year-old Amanda, though her father is long out of the picture. As well as providing emotional support to Bee, Amanda shares with the reader her view of events: which are seen through the prism of her transition from childhood to adolescence; ageing in a confusing environment where reality is cryptic and fantasy the day-to-day norm. For instance Amanda describes to Bee, in vivid detail, her rationalisation of her mother's descent:
  
  "We say that Mama is falling little by little, day by day, kind of in bits: first a finger, then an eye, and then a knee, and then a foot, then a toe, and then another toe." Amanda says. "I tell Bee…that Mama falls and falls and never hits the ground." On her way down, Amanda explains, Stella meets birds flying south, a squirrel fallen from a tree, a cod fished from water. "Maybe Mama will meet Granny, too, I say; God must have kicked Granny out of heaven a long time ago, she was so grumpy and tight-lipped."
  
  “Stella Descending” is actually narrated by several characters, including eyewitness accounts from the three passers-by who witnessed the fatal fall. There is also some commentary from special investigator Corinne Danielsen (an overweight, ageing detective who can sense a murderer through her stomach rumblings, yet - for such a potentially interesting character - she remains strangely in the background of this novel). There are also accounts and reflections by Amanda (but not Bee), Axel (an old man Stella befriended in a hospital she worked at), and even Stella herself. In addition there is a transcript of a video recording Martin and Stella made on the day of her death (ostensibly to record their possessions for insurance purposes, although the transcripts serve more to provide a voyeuristic view of the increasing disconnection in their relationship: a rather sad documentation of inevitable dissolution).
  
  Of all of the above narrators, a major figure is the aged curmudgeon Axel who has lived for thirty years in his "temporary" apartment in a nondescript section of Oslo. "I am not usually in harmony with my surroundings," Axel explains. "In fact, I detest my surroundings, and my surroundings detest me."
  
  Despite an apparent lack of common ground, Axel and Stella become close friends. Axel is in love or what passes for him as such. Stella senses a sympathetic ear. They meet when Axel is hospitalised. Stella is his nurse. Their friendship coincides with the beginning of Stella's relationship with Martin, so Axel provides a unique perspective. "Stella was too good for him," Axel says, describing Martin. "In my view he is a conceited ass… he is a brute, but he did not kill her. Such things do, after all, take a courage of sorts."
  
  All of these accounts focus on the fall and its aftermath (especially the day of Stella's funeral), but include reminiscences going back years. Some are only related second-hand - it is Corinne who recounts much of what Martin has to say, for example - and events and occurrences (including the fall itself) are often seen through different eyes. On a thematic note, Axel is fascinated by Ferris wheels, and it is like one of these that the story keeps returning to the same places.
  
  The novel presents an interesting mix of voices: old Axel, who has also become an important anchor for Amanda, suspicious Corinne, calmly nostalgic Stella. Much doesn't seem particularly significant at first - or even almost too trivial to bother with - but it's a fine web Ullmann spins, and ultimately a coherent picture of the relationships between these characters emerges. However, this is a novel of separation more than connection: of unbridgeable gaps, the inability to truly communicate and to hold fast to each other - making for a novel that is both affecting and yet also profoundly melancholy.
  
  “Stella Descending” doesn't come to a neat, clean murder-mystery conclusion - it's nowhere near that simple: although it does read like a mystery of sorts. On balance, this has been an ideal, and enjoyable, representation for my journey to Norway.
  
  As an aside, author Linn Ullmann is the daughter of acclaimed Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, and the equally esteemed Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman. Hard acts to follow, but Ullmann acquits herself well here, in what was her second novel.
• 
  Patti

  Whew! These poor miserable characters. Stella Vold has just plummeted 9 floors to her death after being embraced/shoved by her husband in a strange rooftop dance. The narrative is then cleverly told in vignettes by the investigating cop, three witnesses, her eldest daughter Amanda, a curmudgeonly old man Axel, her husband Martin, and oddly by Stella herself. This form simultaneously reveals information about her entire life and also speculation by these characters into what might have been the reason for her demise. Her "descent" has many meanings besides death- the fall from her mother's womb at childbirth, her fall into sickness and subsequent recovery, her fear of flying, and her fall from happiness to name a few. I appreciated the originality. It was a tough one because it was extremely difficult for me to connect with the complete and utter lack of joy of anyone. Peculiar, bizarre, and a compelling quick read. Perfect length because I'm not sure I could have stayed with any of these people much longer!
• 
  Lorri Steinbacher

