Merab's Beauty and Other Stories: Including the Way of a Serpent

Combines rural folktale and biblical argument in a collection of tales that explores the power of words and includes the tale "The Way of the Serpent"

These 14 modern folktales, set for the most part in isolated, pre-20th-century Swedish villages and farms, powerfully depict the plight of rural peasants. A stern moralist as well as an accomplished storyteller, Lindgren ( Bathsheba ) pits his characters' hubris against the forces of nature and an uncompromising God. In the title story Gabriel Israelssom, an old bachelor besotted by the beauty of his cows, must take on the ghost of his dead father, who is jealous of both the animals' loveliness and his son's affection for them. "The Stump Grubber" describes the gruesome death of a farmer as he attempts to wrestle a gigantic tree stump from the ground; he thinks of it as "a primitive monster" over which he must gain mastery. The novella "The Way of the Serpent" tells of the perverted relationship between a family of peasants and a moneylender, the relentless nemesis of many farmers whose land he repossesses and whom he pushes deeper and deeper in debt. For "rent" he demands payment in sexual services from the women in the family. Nineteenth-century realism, biblical morality and Lindgren's personal mysticism are combined successfully in this unusual collection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The publication of The Way of a Serpent in 1982 brought Lindgren to the forefront of Swedish prosaists. This darkly glimmering jewel of a novella about the cruel oppression and destruction of three beautiful and talented women is included here along with shorter pieces having similar settings and motives. Although never obvious, these stories about 19th-century peasant life in northern Sweden form an eloquent comment on life in the Third World today. Thus, the title story praises the beauty of cows, or "God's daughters," showing how the love for his cows sustains the lonely life of a poor farmer. Almost all the stories are written in an archaic northern dialect with biblical overtones, impossible to reproduce in English. Nevertheless, the translation allows the magic and power of these moving tales to come through. Highly recommended.
- Ulla Sweedler, Univ. of California at San Diego Lib.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.