"Is Kristin a Brat?"

I was reading this post about Kristin Lavransdatter, (one of my all-time favorite books, highly recommended), which I got to from here (another post about KL) when I read this quote from KL's author Sigrid Undset:

Is there something we ought to have known but weren’t told, and is that why we do such terribly stupid things with our lives?

Boy, can I relate to that! It so often seems like I'm wandering around in the dark...