Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

January's Author is Halldór Laxness pseudonym of Halldór Kiljan Gudjónsson, (born April 23, 1902, Reykjavík, Iceland—died February 8, 1998, near Reykjavík), Icelandic novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955.

Laxness spent most of his youth on the family farm. At age 17 he traveled to Europe, where he spent several years and, in the early 1920s, became a Roman Catholic. His first major novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (1927; “The Great Weaver from Kashmir”), concerns a young man who is torn between his religious faith and the pleasures of the world. Rebellious in its attitude and experimental in style, this modernistic novel marked the beginning of his dissociation from Christianity. While living in the United States (1927–29), Laxness turned to socialism, an ideology that is reflected in his novels written in the 1930s and ’40s. Although he had initially rejected the literary tradition of his native country, Laxness later embraced the medieval Icelandic saga and was credited by the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize, with having “renewed the great narrative art of Iceland.” The nationalistic trilogy Íslandsklukkan (1943–46; “Iceland’s Bell”) established him as the country’s leading writer.

"On this occasion, I think of my book-loving country, Iceland, which has kept its watchful eye on me ever since I took my first steps as an author," said Halldór Laxness when he returned to Iceland with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. He continued to write essays and memoirs throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. As he grew older he began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease and eventually moved into a nursing home, where he died at the age of 95.

He is considered the most creative Icelandic writer of the 20th century.

In addition to novels, Laxness published plays, poetry, short stories, critical essays, and translations, and he edited several Icelandic sagas.

If you are interested in Author Laxness and would like to share your pick of Classic Read amoung his works please share your choice title, cover of your edition and your thoughts about the Author or Classic as we explore his body of works.

Fiction:
Wayward Heroes
The Great Weaver from Kashmir
The Fish Can Sing
Under the Glacier
Iceland's Bell
World Light
Paradise Reclaimed
Independent People
The Atom Station

I just checked Independent People out from my library. I have the kindle edition. I'm hoping to get to it, but I have BIG plans for January, lol!

I have the hard copy of Independent People but it will be a couple of weeks before I get to it.

I read Independent People last year. It's worth reading.

This month is plum full of great reads!

I read World Light in 2020, I can recommend that one.

A little more information:

Laxness would become a brilliant author of short fiction, poetry, journalism and stage plays. As a man of great intellect, it was in literature that he found a platform to nurture his creativity. Very much influenced by Sinclair Lewis and Ernest Hemingway, as well as the psychoanalytical research of Sigmund Freud, the works of Laxness encompass an exploration and subsequent interrogating dialogue with the humanities.

Laxness’ first publication came at age fourteen in the form of a journalistic piece featured in his local newspaper. Although he lacked a formal academic education, his first full-length novel Barn náttúrunnar – along with its English translation Child of Nature – was published when he was just seventeen years old. It was around this time that the author began to travel widely.

The 1920s constituted a time of great spiritual enlightenment for the writer. It was in Luxembourg that he joined an order of monks and was baptized in the Catholic Church. Laxness’ time spent at Abbaya St. Maurice et St. Maur was filled with a devout study of French, philosophy, Latin and theology. The author rigorously read literature and religious doctrine, which then largely informed the critically structured aspect of his own work.

I read Independent People a couple years ago and found it amazing. There is a dark humor in the story that gave me that feeling of laughing and almost crying.

I plan to join in with Under the Glacier at some point this month.

Kathy wrote: "I plan to join in with Under the Glacier at some point this month...."

Will be interesting to see how his works compare Kathy.

I think I could join in with Iceland's Bell. Have been considering reading it for quite some time.

I hope you can Inese!

I have ordered a second-hand copy of The Atom Station (Icelandic: Atómstöðin) (1948) from ebay. The initial print run sold out on the day it was published, which was an unprecedented event in Iceland.

Inese wrote: "I think I could join in with Iceland's Bell. Have been considering reading it for quite some time."

I found a copy of that one too. :)

I started "Iceland's Bell" yesterday. Enjoying the harsh and simple language reflecting the natural and historical environment.

