First published in 1946, this humane epic novel is set in rural Iceland in the early twentieth century. Bjartus is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch of land. Nothing, not merciless weather, nor his family will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. As she grows up, keen to make her own way in the world, Bjartus' obstinacy threatens to estrange them forever.
Independent People
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"I love this book. It is an unfolding wonder of artistic vision and skill - one of the best books of the 20th century. I can't imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for the first time" (Jane Smiley )
"Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: It is not possible to be unimpressed" (Daily Telegraph )
"Marvellously fluent and unaffected... one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century" (Times Literary Supplement )
"There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life" (New York Review of Books )
"Do yourself a favour and read Independent People. Opening this book is like opening a chest of treasures. Reading this book is like taking the treasures out and appreciating them, savouring them, one by one, sentence by sentence. This is the kind of novel that reminds you how glad you are that you learned to read in the first place" (Chicago Tribune )
"Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: It is not possible to be unimpressed" (Daily Telegraph )
"Marvellously fluent and unaffected... one of the most original and skilfully written novels of the 20th century" (Times Literary Supplement )
"There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life" (New York Review of Books )
"Do yourself a favour and read Independent People. Opening this book is like opening a chest of treasures. Reading this book is like taking the treasures out and appreciating them, savouring them, one by one, sentence by sentence. This is the kind of novel that reminds you how glad you are that you learned to read in the first place" (Chicago Tribune )
Werbetext
Icelandic Nobel Prize-winner, by the 'Tolstoy of the North'
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3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Having just read INDEPENDENT PEOPLE, I feel as though I have been drawn into the vortex of some great hurricane and am being carried around the globe by it, high above the surface, trapped in its gravity.
This story has captured me and will not let me go. It is above all the heroic struggle of a Viking farmer to be free and his refusal to grieve in loss and defeat that grip me. He never grieves. Why then did I continually grieve for him? And why am I grieving for him still?
The answer must be that my character is weak in comparison. Laxness may have spoken for all survivors everywhere. "Never mourn what you have lost."--"rather content yourself with what you have left, when you have lost what you had."
Some people learn Russian to read Pushkin. I want to learn Icelandic to read Laxness.
As for politics and ideologies, not to worry. They are just a little dust here and there on the floor of the croft, at times a little distraction. The story unfolds outside and above and all around them and in its enormous weight little concerns them.
Could this book possibly have been written just for me? To enjoy it most, a reader should probably have lived at least a thousand years.
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Von Ein Kunde
Format:Taschenbuch
Independent People is not a book for everyone. It is a long, slow and sometimes punishing read. Laxness paints the sheep farmer's life in bleak tones. Think of Solzhenitsyn's Siberia or Rolvaag's Dakota prairie. So dismal is the mood at times that the reader feels the imminent onset of seasonal affective disorder. But Independent People also contains moments of pure, distilled beauty so arresting they seem to stand out from the cold landscape like stars in the ink of darkness. Bjartur of Summerhouses is a true epic hero. As Monte Christo is to vengeance, Bjartur is to self-determination. His emotional intransigence and the suffering he visits on all those close to him is balanced only by the enormity and brute force of his will. Asta Sollilja, his daughter, is the only possible counterweight to his obstinacy, in both emotional and literary terms. She is strong and sensitive, beautiful and grotesque, half Bjartur, half anti-Bjartur. Her duality provides the story's central drama and the book's over-arching metaphor. Masterfully constructed of vignettes woven into small books, Independent People is seamless. Laxness's voice is clear and lyric, never showy. The writing is fresh and modern, yet seems to be channeled from Iceland's mythic past. This is a land populated by many dark spirits and one never feels quite free of their presence here. Certain images from Independent People are indelibly etched on my consciousness. A man violently and accidentally riding a reindeer. A girl longing by a window for a stranger she's met just once. A young man seduced back to the home he has left by a siren on horseback. There is something more to why I love this book. I spent a week in Iceland in July 1998, and was transfixed by its rugged, austere beauty. The feeling I had while reading Independent People was the same feeling that possessed me the entire time I was in Iceland. It was the cold, astonishing sensation of stepping outside your self and gazing on the topography of your own heart.
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Von Haukur
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
I don't think anything I write here in this review will fully justify this book, it's just too amazing. So, if you're reading this, pick up your wallet, buy this book and read it. You will not be let down, I promise.
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4.4 von 5 Sternen
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4.0 von 5 Sternen
Independend people
This book is written fantasticly. The only thing I can critisize is the long preface. You can not wait to read this book and the preface is very loooong. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 26. Juli 2009 von Vivien Kaiser
5.0 von 5 Sternen
the reason we have words
I read this book the way I love to see films - grabbed by a friend, without knowing anything about it. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 20. Januar 2000 veröffentlicht
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Do NOT Miss it!
Best book I have ever read....
Veröffentlicht am 22. Dezember 1999 von Laura Hendrie
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Universality in Myth
The fact that this book remained out of print in English for many years is astonishing. Also amazing is its absence from the many (albeit silly) lists enumerating the best novels... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 21. Dezember 1999 von shane guiter
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Frábær bók - great book
Best book I have ever read. Besta bók sem ég hef lesið
Am 20. Oktober 1999 veröffentlicht
5.0 von 5 Sternen
J. A. Thompson does justice to Halldor Laxness' talent
J. A. Thompson does justice to Halldor Laxness' tremendous talent, as his translation is eloquent. Regarding the setting, anyone who has a relative or friend who lived in... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 17. Oktober 1999 veröffentlicht
4.0 von 5 Sternen
You'll love it or you'll hate it
This is one of those books that requires you to sink into it, giving it time and attention. You'll be rewarded with immersion in a time and place completely different from ours. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 30. September 1999 veröffentlicht
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Alex Sydorenko: A Beautiful and memorable Book
Gosh, this really is a wonderful book. The story of Bjartur of the Summerhouses and his rebelious daughter Asta Sollilja kept me from putting it down. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 22. September 1999 veröffentlicht
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Thoughts from Iceland
It is incredibly and somewhat strangely satisfying for me, an 20 yr. old Icelander, to read foreign people's almost unanimous praise upon this masterpiece by my countryman... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 20. Juli 1999 veröffentlicht
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Man vs. Landscape and Himself
Laxness has created a true hero in Bjartur Jonssen of the Summerhouses, a man determined to overcome the hardship of raising sheep in the Icelandic hills in order to maintain his... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 10. Juni 1999 von Joseph Furshong
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