Against My Dreams
Linda Strever’s strong narrative skills allow her Norwegian grandmother to tell the family stories in a lively, consistent voice that is faithful to land, custom and country, Norway’s mythology, a stern church. Emigrating to America as a young woman, Gunnhild learns that “crossing an ocean does not mean/arriving.” Through tenacity and hard work she makes a new life, a marriage and family, endures. From poem to poem I was drawn into the stories, the people in this compelling verse history, and eager to learn “what happens next.” On a final page the poet tells how Against My Dreams came to be written and that, too, is an interesting story, one that attests to the authenticity of these engaging, generous poems.
Jeanne Lohmann, author of As If Words
I have grown up with these poems, and so the stories of Marit and Ingeborg and especially Gunnhild, who in America becomes Gertrude, have to me the deep truth of old folktales that have been passed by mouth for a hundred years. Though she struggles with many aspects of the immigrant's experience, including alienation and mental illness, the voice of Gertrude has a beauty that makes me happy to linger with her.
Lucia Perillo, author of On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths
and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
“The kitchen window/casts a glow on the ground like a shadow.” So concludes the first poem in Against My Dreams, riveting us to a life history told through the voice of Gunnhild Olavsdatter Breland – a woman of keen sensibilities, powerful, peculiar intelligence, and very little formal education. Gunnhild’s eerie, startling attunement to the world around and within her provides rich nourishment for our culture, pervaded as we are by virtual reality and loss of connection to the earth. We are equally fortunate in poet Linda Strever, who has brought her grandmother to life for us. I like to hope that Gunnhild somehow knows this has happened.
Marjorie Power, author of Seven Parts Woman