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reflective
slow-paced
I’m most definitely in the minority when I say that I wasn’t a huge fan of this novel, but I think there were external factors that contributed to my struggle with the story (namely, I had too much on my plate to give it as much attention as I should have). That being said, one thing I can say with confidence is that Stefánsson’s prose is stunning, which I imagine is even more enchanting in the original Icelandic. However, Roughton’s translation was incredibly well done with how he captured the rhythm and emotions in such an effective manner.
What I didn’t love about the novel was how it moved at a glacial pace and had very little direction (if at all). With a close focus on an Icelandic family living by a fjord across generations, the reader is taken through philosophical musings about life, death, love, among other topics from these family members’ perspectives. The novel very much focuses on the quotidian, which I think made the pacing all the more agonizing for me. I will say what caught my attention as I read was how Stefánsson discussed music and wove in musical details, even including a playlist at the end of the book. Perhaps this is a result of my own musical background that I latched onto these moments, but it was a highlight for me. (An aside, but one odd recurrence that I did not expect was how frequently penises were mentioned… and described, aha.)
I don’t think there’s much more I can say other than that the writing was beautiful, but the pacing and virtually absent plot really didn’t work for me at the time of reading this novel. I would like to check out Stefánsson’s other works, especially because I found his prose so striking, along with the fact that Roughton seems to have translated his other works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Suicide, Car accident
Minor: Cancer, Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief
Moderate: Infidelity, Car accident, Death of parent
Minor: Child death, Gun violence
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I think I would have appreciated this more with the book in my hand, but the audio narration was tender and enjoyable. The narrative traces the lineage of a rural Icelandic community—one family in particular—a hundred years or so, meandering on its way. There is much talk of life and death, music, poetry, philosophy. There is much love and much pain, and, surprisingly, countless penises running around the fjords! Your Absence Is Darkness invites readers to take a melancholy stroll through feeling, possibility, and inheritance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Car accident, Death of parent
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, Rape, Suicide, Vomit, Trafficking, Medical trauma
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
I’m so confused by this book. I really didn’t like it at the beginning, got really into the story about halfway through, then felt like it ended on a kind of meh note.
Alsothere is so much sexual content and descriptions that are just very odd, and most of it I don’t totally understand why it needs to be mentioned over and over. Like I think there’s an artistic element to it, but it just felt unnecessary in some moments.
Also
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Vomit, Death of parent
Minor: Cancer, Medical content, Trafficking, Abortion, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Car accident
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Infidelity, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
- Your absence is darkness - review
"Your absence is darkness" is a poetic story about life and love, that has huge potential yet is unable to reach it.
Writing style:
The best part of the book is definitely the style used by the author, simple and effective, poetic and rememberable.
The rhythm of the narration does have some problems though, because it may seem bizarre and really ridundant, maybe even static sometimes, even if there are many different events ongoing.
The language used is then surely beautiful, yet maybe more suited to poetry than to prose.
It also makes the read flow pretty easily for most of the time and it gives to the whole story a mysterious and interesting atmosphere; Stefansson's style alone is probably one of the best ones I ever read, but does the content equal the level of the writing style?
Recurring themes:
The book is overall interesting and definitely emotional, with a vast number of themes explored that may be though not always accurately explored.
Among the different themes we can list: the search for identity and for love, the importance of remembrance (of both those who live and those who died), the search for happiness, the need to deal with death and sadness in our lives, the value of literature as a mean to make stories and people immanent in history, the theme of isolation (also explored talking about covid-19), the frailness and uncertain fortuity of human life, the value of music as catharsis (often highlighted with direct quotes from some songs or by some musicians), a reflection on how life is in Iceland (that should probably have taken less pages), the theme of the inevitable passing of time, the contrast between fate and free will, the need to grow up and live our own life (the book may even seem like a bildungsroman at times), the theme of afterlife, and the theme of betrayal.
As you can see there are really many, many different themes and it would surely have been better to focus on only a few of them , because with so many things to talk about the book may seem also confusing at times. Furthermore, the events prevail and are only interspersed among the reflections, which are many but can also sometimes be superficial.
Another huge problem is the chaotic nature of the narration and of the whole story: the premise is undoubtedly interesting, but on the long run it just results fragmentary, disrupted and confused. The family ties between the characters are also hard to comprehend and explained in a messy way and the narrator often even makes mistakes when talking about them, thus leaving the reader in a confused and uncertain state of mind.
It has to be noticed, though, that probably all of this was a voluntary choice by the author, probably in an attempt to criticize the superficiality of modern society.
The main issue lies then probably not in the content or in the style themselves, but on the unusual and not really effective structure of the book and of its narration.
Characters:
There's a wide range of characters, that have all in common the search for love and for happiness, even through hard times, as well as the importance of their family ties:
- The story of Aldís, a young girl that leaves her husband to marry an Icelandic man and has two daughters with him, but then dies in a car crash.
