One of Dregni’s motivations for studying in Norway was his wish to visit the birthplace of his great-grandfather Ellef, who fled Norway in 1893, when it was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Dregni’s father attempted to maintain the family’s Norwegian roots, and his son was eager to learn just how different from contemporary Norwegian culture these traditions were.
The challenges facing an American-Norwegian (or, for that matter, any foreigner) temporarily living in Norway are many. Odorous fish dishes, small and uncomfortable furniture, cabin life, and not least: cold weather. The book could perhaps be subtitled ‘Stuff Norwegians Like’: a list that according to Dregni would include oddly prepared fish, being outdoors, a lax attitude towards child raising, candles, knitting, and traveling to Sweden to stock up on meat and booze.
Adding to adversity was the fact that Dregni and his wife Katy welcomed their first born in the middle of their year-long stay – a birth that just happened to coincide with the darkest days of Norwegian winter. Fortunately, the Norwegian health care system was slightly more welcoming than their sceptical neighbours. And Dregni’s perspectives on the Norwegian welfare system becomes a theme as the book progresses. The family became better acquainted with this system than most foreigners as a result of Katy’s birth, and their son’s dramatic bouts of colic. Without revealing too much, Katy and Eric’s astonishment at being offered a free stay in hospital to ‘rest up’ after one too many nights spent rocking their screaming baby is a highlight.
Dregni’s writing is light-hearted and fast-paced. Rather than looking beyond stereotypes, he highlights them for comic effect, often with great success. Similarly, his quest to reunite with distant relatives errs on the comical, rather than sentimental, side. If you are looking for an academic anthropological study challenging the stereotypical conceptions of Norwegians, you will have to turn elsewhere. If you’re looking for a witty account of the cultural differences between Norway and the United States, however, look no further.
Eric Degni’s book In Cod We Trust will be published by University of Minnesota Press in September, 2008. Dregni, a fourth-generation Norwegian American from Minnesota and now a teacher of creative writing at the University of Minnesota, spent a year at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim on a Fulbright Scholarship.