Customer Reviews (2)

Informative, but questionable as a reference thanks to poor editing
This appears to be part of what should be a two-volume compilation of the later Icelandic commonwealth sagas and history. Unfortunately the attempts to anglicize the patrynomics results in very confusing and sometimes totally incorrect family relationships.

The tendency to convert feminine descendant names such as Thurid Starrisdottir to "...Thurid Starri's daughter..." (Hvamm-Sturla Saga, ch.1) makes for confusing reading. And in chapter 3, "Einar...was married to Snorri's syster [sic] Sigrid Kalf's daughter..." is totally incorrect. The sister of Snorri (Kalfsson) could be misunderstood as the daughter of Sigrid Kalf when instead she was Sigrid Kalfsdottir.

This editorial oversight makes the already almost overwhelming interrelationships and extensive family ties that much more difficult, particularly for readers new to the Icelandic literature. I would advise anyone new to this body of writing to develop an understanding by first starting with the other sagas (The Sagas of Icelanders: Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition (World of the Sagas), The Vinland Sagas (Penguin Classics), etc.).

Not the best Icelandic saga.
This volume is comprised mostly of the Islendinga Saga, which is very long and repetitive as compared to other Icelandic sagas. If you have already read all the other, more popular, sagas, then go right ahead and read thisone. Not recommended for newcomers to saga literature, however. There issome very interesting detail about conflicts with a Christian bishop, butthis can be gotten in a more succinct and readable form in volume 2 of thistranslation. ... Read more

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Written in 1991, this is the story of Margrethe Thiede, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper in an unnamed small fishing community on the north-western coast of Denmark. We follow Margrethe through her childhood, her years as a student in the capital, her marriage to a mentally unstable man, her involvement in the peace movement, and her old age. The novel is also about a changing community where fears of violence at sea and rampant commercialism on land are strong undercurrents. The building of a naval base and the ominous presence of foreign submarines intimidates the fishermen and their families, and an accident caused by one of these intruding vessels forms the catastrophic climax of the novel. The storytelling is funny, playful and clever. Svendsen skillfully blends the events of Margrethe's life, an exploration of the surreal world of dreams, and the process of how living and dreaming interact to realize a whole person.""Booklist ... Read more

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The Scandinavian imagination seems obsessed with the concept of guilt - an obsession Norwegian novelist Borgen (1902-79) appears to fully share. This novel's main character, Matias Roos, is a splintered personality obsessed by frontiers, guilty of an unspecified crime, and in search of a path of atonement. The book begins as an interior monologue but rapidly becomes a bewildering dialogue between ""I"" and ""he"" in which Roos both describes his actions and passes judgement on them; the boundary between Roos' personae is fluid and permeable, but until the dénouement, dialogue between them is intentionally confusing as to voice, plot, and reality...Borgen skillfully fuses modernist techniques and more traditional obsessions in a work refulgent with contemporary angst if not indeed with ancient fire and brimstone."" - Booklist. ""A seminal and fascinating text"" - Choice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Five Stars, One Star? Who Can Say?
I hated this book while reading it. I kept going only because of its indifference to simple gratification, because it obviously had to be jumbled and frustrating and ugly in order to be honest. "The Scapegoat" is plainly not a novel written to sell copies and pay the writer's rent. I've finished it now, after several abandonments to the nightstand, and I need to offer it some grudging respect.

Matias Roos - the character, perhaps the only substantiated character - is 'a splintered personality' according to the translator of the novel, 'a man in search of his authentic self.' The novel begins thus:

"A bird flies, dark above the slate-gray water. I come out of the house. I see myself from where I am standing at the edge of the forest. The first ray of sun strikes the veranda door through which I have just come. As for myself, I am standing in dew-wet shade.
This has happened before, the fact that I am divided. It always occurs when something is about to happen. Which means that something is not simply going to happen around me or in me, but TO me. You can't be alone in such a situation, because it has to happen to the one, while the other must know about it and explain it to both of us."

Uh huh. Matias leaves his house, and that's the beginning of 'something' which ends four years and 187 pages later with Matias crawling back to the threshold of the same house. In between there are horrific events, if they are in any sense real, including running over a child; surreal difficulties crossing frontiers, if there are any frontiers, a possibility Matias denies; imprisonment in a bar where cartoonish strangers pop in and out; a murder, for which Matias becomes a willing scapegoat and serves a prison term; and some sort of askew unrelationship with a woman who may be the murderer, or not. If that synopsis of the story sounds roughly like Kafka, Nabokov, or Borges, then I've done my reviewer's duty. But Borgen is more tormented even than Kafka, more self-observant than Nabokov (though not as fine a stylist), and more unforgivingly intellectual than Borges. Once again to quote the translator: "Reality and fantasy merge as the novel explores with hallucinatory power his struggle to derive meaning from experience."

It's no surprise that a Norwegian should write such a novel. Think of Ibsen's poetic drama Peer Gynt. The most frightening character in all of literature, to me at least, appears in the final scenes of Peer Gynt. He is identified only as the Button Maker, though he's just as obviously Death as the shrouded chess-player in Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal. The Button Maker has come to collect Peer Gynt's identity to be melted and recast, that being the fate of all those who fail to live fully as themselves. The Button Maker scared the be-jeebers out of me when I was a teenager and first read Ibsen. Borgen's writing unsettles me in the same way.