- The story of Ási is explored at the start of the book, but then totally abandoned, his character displays the negative effects of addiction: he tells us that he was driven by uncontrollable sexual drives for most of his life, that lead him to distance himself from his family, waste money and isolate himself, but then he was able to redeem, by helping a Syrian refugee not to become a victim of human trafficking and by trying to fight his own demons.
-The reverend Petúr displays (even if only marginally) the problem of alcoholism, in which he fall as a response to the loss of faith and to the death of his daughter.
The loss of love for his wife is probably the consequence of this issues and he uses poetry as a mean to escape.
He falls in love with Guðríður (even if he's married with another woman) and has a child, Jón, with her.
-The story of Guðríður, as previously mentioned, links itself to the story of Petúr. The woman is initially a poor peasant girl who leads a painfully ordinary existence, but then her events get linked to the emergence of feminism in Iceland and to the desire to emancipate and enhance herself, instead of submitting to the power of her husband (who despite loving her, limits her, leading her to take always care of the daughters and the house and therefore rarely have social relations or freedom).
She has a child with Petúr (even if she's married) but in the end leaves him to go away with his husband, losing thus her aforementioned displayed need to be free and affirm herself and returning under the control of her husband. She's the great-great-grandmother of Eirikur.
-Halldor is the father of Eirikur, but he had his child with a married woman, that left to his family the child. The whole family has always hidden to Eirikur that he was abandoned as a child and told him that his mother was dead.
Halldor feels the pain for this lie and always tries to connect with his son, but he doesn't always succeed. He uses music as a mean to escape and is a man guided by love, for life, for women and for his son, even though all the hardships he still fights to be alive and to stay with his family.
- Eirikur is probably the main character of the whole book and his story is the one more deeply explored.
He's a man that fought for his whole life against his own demons, because he felt that he was responsible for the distance between himself and his father and the reason his mother died. After many years though, he discovers that he was abandoned by his mother as a child and has to deal with the fact that his whole existence was a lie.
He displays grief very often, for the end of his love relationships, for the death of his dogs, for the death of most of his family members and his departure from them. He uses music as catharsis, like his father, and as a way to connect with people.
Comments on some of the author's choices:
The story of Eirikur's family is the only one with whom the author really deals and many of the stories told at the start of the book are never mentioned anymore, becoming seemingly useless.
The characterization of the characters is also a huge issue, because they are just sketched: the reader is able to empathise with them but is not always able to know them deeply.
The author tries to tell his story by choosing to talk mostly about ordinary and normal scenes. The choice is comprehensible, but not fully effective, because it does have many downsides.
For example, it all often seems like an obvious excuse for the author to vent his thoughts; the characters are well divided but they look like puppets and most of their action seems almost forced by the author, in order to be able to say what he wants.
Indeed, the reader is not always involved while the author talks, talks, talks without stopping.
This structure and these choices are however an original approach to writing and different from anything I've read before.
It is a novel that is not planned to be read, but perhaps lived and perceived; perhaps this is precisely the main reason for what the author did, because the book is really nice to read for most of the time, but after finishing it it doesn't really leave the reader with much.
At times it looks even like a non-fiction book, there doesn't really seem to be a real story most of the time, instead there seems to be an author trying to expound his ideas about life and the world for all the time (fascinating and interesting ideas, but that don't really always seem connected with the narrative).
Another huge issue is the depiction of woman and of sex, excessively present and over-detailed for no apparent reason.
Some of the quotes in the book are just marvellous, but sometimes some really odd and bizarre things are told, for example when the narrator says that perhaps sex is the driving force of life (?) or when some of the sex scenes (that were in any case easily avoidable) are told with heavy and unnecessary detail.
The book is also really too long, many pages get wasted in talking about useless things and the reader may often feel bored while reading 600 pages half of which could easily be removed or shortened.
Final judgement:
Jon Kalman Stefansson didn't surely want to write a bad novel, but we can't say that the result of his work and his choices with the structure of this book are completely effective. His writing style is immaculate and is the backbone of the whole book, without which probably all the rest would fall, but many issues are displayed with the plot, the structure and the characters.
The book also takes definitely too much time to find his own light.
It is clear that everything was done voluntarily (and someone may even like it), but despite this, is the nature of such novel really fruitful in the end?
Writing style:
The best part of the book is definitely the style used by the author, simple and effective, poetic and rememberable.
The rhythm of the narration does have some problems though, because it may seem bizarre and really ridundant, maybe even static sometimes, even if there are many different events ongoing.
The language used is then surely beautiful, yet maybe more suited to poetry than to prose.
It also makes the read flow pretty easily for most of the time and it gives to the whole story a mysterious and interesting atmosphere; Stefansson's style alone is probably one of the best ones I ever read, but does the content equal the level of the writing style?
Recurring themes:
The book is overall interesting and definitely emotional, with a vast number of themes explored that may be though not always accurately explored.
