Bookworm Wednesday: East by Edith Pattou

 

Photo Copyright to Edith Pattou

"East"is a re-telling of the Norwegian folktale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, superbly written by Edith Pattou.

I have read East of the Sun and West of the Moon as a little girl and it has imprinted on me. It still is one my beloved fairy tales, especially as the protagonist was a girl who rescued her prince which is quite unlike the usual set-up. Since watching "Frozen", I have been on the lookout for such strong female protagonists.  When I came across a post on my Facebook newsfeed about female-led fairy tales, I commented that I want to see "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" onscreen. Another user replied that there is a book adapted from that tale and is entitled "East". And so the search for a free downloadable copy ensued. I found none, but a further search brought me to the Amazon Kindle Store, where a $7.99 copy is found. I weighed my options, and wham! I bought the book!

So, "East" is essentially the East of the Sun and West of the Moon tale. The large, starving family forced to allow their lovely daughter to go with a white bear in exchange of better fortunes; girl discovers that the bear was a prince cursed to walk his days as a bear and nights as a man; she goes after to rescue him from the clutches of a troll princess and rides on the back of winds to "East of the sun and West of the moon", blah, blah, blah. However, and this is a HUGE however, "East" is a very insightful and, as a fairy tale connoisseur, very satisfying read.

Edith Pattou's version is a tale of  family, love, and self-acceptance. She seamlessly melds myth and reality, with comparisons to Cupid & Psyche, Beauty & the Beast, and the Snow Queen. Each chapter is written from the points of view of different characters: Rose, the Bear, Rose's brother Neddy, father, mother, and the Troll Queen. Each narration is unique and gives the reader insight as to that character's thoughts, feelings, and motivations. It paints a picture of a loving father, a superstitious mother who is afraid to lose a daughter yet again, a protective older brother, a man struggling to overcome the appetites of a bear, and a spoiled, impulsive princess who will do and endure anything to get what she wants. Told this way, it challenges the readers to piece together the whole story.

Pattou imbued her story with magic and superstition, history and local flavor. Beliefs in birth-direction, haunted woods, Norse gods, Innuit spirits, and trolls. She fashioned the bear-prince after a real French prince of the Valois line who died in childhood. The author juxtaposed reality with fantasy in a credible way, assigning the unexplored parts of the North Pole as the bridge to the troll kingdom, Huldre. Instead of riding in the back of the East, West, South, and North winds as told in the original tale, Rose rode a carriage, a Viking ship, and an Innuit vessel to get to "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". In the place of the three old women who helped the protagonist along the way, we saw Sofi and Estelle, a mother-daughter duo who looked after the starving and sick Rose as she emerged from the haunted forest; Thor, the alcoholic captain of the old Viking ship that brought her to the North Pole; and Malmo, the Innuit shaman who was Rose's guide across the harsh Northern terrain. She traded their services not with golden apples as in the tale, but with gowns that she wove: gowns of silver, gold, and moon-shine. Rose was not one who took opportunities, she made them.

The characters are three-dimensional, complete with their quirks and flaws. Rose's mother, Eugenia, is as superstitious as they come. She believes in birth-direction, something she learned at her mother's knee. Eugenia named her children in the direction that they were born. She obsessed not to have a North-born child since a fortune-teller told her that she will lose that child to a cold and terrible death, "suffocating under ice and snow". Alas, she gave birth to her last child, the child to replace a daughter that died, prematurely and had no time to orientate herself to the right direction. She gave birth facing North, a true North (meaning not Northeast or Northwest). She hid this from everyone except her husband, telling them that she faced East and called her Ebba Rose. She tried to mold Rose into what an East child is: practical, quiet, and obedient. But Rose was a true North child and it showed. She walked at five months, nearly drowned multiple times before she was two, fell, shed blood, and EXPLORED. Rose's father was an exceptional map-maker who was forced to become a farmer due to dwindling fortunes. He struggled to keep his family afloat, until they could do no more. Take note that the family was not always poor and their wealth have been steadily declining until they were reduced to penury that winter that the bear took Rose away. In his heart, he could not reconcile the fact that he had to give one daughter away in exchange for the health of another and their general good fortune. His fatherly pride cause a rift between him and Rose and in his marriage. Neddy, Rose's older brother and protector, is selfless in his love yet is helpless to stop her from being true to her true North character. He watches as she stubbornly went with the white bear despite common sense and their father's objection. He put his life on hold, just to make sure that Rose knew where to find them should she come back.

It is also interesting to note that Rose and the bear had known each other for a long time. It/ He saved Rose from drowning when she was two, and have been observing her through the years. Rose on the other hand, was weirdly drawn to the bear. She fantasized that she would travel the world astride a snow white bear. So it was no surprise that when the bear came knocking, Rose was more than eager to go with him. Also, the struggle for the bear to hold on to the remnants of his human memories and feelings were very real. His chapters were told in sensory-centered poetry, incomplete trains of thought and HOPE.

Pattou's character development was excellent. Rose started as a willful child, mindless of the worry she causes as she is bent on exploring the world and reaching the limits of her human body. As she journeys on, we see how she tried, and eventually mastered, reining in her impulses and careless retorts as she endured back-breaking labor aboard a Viking ship and pushed on despite life-threatening winter storms in the North. In stark comparison is the Troll Queen, who despite one and half centuries of waiting for her prince, maintained her willful, impulsive ways. This failure to curb her passions and appetite eventually led to her (and her people's) fall. We can also observe realistic family dynamics: overprotective parents, how a rift affects a marriage, the love in a family. Even the Troll Queen has some redeeming characteristics. She may be greedy, impulsive, and full of wiles but she is in love. She waited a century and a half for the curse to lift, she accepted her punishment, and patiently groomed the prince to love her.

As a woman, I was happy to see the author challenge today's standards of beauty. Rose, who was described to be short, of compact built, and dark-haired was different from the rest of her blonde, blue-eyed and long-limbed siblings and parents. She aspired to be like them and was conscious of how different she looked. However, the very things that set her apart were what made her survive the icy cold of the North. Beauty is not merely for the eyes. There is beauty in utility and survival. What use is a long, lanky body and light-hued eyes if you are more likely to freeze to death and be rendered blind by the stark whiteness of snow? You tell me that.

There are also tidbits of insight that we can learn to curb our massive consumerist culture, and to appreciate hard work and the ordinariness of life. I will let you discover that yourselves.

"East" is an exceptional re-telling of the Norwegian East of the Sun and West of the Moon and it has exceeded my expectations. I am left feeling satisfied with some thoughts to mull over after.