  Did Stella slip and fall or was she pushed? This is the narrative driver in this book, but what you peer into in the meantime is the inner workings of various relationships--between mothers and daughters, between lover and beloved, between old and young, between plumber and client. It's a slim volume and there's a lot going on, many of the characters are, unbeknownst to them, intermingled with stories that others are telling. It's a strange book, particularly strange because you expect that the pivotal question--did Stella slip and fall or was she pushed?--will be answered as vaguely as the novel proceeds. And yet, Ullman seemingly answers the question unambiguously. Or does she?
• 
  Narine Gizhlaryan

  Լին Ուլմանի «ԵՐԲ ՔԵԶ ՀԵՏ ԵՄ» վեպը շատ հավանեցի:
  
  Միայնակ մարդու տխուր պատմություն: «Մարդը միայնակ արարած է: Չնայած աշխարհը լիքն է իր նմաններով` նա մեն-մենակ է» տողերն ասես էս գրքի հերոսների համար ասված լինեն: Ի դեպ, կարծում էի՝ Ջոն Օսբորնի «Ետ նայիր զայրացած» պիեսից են, բայց ո´չ. Սարոյան է: Ավելի երկար մեջբերումը կարող եք ընթերց��լ ՖԲ-ում՝ «Գիրքը իմ կենսակերպն է խմբում». կտեղադրեմ շուտով)))
  
  Գարսիա Մարկեսի ոգին եմ տեսնում ես էս գրքում:
  
  Ասելիք շատ ունեի, բայց դարձյալ հետաձգում եմ:
  
  Ուզում եմ հիշեցման կարգով նշել, որ Լին Ուլմանը աշխարհահռչակ ռեժիսոր Ինգմար Բերգմանի և դերասանուհի Լիվ Ուլմանի դուստրն է:
  
  Գիրքը hրատարակել է «Գիտանքը», թարգմանիչ՝ Ալեքսանդր Աղաբեկյան:
• 
  Sanna lukee

  I remember seeing a review of this book when it first came out years ago and I wanted to read it. It took me years to finally get around to it and sadly the book turned out to be a major disappointment. While Ullmann does have a skill with language, the characters are a bit dull and for a long time the story doesn't really seem to go anywhere. All in all, it's a very unlikeable book and I had a hard time finishing it. I was very close to giving up half way through and getting to the end didn't reward me either.
• 
  Gillian Edwards

  Even better the second time around.
  Stella and Martin, a married couple are standing on the roof of their apartment block. They embrace, then Stella falls to her death. Was she pushed or did she fall? The story covers the descriptions of the witnesses, views of Stella and her life from her husband, daughter Amanda, her elderly friend. A really good read,
• 
  Kristin

  I'm searching for the word that describes this novel. It's dark, weird, wry, and complicated... It's perceptive, yet veiled, obsessive, yet unfocused. It was fun to spend time with it, but exhausting, too. It's... it's... NORWEGIAN. Yeah, that's it, that's the word. Norwegian.
• 
  Vilma Demant

  Utrolig fin bog, læste den på to dage, elsker bare hvordan Linn Ullman skriver, hun er så sindsyg dygtig. Mega smuk og på samme tid grim kærligheds histore
• 
  Alison Petchell

  Nope - I didn't get it. Found the book a bit of a chore to get through, didn't like the characters, didn't like eternal references to visceral images, didn't like anything about it
• 
  M

  Pretentious, waffling, dull. Not a fan.
• 
  Dorthe

  Der findes mange ensomme mennesker i Linn Ullmanns roman ”Når du er hos mig”. Det er den anden roman, jeg har læst af hende, og jeg må sige at hendes skrivestil denne gang udfordrede mig, men den gjorde mig også nysgerrig.
  
