Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #118086 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
The whimsical hero of this long-lost classic is Steinar of Hlidar, a generous but very poor man living peacefully on a tiny farm in nineteenth-century Iceland. Steinar is the possessor of an unusual pure-white pony, one that his two children believe has fairy blood and which he repeatedly refuses to sell to his richer neighbours, wanting to preserve the children's idyllic fantasy world as long as possible. But when Steinar impulsively offers his family's prized pony to the visiting King of Denmark, he sets in motion - in true fairy-tale fashion - a disastrous chain of events that leave his family in tatters and himself at the other end of the earth, in America. His quixotic attempt to prepare a paradise for his loved ones there, among the devout polygamists in the Mormon Promised Land of Utah, results in their spectacular ruin. By the time the broken family is reunited, Halldor Laxness has spun his trademark blend of compassion and comically brutal satire into a moving and spellbinding enchantment, composed equally of elements of fable and folkore and of the most humble truths.

1)SUCCESS OF INDEPENDENT PEOPLE: Vintage's reissue of Laxness's novel revived interest in a forgotten classic: the Vintage edition has sold more than 50,000 copies in 13 printings. 2)LAXNESS CENTENARY: Laxness is a favourite of such writers as Annie Dillard, Annie Proulx, and Jane Smiley

Customer Reviews

Fascinating, but don't start here if you're new to Laxness..
This is a strange and unexpected novel, which seems to have resulted from Laxness' fascination with the true story of an Icelandic farmer who abandoned everything to travel to Mormon Utah, only to come full circle and return home a few years later. Amongst other things, it is interesting for Laxness' sympathetic treatment of the nineteenth-century Mormon community: though his own world view was very different, he was clearly a man of broad sympathies. However, the book contains some of Laxness' most sardonic and laconic prose, and if you're unfamiliar with his work this probably isn't the best place to start - the quirkily touching "The Fish Can Sing", or the monolithic "Independent People", are safer bets.

Steinar of Hlidar is a virtually penniless farmer in the Icelandic outback, whose mare gives birth to a miraculous pure-white foal - a "fairy horse", as Steinar tells his children. When the King of Denmark visits his Icelandic subjects on a tour of state, Steinar gives him the horse as a gift, clearly expecting his generosity to be returned. The King, indeed, does invite Steinar in an offhand way to Copenhagen, "to get his bridle back". However, when Steinar turns up in Copenhagen the following year, clutching another miraculous gift - a wooden puzzle-box that has taken him all winter to construct - he finds himself treated as a novelty act by the King's retinue and assorted Crown Princes of Europe, who happen to be visiting at the time. (The Tsar of Russia, growing bored with the puzzle-box, breaks it in frustration after about five minutes.) The King does give him a signed photograph, which he is able to sell for enough money to buy a packet of pins for his wife.

Steinar is on the point of returning home in disgust, when a chance encounter with a Mormon preacher sends him off on another quixotic mission - this time to Mormon Utah, where he hopes to construct a heaven on Earth for his family. Though he does at least partially succeed, it is almost too late for his children, and certainly too late for Steinar himself who loses almost everything that is important to him.

Although probably not the easiest introduction to Laxness' unique style, this is a touching and idiosyncratic novel that has a lot to offer. As ever, Magnus Magnusson's translation is a joy - earthy and idiomatic. Definitely worth a look.