“Human beings, in point of fact, are lonely by nature, and one should feel sorry for them and love them and mourn with them. It is certain that people would understand one another better and love one another more if they would admit to one another how lonely they were, how sad they were in their tormented, anxious longings and feeble hopes.”
― Halldór Laxness

Inese wrote: "I started "Iceland's Bell" yesterday. Enjoying the harsh and simple language reflecting the natural and historical environment."

That's a lovely way of seeing it. I got my copy of The Atom Station in the post today.

I read Independent People last year. It was an engrossing read with a very memorable main character.

If anyone is reading World Light and is interested in what others might think, the following is the fairly brief discussion between NTLTRC member Tracey and myself when we read World Light a few years ago, in what turned out to be a buddy read:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Cphe
I have not found a copy I prefer as of yet. Still looking.

How did you rate it? Would you mind a couple of words?

I have not read any of his works so interested in knowing everyone's thoughts on different reads. Thank you!

Lesle I think you would like the Atom Station. A shorter work, just under 200 pages filled with satire. The USA wants to buy a part of Reykjavík to build an atomic station. A young woman is the main character and she comes from the North to work for her statesman and his family and wants to learn to play the harmonium, which leads her to meet all sorts of interesting characters.

World Light is over 600 pages, the main character lives a life of suffering, although miraculous things happen to him.

Iceland is a rather bleak and cold country, and this is reflected in Laxness' writing.

Thank you for the insight Jazzy!

My pleasure, treasure! x

Thank you Cphe!

Hard and uncompromising...sounds as if it made it harder on the family.

Lesle wrote: " I have not read any of his works so interested in knowing everyone's thoughts on different reads."

My GR review of Independent People:
"I read this several year ago and the main character still stays with me. He is the most frustrating 'hero' that I ever encountered. As others have described, he lets his principles govern his humanity, leading to heartbreak -in other characters and, certainly, in this reader - but not in himself. As a result of creating this character, though, Laxness has written a great and memorable novel." .

These are parts of my discussion with Tracey on World Light,

"this novel was written as 4 separate novellas, so a slight variance in tone in each is to be expected, However, the character of Olafur is consistent through the 4 novellas.
Some of the bizarre conversations and occurrences made me feel "lost" as to what was really going on... there is some beautiful writing, as with this passage from Ch.18 in Part 4:

...the next morning, the sun was dissolving the white mists of the night. The land which emerged, green and blue, from this magic shroud was the kind of land which had nothing to do with functional things but was first and foremost ornamental. The bustle of the quayside and the clatter of the ship's winch had no part in this world. The breasts of the hovering gulls gleamed like silver over the mirror-white smoothness of the sea. The gods create the world everyday, to be sure, but never had they created a morning like this one. This was the one true morning. The poet stood apart from the crowd and gazed entranced at the green mirage of haze where this immortal morning-land was being born.

My determination of a 4 star rather than 3 star rating is based on beautiful writing trumping plot and tone problems.
When I think of this book in the future, when my memory of it fades, I think I'll reflect and remember (Tracey's) 3b's: "bleak bizarre and beautiful."

So I finally came to a reluctant finish of The Atom Station.

I loved it.

By the way, was anyone else recommended this book by another Icelandic author?
Cab 79 (1955) - Indriði G. Þorsteinsson

It looks pretty good so I bought one. By the way his son Arnaldur Indriðason (b.1961) is a rather famous crime writer and has won the Nordic Crime Novel Prize two years in a row.

Thank you Brian for your thoughts on Independent People and his writing.

I finished Under the Glacier which was entertaining. It’s the type of story you just have to go along with it’s so weird. An emissary for the bishop is assigned to go to a community that is rumored to have closed their church and stopped burying bodies. The emissary (called the Embi} is also to find out about a corpse left on the glacier.

The story is satirical, philosophical, humorous. Probably not for everyone but it’s only 240 pages.

Jazzy wrote: "By the way, was anyone else recommended this book by another Icelandic author?
Cab 79 (1955) - Indriði G. Þorsteinsson

It looks pretty good so I bought one. By the..."

After a trip to Iceland years ago, my mother in law gave me a book by Arnaldur Indriðason for a birthday gift. I now have several books by him and now started reading his father's works.

That's class Mikiko! How do you like the son's books?