The End of the Book

The End of the Book

Personally, I did not like this book whatsoever. I definitely enjoyed the flow of it and how easy it was, but I was very, very disappointed in how it ended. I wanted her to realize the mistakes her mother made, which she did to some degree, but not make the same mistakes herself. I was very upset that she never went back to Pankaj. I felt that it was extremely selfish and irrational to never go back to him. I can understand her not wanting to be with him, but to never see him again when she is pregnant with his baby is completely wrong.

The twist in the book about Anna Kristine being her grandmother was very clever. I did not see that twist coming at all. I gained a lot of respect for Anna Kristine taking her in and helping her while she was ill. I questioned many, many times why a random old woman would do such a thing and the answer was revealed at the end.

It was a weird discovery that Clarissa was, in one way or another, related to Henrik even though it was obvious that there was a slight attraction between the two of them. It made their previous relation slightly awkward.

I didn’t think that Henrik was a very interesting person throughout the book. I thought that the whole reindeer herder was weird. He didn’t seem like he did anything that was meaningful. He seemed to herd his reindeer and go out to the bars. Regardless, he was a good friend to Clarissa throughout the whole book. He went with her to the Ice Hotel to meet/find her mother. He was very supportive of what she did.

In the end of the book, the only parts that I enjoyed were how she was able to live her life without torturing herself mentally and that she kept Richard as her father. I think that Richard, although not her biological father, was the only father she ever knew of. Without him, she wouldn’t be half the woman she is and I agreed with her decision to think of him as her father.

When she goes and visits her mother, Clarissa talks about how for the first time, she feels stronger than her mother. When reading that, I felt so happy for her. I can only imagine the strength it takes to spend so much money and time trying to find a mother that neglected and left her. I was disappointed at the time they had together, but I am somewhat impressed as to how Clarissa handled seeing her mother. I could understand why she was so angry and wanted to “shove” her mother when they were in the sauna area. The anger, frustration and sadness that had been building over the past decade and a half meant everything during that short period that she had with her mother. Clarissa seemed to want to talk to her and figure out so many things, but her mother wouldn’t stand for it. It was very shocking that even after fourteen years, her mother is still so selfish.

As far as my paper goes, I really have no idea what I will write about. I think I will develop an idea during our discussion during Tuesday’s class. I am seriously considering writing about the differences between the geographic distances versus the distance emotionally. The only problem with that, is I do not know how I could talk about that for four to six pages. I wouldn’t be able to. I need to come up with something that is interesting enough to talk a lot about. I need to come up with something that has a lot of evidence or possible points.