The Greenlanders

I had difficulty getting into this book. Could not get past the difficult names; definitely would have helped if I was Norwegian! Can't even rate it.

Not many people now know that, during the Medieval Warm Period, Viking explorers discovered an island with a belt of verdant green girdling sparklingly white glaciers. Two colonies were planted on this "green-land", and soon were exporting dairy products and other things to Europe. But, as the Little Ice Age began to grip the Earth, life became harder and harder, until a European lifestyle became untenable in the new, harsher Greenland.This is the story of the family of Asgeir Gunnarsson, a wealthy Greenlander farmer. As the world around them grows colder and darker, they go on about their lives: living and farming, competing and fighting, loving and singing. And each year, the winter comes earlier and life gets a little harder.I found this book quite by chance one day, and was intrigued by it. It is a healthy read at 558 pages, but well worth it! Jane Smiley paints a fascinating picture of life in Viking Greenland, one that seems so true to the history books, and one in which the character seem so alive. Indeed, by the time you finish the book, you will feel like the characters in it are alive and right around the corner somewhere.This is a great book, one that will appeal to anyone interested in the Vikings, and one that will appeal to anyone who loves good fiction. I highly recommend this book!

I picked this book up at the store because of the attractive cover art. I had no idea that this story was written in the style of a Norse saga and it took a little getting used to. However, I was immediately drawn into the lives of Gunnar, his sister Margret, and their families as well as the details of daily life. Margret, whose emotional and physical needs are not met by her husband Olaf, dares to have a secret red dress that foreshadows events to come. She enters into an adulterous affair with a sailor who is working at the family's homestead. This illicit relationship leads to violence and tragedy. This happens about 80 pages into the novel and represented a turning point for me. Because I realized that this wasn't the kind of storytelling I am used to. I would never know as much as I wanted to about the characters feelings concerning life-changing events. At first, I was shocked at the detached recounting of major and often traumatic incidents. I could have put the book down, but I accepted this fact and continued to read because I wanted to find out more about Greenland. And that is the real story here, the story of the Greenland settlement and the forces that cause its decline. The story doesn't focus on Margret throughout, rather it introduces different characters and as they are introduced, the interactions and influence of each person manage to create a bigger picture of what citizens of this isolated and bleak society faced. New facets are exposed, physical, mental and spiritual. Different aspects of the story include the increasing conflict with the Eskimos encroaching on the settlement as the weather gets colder in the north, the need to hunt in forbidden fjords as game becomes less plentiful, the abandonment by Europe as visits from the mainland decline and cease, the mystique of the American paradise they cannot reach, the introspection and ravings of their religious leader...There are visions, love-affairs, accidents, murders, family-feuds, starvation, death, exile, departures and all the rich descriptions of a land totally foreign to me. At one point a young girl chooses to marry a virtual stranger who arrives on a ship. When she sails away into the unknown world, leaving her homeland forever, I felt fear and excitement. Was she brave to leave? Or would it be braver to stay? I understood the total isolation of these people, their madness, their courage, and their battle to survive. This was not a page-turner. It was a challenging read. But so well worth it. The simply stated feelings of the characters, which I was at first disappointed with, left me free to imagine what was going through their minds. And I did so vividly. When I finished this book I was awed at the web it had spun around me without my being aware. I had truly experienced a different time and place and I believed this story really happened. This is the best book I have read in a really long time.

I was given this book by accident -- I was not a fan of ice, cold, old Norse, or any of it. I simply had nothing else to read. What I found between the pages was a story that has since inspired me to seek out every piece of known information on Greenland. Smiley's literary style in this book is to tell a fictional story as hard cold fact -- non-persuasive, non-judgemental. The depictions produce unforgettable mental visuals, making you feel more like a spectator than a reader.

Our view of this book is a bit different than the other reviewers. We read this book as part of our preparation for a week touring in the old Norse Eastern Settlement, in Southern Greenland. It provided us with an excellent background for what we were to experience: walking the ruins of Erik the Red's Brattahlid farm, exploring the ruins of the Dyrnaes church farm, standing in the surprisingly intact nave of the Hvalsey church, listening to the account of the recent wedding there of an Icelandic descendent of the last known Norse couple (a Greenlander and an Icelander) to be married in that church and a native Greenlander. It really made the history come alive in this strange land that has to be experienced. Yes, the "Eskimos" (more accurately the Inuit) "won". Their descendents were our hosts. They accept and are proud of their country's Norse heritage as well as their own! This book is fiction-but is true to the recorded history from that time. Read the book for the history and then go and experience it for yourself.