Review of “Independent People”
Based on a recent article in New York Review of Books, I read the novel “Independent People” by the Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness. The book was originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935. Laxness won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1955, in part on the strength of this book. Like Moby-Dick, I approached this novel as an obligation. I put it down once, after a few pages, in exasperation with its rambling faux-Norse folklore beginnings, but took it up again when it was the only reading on hand while I spent five hours in the local hospital emergency department. The story is set in late 19th-early 20th century Iceland, which was at the time a province of Denmark. The novel’s protagonist is Guðbjartur Jónsson, who has rechristened himself “Bjartur of Summerhouses.” After 18 years in the service of the town Bailiff, he is now a tenant crofter on rugged pastureland where he raises sheep and, eventually, a family. Bjartur is a hardy, opinionated, belligerent man who is embraces ...