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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
When I am lucky enough to travel around a country, I try to brush up on that county's literature. Why? I think literature is an amazingly quick tool to gain an insight into the people that make that country much more than just a menagerie of geographical features. Halldór Laxness seemed a pretty good place to start for getting an idea of what makes Iceland Iceland given he won the Nobel Prize for literature. While "The Atom Station" was not the work that won him the prize, it was the length and topic area (heavy on political intrigue and analysis of societal norms) that I thought would be perfect for my eight day trip around the Icelandic Ring Road.
The premise of "The Atom Station" is pretty much a Northerner girl moves to the capital in the South to take up a position as a glorified maid in a politically and educationally powerful family, and to use this position as an opportunity to learn how to become a worldly woman. This personal journey occurs in the (borderline ridiculous) backdrop of Iceland being sold off to America to act as a staging point for any potential nuclear war with the USSR. The lovingly named Ugla comes to the South with next to no skills and a very limited education. What Laxness is playing at with making such a uncharismatic and lacklustre protagonist is that it is really this salt-of-the-earth northerner that ends up changing the people of the South much more than the South ends up changing her. Throughout the novel, the moral strength and integrity of the North shines through, while the South is shown to be debauched and in desperate need to learn how to live properly again.
Clearly Laxness idealised the North and the people that lived there, and felt it imperative to formalise the relationship that was obviously implicit. To Laxness the North is the heart of the country, no matter how politically and economically important the South becomes. This text has many parallels to American literature that makes the mid-west out to be the lifeblood of American consciousness.
Unfortunately, the novel falls a little flat. It feels as though Laxness forces the morality metaphors a little too brashly. Considering this novel is written in 1948, the submissiveness and treatment of women in this time can be a little maddening to a modern reader. Laxness also does an appallingly elementary job throughout the novel in introducing the tenants of communism and capitalism. The final nail in the text's coffin is that Ugla is boring. While "The Atom Station" did its job for me, providing me an insight into the Icelandic people (in particular, providing a unique insight into the strength and power of Icelandic women) the text is clearly one of Laxness' weaker works.
The premise of "The Atom Station" is pretty much a Northerner girl moves to the capital in the South to take up a position as a glorified maid in a politically and educationally powerful family, and to use this position as an opportunity to learn how to become a worldly woman. This personal journey occurs in the (borderline ridiculous) backdrop of Iceland being sold off to America to act as a staging point for any potential nuclear war with the USSR. The lovingly named Ugla comes to the South with next to no skills and a very limited education. What Laxness is playing at with making such a uncharismatic and lacklustre protagonist is that it is really this salt-of-the-earth northerner that ends up changing the people of the South much more than the South ends up changing her. Throughout the novel, the moral strength and integrity of the North shines through, while the South is shown to be debauched and in desperate need to learn how to live properly again.
Clearly Laxness idealised the North and the people that lived there, and felt it imperative to formalise the relationship that was obviously implicit. To Laxness the North is the heart of the country, no matter how politically and economically important the South becomes. This text has many parallels to American literature that makes the mid-west out to be the lifeblood of American consciousness.
Unfortunately, the novel falls a little flat. It feels as though Laxness forces the morality metaphors a little too brashly. Considering this novel is written in 1948, the submissiveness and treatment of women in this time can be a little maddening to a modern reader. Laxness also does an appallingly elementary job throughout the novel in introducing the tenants of communism and capitalism. The final nail in the text's coffin is that Ugla is boring. While "The Atom Station" did its job for me, providing me an insight into the Icelandic people (in particular, providing a unique insight into the strength and power of Icelandic women) the text is clearly one of Laxness' weaker works.
“I was taught never to believe a single word which is written in the papers, and nothing except what is written in the Icelandic sagas,” I replied.”
This book is undoubtedly clever and well-written, providing insights into Iceland’s history but I felt like I never really got the jokes which may be because I’m not Icelandic or don’t know enough about the country’s history.
If you are looking for books to read about Iceland - I preferred the style and tone of Miss Iceland to Atom Station.
This book is undoubtedly clever and well-written, providing insights into Iceland’s history but I felt like I never really got the jokes which may be because I’m not Icelandic or don’t know enough about the country’s history.
If you are looking for books to read about Iceland - I preferred the style and tone of Miss Iceland to Atom Station.
I found this book to be a great introduction into the Icelandic culture and Psyche, and a poignant commentary of the tensions between urban and rural living. "Unfortunately, peace and tranquillity are only a poem to be recited in cities, the poem of country folk who have straggled into the town's through lack of money and there been affected by the great world bacterium"
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Decent pinch of Cold War satire, with the Icelandic bourgeois proclaiming even raffle tickets to be communist plots, and a nice amount of rumination on what it means to be free.
