The blurp says: This magnificent novel—which secured for its author the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature—is at last available to contemporary American readers.My guess is that the translation into modern English spoilt it for me. I could not keep going since the story line was rather straight but the ...
Reykjavik today is such an interesting place. Half spartan northern outpost, half ambitious capital of a scarcely populated but not diminutive country, the biggest (and some say only) town in Iceland welcomed your humble reviewer in style. Bygone the hectic days of the financial and real estate bubb...
The fish can sing just like a bird,And grazes on the moorland scree,While cattle in a lowing herdRoam the rolling sea.Starting from this Icelandic paradox put in verse, Halldór Laxness weaves an enchanting tale on the outskirts of Reykjavík, in a time when the price of a Bible was equal to that of a...
Written as a pair with PericlesReading Smiley on the back cover of this book:‘I can’t imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for the first time’ Really? I mean, REALLY????? Better than sex? Chocolate icecream??? What sort of life has Smiley lived that makes her say that. I co...
No me parece que este sea un libro para todos. Es pesado y un poco largo, a veces parece nunca terminar. Pero al mismo tiempo tiene una buena historia con personajes magníficos y detalles que te hacen comprender realmente que es lo que les sucede y de esa manera involucrarte en su historia. Todo env...
Here's an Icelandic writer of which I've heard nothing about, despite the fact that he won the Nobel prize for literature. I found the book by chance, the synopsis sounded interesting enough, so I began reading and... helplessly fell in love with the novel. This is Halldór Laxness' only book transla...
Translated from the Icelandic by J A ThompsonIntroduction by Brad LeithauserOpening: In early times, say the Icelandic chronicles, men from the Western Isles came to live in the country, and when they departed, left behind them crosses, bells, and other objects used in the practice of sorcery.Miff-o...
This book left me flattened. I honestly don't know what I can say about it, though it's clearly a great book. More time isn't enough, I'll have to read it again—preferably with a character sheet, and a map, and at least a general knowledge of Icelandic history, of which I know so little—although, in...
i'm not sure i've ever hated a book so much in my life. by that i don't mean it's bad (surely one cannot be awarded a nobel prize for having written badly) and i don't mean it's not worth reading. what i mean is that there is just enough in this novel that is gripping to make it impossible to give u...
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