Crossing the ocean for better times becomes a familiar story to the
Blorstad family. Trygve Blorstad’s parents may hail from southern Norway, but they met in
Brooklyn, N.Y. Their first son is born there in 1929, and the Blorstads have three sons by
the time they return to their Norwegian home during the Great Depression.
N.Y.'s factories begin reopening in the mid-1930s, so Trygve’s father returns to Brooklyn in 1936. This time he means to stay, and will send for his family as soon as he earns enough money for their fares.
N.Y.'s factories begin reopening in the mid-1930s, so Trygve’s father returns to Brooklyn in 1936. This time he means to stay, and will send for his family as soon as he earns enough money for their fares.
Trygve is only 7 when his mother takes him, brothers Thoralf and Odd (Odin), and sister Thelma, to live with their Bestemor (grandmother) in a tiny coastal town. Much of Kurt Blorstad's Occupied is a charming tale of city boys learning to farm, cut peat, and catch fish under the guidance of elder relatives. They all come to love Norway’s boreal forests and rocky seacoast.
Then, things turn more serious in 1940 when World War II arrives in Vanse, and the village is occupied by German soldiers. Resistance movements spring up across Norway, including Vanse. The village's residents can’t stop the Germans from taking whatever they wish, but they soak up sightings, careless speech, and what goes on in the naval base across the fjord, and pass on what they learn.
It's not long before Trygve is
asked to keep watch during a Resistance meeting. Then, in 1944, the 15-year old is lent a telescope to keep watch over the German naval traffic from a rocky knoll on the family's farm. You never know what might prove vital ….
Author Kurt Blorstad is Trygve’s son, and does an amazing job of
bringing his father’s war journal to life in Occupied. Mr. Blorstad takes care to maintain the viewpoint of a
boy too young to understand everything that is happening, then maturing beyond
his years with the knowledge that Nazis exact terrible vengeance on informers and
their families. World War II buffs shouldn't miss Occupied , and if you love family sagas like I do, it's for you too. It’s a terrific read for young readers as
well.
Occupied, Kurt Blorstad, Odin Publishing, 2019, $14.95, pb, 255 pp, 9781732632400
Occupied, Kurt Blorstad, Odin Publishing, 2019, $14.95, pb, 255 pp, 9781732632400
JoAnn - Thanks for your review of Occupied. The context you set it in shows both the level of history you understand and the depth of care you feel for family histories, whether real or fictionalized.
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