The only other novel by Borgen available in English is "Lillelord", which I reviewed recently. "The Scapegoat" is more abstract and surreal than "Lillelord", and less absorbing. Honestly, if I hadn't already learned to respect Borgen's impact from "Lillelord," I might never have gotten past the second chapter of "The Scapegoat". If I were a Scandinavian film-maker and I wanted to render this somber book in cinematography, I'd shoot it in uncompromising bleak-and-white. ... Read more

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This is a multilingual collection of more than fifty essays in English, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish by a distinguished group of scholars investigating the idea of transitions. Some of the authors are concerned with periods of transition in literary and cultural history, with apocalypse and fin-de-sieclé on the one hand and rebirth and renewal on the other. Others concentrate on the ways in which narratives, plays, and poems start and finish, or the connection between death and closure, birth and openness. ... Read more

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Brings together an early novella, "Surroundings", and short stories from various collections, including "Stage Settings" and "Thomas F's Last Notes to the Public". The stories relate the struggles of ordinary people with the trivialities of everyday life, facing loneliness and despair. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Why suffering is neccassary
As any other writer, Askildsen is linked to many other authors. I've seen Kafka has been mentioned. One can also add Beckett, Raymond Carver, Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon, Hemingway, Albert Camus and many more to that list.

I've learned norwegian mainly to read his books with his own direct words, which are translated to almost 20 languages now.

In Askildsens books, you won't even see a dark-brown color in the end of the tunnel. His characters are all, in one way or the other, physically or psychologically suffering. Love, Sex, Religion, Politics, everything is jilting. Bu they go on. And you go along with them.

And in the end, if you're trying hard enough, I think you'll get a deeper understanding of why suffering is neccessary.

One of the best writers of short stories in the world today
Askildsen may very well be one of the best writers of short stories alive today. His extremely consistent style brings you some of the most scary,and bitingly/bitterly funny, stories this side of Kafka. More people thanthose reading a Scandinavian language deserve to meet Askildsens bleak yetbrilliant universe.

This is a most excellent collection of short-stories....
This is a most excellent collection of short-stories where Askildsen writes in words what we all know about the psychological game of the everyday life. It is poshly hidden behind the most impressing author-skills I have encountered in a very long time. His style can very much be compared with Kafka's The Trial, at the same time there is resemblence with the first parts of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. This is most complete short-story collection, full of innovative and elaborate characters, still highly with their feet on the ground.It is also full of sarcasm, and it will force you to smile. It is excellent for reading in groups. Feel free to contact me for more thorough information, or if you want to discuss the interpretations of the book:)!(excuse my english) ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Magda's US relatives
Though I have never met the lovely Magda, I feel like I know her. I read the book and could visualize her world of long ago. I have an actual photo of Magda taken with my Uncle years ago when she was in her mid-90's.I don't recall what our relation is to Magda, but it is amazing to have read about her. It is a great book and I wish it was back in print.I would love to give a few copies as gifts to friends.

For The Love of Norway
This is one of my all time favorite books and I usually read it once a year.I only wish it had illustrations of the mountains, islands, ocean and a map.Never-the-less, the words portray a vivid story of hardworking people, and their simple lives of fishing, gathering eggs, harvesting, birthing, dying, etc.In short this is the life of Magda who marries Johan, and travels by boat to live on an island off the northern coast of Norway."He met her at Vaagen.They put her wooden chest on the wheelbarrow.She wanted to carry the guitar herself...There was only one road in Mostad.It ran from north to south through the middle of the field and was about a quarter of a mile long.At the north end there was a white building with tall windows and a flagpole.That was the schoolhouse.The spring, or the house brook, as they called it, was at the other end.It was the only source of water..." Paal Espolin Johnson tells a wonderful story. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Remainland showcases poetry from four volumes by Aase Berg, one of Swede's most celebrated and subversive young writers. From the wrecked fairy-tale-scape of With Deer to the pregnancy allegory Transfer Fat, from the sci-fi naturalism of to the catastrophic oasis of Uppland, Berg works language into miniature grotesques which invert the truisms of contemporary society. Her compulsive inventiveness provides an excoriating challenge to all cultures of complacency. ... Read more

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These eighteen essays examine the cultural and literary cross-currents between Scandinavia and Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century and up to the outbreak of World War I ... Read more

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On the occasion of Hans Christian Andersen's bicentenary the theme chosen was Hans Christian Andersen between Children's Literature and Adult Literature. At previous conferences focus had been exclusively on Andersen as poet and writer for adults, in which capacity he wrote novels, theatre plays, poems, and travel books, just as his fairy tales and stories were meant for all ages. But faced with the world-wide celebration in 2005 it seemed proper to include the child aspects of his works in the scholarly discussion. In its wide range of themes dealing with both adult and child aspects of Andersen's texts, this volume, consisting of papers read at the Odense Conference in 2005, endeavours to do justice to the whole of Andersen, whose immortal genius has a message for young and old all over the world. ... Read more