A Drunken, Despairing, Loafish Lot

Brad Leithauser: “[Halldór] Laxness, who won the Nobel Prize in 1955, often disconcerted his countrymen by the harshness with which he portrayed them in their struggles, and ''Iceland's Bell'' may well offer his bleakest depiction of his homeland. Iceland at the time of the novel is essentially a place administered by crooks -- the colonial Danish masters who monopolize its trade and plunder its few resources -- and populated by a drunken, despairing, loafish lot only fitfully energized by the pleasure of watching some act of public cruelty. More than any other novel I know, ''Iceland's Bell'' recreates a world where Pieter Bruegel would have felt right at home, not merely in its fascination with bumblers (petty thieves, purblind watchmen) and grotesques (faceless lepers, hanging corpses), but also in its unearthly ability to find beauty in a landscape of destitution, wisdom in a congress of fools.”

I've been reading Independent People by Halldór Laxness lately, and have stopped halfway to start reading another book. Leithauser wrote the introduction to Independent People (I don't read introductions of books written by someone other than the author of the book until after reading the book), but makes no mention of that in the article above.

There are two lengthy quotes of Independent People so far on my weblog: one about the tyranny of men and another about Asta Sollilja's awe for her father Bjartur. The book was a gift from the Icelandic branch of my family, and has sit unread until now. I'm setting it aside like I set Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian aside, but just like Soul Mountain, because reading half of a book is a solemn promise to finishing it, I shall return to it too.