Veblen Amundsen-Hovda

Veblen Amundsen-Hovda is the novel’s central character, as well as one of the two characters through whose perspective the story is told. Veblen is a 30-year-old woman engaged to neurologist Paul Vreeland. Veblen lives in Palo Alto, California, where she works as a temp, employed by an agency in various temporary employment positions around the city. She also spends time doing translation work for the Norwegian Diaspora Project, as she has learned Norwegian as a second language and is very interested in her Norwegian heritage, despite never having been to Norway. She is named after famous economist Thorstein Veblen, and she admires the economist’s anti-consumerist philosophies. Veblen is highly optimistic and generally cheerful and patient. She was raised by two very needy parents and is therefore quite accustomed to taking on the burdens of other people’s problems. Veblen is also a great lover of...