Among the different themes we can list: the search for identity and for love, the importance of remembrance (of both those who live and those who died), the search for happiness, the need to deal with death and sadness in our lives, the value of literature as a mean to make stories and people immanent in history, the theme of isolation (also explored talking about covid-19), the frailness and uncertain fortuity of human life, the value of music as catharsis (often highlighted with direct quotes from some songs or by some musicians), a reflection on how life is in Iceland (that should probably have taken less pages), the theme of the inevitable passing of time, the contrast between fate and free will, the need to grow up and live our own life (the book may even seem like a bildungsroman at times), the theme of afterlife, and the theme of betrayal.
As you can see there are really many, many different themes and it would surely have been better to focus on only a few of them , because with so many things to talk about the book may seem also confusing at times. Furthermore, the events prevail and are only interspersed among the reflections, which are many but can also sometimes be superficial.
Another huge problem is the chaotic nature of the narration and of the whole story: the premise is undoubtedly interesting, but on the long run it just results fragmentary, disrupted and confused. The family ties between the characters are also hard to comprehend and explained in a messy way and the narrator often even makes mistakes when talking about them, thus leaving the reader in a confused and uncertain state of mind.
It has to be noticed, though, that probably all of this was a voluntary choice by the author, probably in an attempt to criticize the superficiality of modern society.
The main issue lies then probably not in the content or in the style themselves, but on the unusual and not really effective structure of the book and of its narration.
Characters:
There's a wide range of characters, that have all in common the search for love and for happiness, even through hard times, as well as the importance of their family ties:
- The story of Aldís
- The story of Ási is explored at the start of the book, but then totally abandoned, his character displays the negative effects of addiction
-
The loss of love for his wife is probably the consequence of this issues and he uses poetry as a mean to escape.
He falls in love with Guðríður (even if he's married with another woman) and has a child, Jón, with her.
-
She has a child with Petúr (even if she's married) but in the end leaves him to go away with his husband, losing thus her aforementioned displayed need to be free and affirm herself and returning under the control of her husband. She's the great-great-grandmother of Eirikur.
-
Halldor feels the pain for this lie and always tries to connect with his son, but he doesn't always succeed. He uses music as a mean to escape and is a man guided by love, for life, for women and for his son, even though all the hardships he still fights to be alive and to stay with his family.
- Eirikur is probably the main character of the whole book and his story is the one more deeply explored.
He displays grief very often, for the end of his love relationships, for the death of his dogs, for the death of most of his family members and his departure from them. He uses music as catharsis, like his father, and as a way to connect with people.
Comments on some of the author's choices:
The story of Eirikur's family is the only one with whom the author really deals and many of the stories told at the start of the book are never mentioned anymore, becoming seemingly useless.
The characterization of the characters is also a huge issue, because they are just sketched: the reader is able to empathise with them but is not always able to know them deeply.
The author tries to tell his story by choosing to talk mostly about ordinary and normal scenes. The choice is comprehensible, but not fully effective, because it does have many downsides.
For example, it all often seems like an obvious excuse for the author to vent his thoughts; the characters are well divided but they look like puppets and most of their action seems almost forced by the author, in order to be able to say what he wants.
Indeed, the reader is not always involved while the author talks, talks, talks without stopping.
This structure and these choices are however an original approach to writing and different from anything I've read before.
It is a novel that is not planned to be read, but perhaps lived and perceived; perhaps this is precisely the main reason for what the author did, because the book is really nice to read for most of the time, but after finishing it it doesn't really leave the reader with much.
At times it looks even like a non-fiction book, there doesn't really seem to be a real story most of the time, instead there seems to be an author trying to expound his ideas about life and the world for all the time (fascinating and interesting ideas, but that don't really always seem connected with the narrative).
Another huge issue is the depiction of woman and of sex, excessively present and over-detailed for no apparent reason.
Some of the quotes in the book are just marvellous, but sometimes some really odd and bizarre things are told
The book is also really too long, many pages get wasted in talking about useless things and the reader may often feel bored while reading 600 pages half of which could easily be removed or shortened.
Final judgement:
Jon Kalman Stefansson didn't surely want to write a bad novel, but we can't say that the result of his work and his choices with the structure of this book are completely effective. His writing style is immaculate and is the backbone of the whole book, without which probably all the rest would fall, but many issues are displayed with the plot, the structure and the characters.
The book also takes definitely too much time to find his own light.
It is clear that everything was done voluntarily (and someone may even like it), but despite this, is the nature of such novel really fruitful in the end?
"Write. And we won't forget.
Write. And we won't be forgotten.
Write. Because death is just another name for oblivion."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Infidelity
Minor: Cancer, Child death, Suicide, Death of parent, Abandonment
Found family, history of Island, hymn to literature, reflection on human nature, love, friendship, music
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Ce livre est phénoménal
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer
Minor: Sexual assault