Ugla is an Icelandic Candide, a young girl raised with sagas and common sense in a society that is considered archaic but is more open, in costumes and in thought, of the official one. In Iceland after World War II, proud of its independence as well as full of contradictions and prey of greedy and unscrupulous politicians, Ugla dribble with grace all the traps in wich can fall a naive peasant (yes, ok, you she find herself with a illegitimate daughter, but Ugla knows the value of life and knows that is greater than that of social conventions), to become a person, to be responsible for herself and his own destiny, picture of what should be a modern nation.
Although it was written in 1948, the book is fresh and full of humor, as only a really great writer can produce.
Thank Open Road Integrated Media and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Ugla è una Candide islandese, una ragazza cresciuta a saghe e buon senso in una società che viene considerata arcaica ma è più aperta, nei costumi e nel pensiero, di quella ufficiale. Nell'Islanda del secondo dopoguerra, fiera della propria indipendenza così come piena di contraddizioni e preda di politici ingordi e senza scrupoli, Ugla dribbla con grazia tutte le trappole che in cui può cadere un'ingenua contadina (si, ok, si troverà con una figlia illegittima, ma Ugla conosce il valore della vita e sa che è maggiore di quello delle convenzioni sociali), per diventare una persona, un essere responsabile di se stesso e del proprio destino, immagine di quelle che dovrebbe essere una nazione moderna.
Nonostante sia stato scritto nel 1948, il libro è freschissimo e pieno di umorismo, come solo uno scrittore davvero grande può produrre.
Ringrazio Open Road Integrated Media e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
Although it was written in 1948, the book is fresh and full of humor, as only a really great writer can produce.
Thank Open Road Integrated Media and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Ugla è una Candide islandese, una ragazza cresciuta a saghe e buon senso in una società che viene considerata arcaica ma è più aperta, nei costumi e nel pensiero, di quella ufficiale. Nell'Islanda del secondo dopoguerra, fiera della propria indipendenza così come piena di contraddizioni e preda di politici ingordi e senza scrupoli, Ugla dribbla con grazia tutte le trappole che in cui può cadere un'ingenua contadina (si, ok, si troverà con una figlia illegittima, ma Ugla conosce il valore della vita e sa che è maggiore di quello delle convenzioni sociali), per diventare una persona, un essere responsabile di se stesso e del proprio destino, immagine di quelle che dovrebbe essere una nazione moderna.
Nonostante sia stato scritto nel 1948, il libro è freschissimo e pieno di umorismo, come solo uno scrittore davvero grande può produrre.
Ringrazio Open Road Integrated Media e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
Ostin tän ohuen 180-sivuisen kirjan Islannista v. 2019 ja aloitin lukemisen joulukuussa 2021. Jotain siis kertoo se, että valmista tuli vasta huhtikuussa 2023. Kerronta ei imaissut mukaansa missään kohtaa, vaan päinvastoin tuntui todella työläältä saada edes 10 sivua kerrallaan luettua. Juonikuvaus kuulosti vielä kiinnostavalta, mutta käytännössä kirja ei kertonut oikein mistään. Kaiken lisäksi tää englanninkielinen käännöskin tuntui tönköltä. Onneksi tääkin koitos on nyt ohi ja voin siirtyä elämässä eteenpäin.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Despite being written in 1948, Laxness's women are multifaceted characters - they are not all virtuous nor all villains, and there are excellent passages where they and those around them explore gender roles and what they mean in the town vs. the country.
This was one of many surprises in The Atom Station - a brief insight into post-war Iceland through the eyes of a country woman in the city.
The writing is quirky and funny with memorable characters, one of which is most definitely Nature and the Icelander's relationship with it feature heavily. Divorced from the North and the country, the protagonist Ulga, is forced to confront her removed association to nature and the townspeople’s. This previous connection with her physical geography shields her somewhat from the cynicism and corruption of the townspeople:
There's also some beautiful passages about trying to capture the essence of nature: birds being painted are trapped in a canvas and so all painted birds must appear dead.
Fruit-blood may also be one of the most beautiful names for a voracious young woman I’ve seen yet.
Wonderful book, will definitely be pursuing more of Laxness’s work.
This was one of many surprises in The Atom Station - a brief insight into post-war Iceland through the eyes of a country woman in the city.
The writing is quirky and funny with memorable characters, one of which is most definitely Nature and the Icelander's relationship with it feature heavily. Divorced from the North and the country, the protagonist Ulga, is forced to confront her removed association to nature and the townspeople’s. This previous connection with her physical geography shields her somewhat from the cynicism and corruption of the townspeople:
And after having seen the pale necromancers who in that room with its many forgeries of Nature had talked long windedly about mildewed bones to him who dwells inaccessible in the mountain tops, that fairy person deepest in our breasts, I was refreshed and comforted by the memory of this rugged image of my origin.
There's also some beautiful passages about trying to capture the essence of nature: birds being painted are trapped in a canvas and so all painted birds must appear dead.
Fruit-blood may also be one of the most beautiful names for a voracious young woman I’ve seen yet.
Wonderful book, will definitely be pursuing more of Laxness’s work.