In Norwegian this time (the classics, not the post).
I recently bought Alexander Kielland’s collected works, and last week I reread Garman & Worse and Skipper Worse. I first read them both about ten years ago, and didn’t remember much beyond the fact that I thought they were wonderful, especially G&W. I thought they were pretty wonderful this time around, too. Lovely, evocative stories of an unnamed town in western Norway and the decline of the family business that has been the cornerstone of the community, how it affects the family and how it affects everyone in the town, directly or indirectly. Both times I’ve read the books in the order they were written (published), but chronologically, Skipper Worse comes first. This is slightly frustrating, as by the end of Garman & Worse you really want to know more about the characters, and therefore start Skipper Worse thinking you really couldn’t care less for all these «old» events. However, Kielland manages to engage quickly enough.
The nice thing about the collected works (apart from the fact that they look really good on the shelf in their leather half bindings) is that I can now read some more of Kielland’s work.