  Bogen handler om Stella og Martin, og den starter med at Stella dør, da hun falder, snubler, bliver skubbet ud fra 9.sal i den ejendom hun engang boede i. Hun er oppe på taget med Martin, og gennem hele bogen hører vi om deres fælles liv fortalt skiftevis gennem Martin, Stella, Axel (en gammel mand, Stella møder på det hospital, hvor hun arbejder), Amanda, Stellas datter fra et tidligere forhold og Corinne – den efterforsker, der bliver sat til at undersøge Stellas død. En anden central person i romanen er Bi, Martins og Stellas fælles barn. Linn Ullmann har udtalt i et interview at hendes mål var at skrive om et barn, der ikke blev elsket, og hvilket betydning, det har for et menneske. Og det lykkes.
  
  Efter jeg har læst den, tænkte jeg over, om figuren Amanda er selvbiografisk – Den lille voksne, der er den voksne overfor sin lillesøster, fordi Stella og Martin har nok i deres eget symbiose. Bogen er utrolig god, og som læser sidder man tilbage med mange refleksioner. Heldigvis læste jeg den i min læseklub Lecture, hvor bogen virkelig gav anledning til mange gode refleksioner og synsninger.
• 
  Pia Rosenkilde

  Når jeg er hos dig af Linn Ullmann ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ~
  
  Er simpelthen kæmpefan af omslagene på Linn Ullmanns bøger i dansk udgave. Er også ret pjattet med hendes forfatterskab generelt og også med denne roman. Er vild med skrivestilen, som er meget less is more og der bliver åbnet op for meget mere end der bliver lukket igen.
  
  Den starter med et dødsfald. En kvinde springer eller bliver skubbet fra taget af en bygning. Der er vidner, men ingen kan sige hvad der er sket. Efterfølgende møder vi hendes døtre, mand, ven og politikvinden, der skal opklare sagen.
  Den formår at skrive om mennesker, så man kender alle deres fejl, men ikke deres helhed.
  Jeg elsker de korte kapitler og stumperne, der næsten gør det til et færdigt puslespil. Men der mangler lige et par brikker for mig. Og det føles alligevel også helt rigtigt. #linnullmann #nårjegerhosdig
• 
  Tanisa Samaddar

  This was my first book of Linn Ullmann's and honestly, I was very disappointed. The synopsis at the back of the book was intriguing and it really piqued my interest. But as I kept reading it, it got more and more boring and then I was bound to skip some pages. Hate me if you think this book was awesome, because I clearly don't see the point of reading a book where a mystery isn't solved. Maybe that was the whole point of Ullmann writing this novel, but to me it was precious time wasted.
  Some of the narrative was good, but then it was very repetitive. I haven't read many books that I can judge this one negatively, but I have read enough books to tell that this wasn't really a good one.
• 
  Cherise Wolas

  I loved Unquiet and The Cold Song by Ullmann, but Stella Descending left me cold. Stella is a nurse in Oslo, married to Martin, with two daughters, and one night, she and Martin are up on the roof of their apartment building, and she falls or is pushed. Told from the perspectives of her daughter, Amanda, of Corinne, the investigator, and Axel, an old man she befriended when he was in the hospital and visited once he was out. For me, way too much of the novel was from Axel's perspective - his life, his marriage, his daughter, his grumpiness, his aches and pains, and I just didn't care.
• 
  vk

  
  I really liked the unusual structure of the book, the well written characters and my favorite was Axel’s strange personality.
  
  Although, the main question – which this book was all about – is not answered…
• 
  Lieke Thoonen

  Een boek dat niet altijd even makkelijk is om te volgen. Een schrijfstijl die iets weg heeft van een dichter, wat het soms de inhoud wat moeilijker maakt.
  Er wordt veel gewisseld van perspectief.
  Wel fijn dat je op het einde effectief te weten komt wat er net gebeurd is.
• 
  Diana

  Can’t say I loved it, but didn’t dislike it. It had a very Scandinavian feel to it (naturally). Strange story.
• 
  Shaire

  No sé, me ha parecido una lectura muy amena pero no sé a dónde ha querido llegar la autora.
• 
  Lili

  Nä den här var inget för mig. Obehaglig/äcklig.
• 
  Kata Jaksa

  Talented writer, i ejnoyed her style a lot. But this is the type of book that hasnt added anything to my life..
• 
  Dicte Birkkjær-Hakmann

  “Når jeg er hos dig” er en meget speciel bog og noget for sig. Så hvis man er til specielle bøger så læs “når jeg er hos dig.”