My Men by Victoria Kielland

 

From the blurb: 

Seventeen-year-old Brynhild is in a fever - she can't quiet the screaming world inside her. When an intense affair ends brutally, she flees Norway for America at the end of the nineteenth century in search of a new life. Changing her name first to Bella, later to Belle, she is driven from any potential refuge by an unbearable tension that won’t let her keep still. As Belle seeks release in a series of men, her yearning for an all-consuming love erupts into violence.

In this breathtaking novel, Victoria Kielland imagines her way into the tumultuous inner life of the Norwegian woman who became Belle Gunness - America's first known female serial killer. Written in prose of wild, visceral beauty, My Men is a radically empathetic and disquieting portrait of a woman capable of ecstatic love and gruesome cruelty.
 

My Review:

My Men is definitely not a run of the mill crime novel. It is written in a dense literary prose style and is darkly poetic, occasionally chaotic, and at times almost takes the form of a stream of consciousness. The unfocused style suits the depiction of a confused protagonist sliding into madness, but I would imagine this will be a very polarising read. I’m glad I stuck with it to the end, but I know it won’t be to everyone’s taste. Some readers may find the style too monotonous despite the beauty of the prose, and the tale too unremittingly bleak. 

Thanks to Pushkin Press for another unusual and interesing read. My Men is out July 6th.