World Light

World Light is a mammoth novel, but once you start it you wouldn't want it any other way. It begins with Olafur Karason's childhood in an abusive household, basically an orphan, and spans his life till old age. He is bedridden throughout much of his childhood, and is eventually sent away to live in another part of the country. He is quickly healed and from then on leads a life of quiet simplicity, filled with troubles that affect him but never quite seem to bother him, as he (more then any other character) is aware of his own soul and essentially is on a quest only for light and love, poetry and God. Olafur is a poet and a visionary, and essentially leads a life of loneliness. However, it is the abundant descriptions of the beauty he senses, feels, and always keeps within himself that sets him apart from the rest of the people in the Icelandic highlands. Olafur is a masterfully written character, always true to himself and his convictions. The other characters who impact his life are well done also, living lives of repression and duty who tend to sneak when no one's looking to hear Olafur's poetry and see the world through his perspective. The book is supremely entertaining throughout, with maybe just a slight lag in the middle when Olafur is in the middle of the Icelandic-Norwegian political issues dominating his town. I think that perhaps Laxness meant it to be that way, to portray the mundane and rigid world that Olafur had to escape from. This is a dense, exquisite book that is every bit as potent as his other masterwork, "Independent People." It'll make you wish more of his work was in print. It may take a few rereadings to fully grasp the nuances in the story, but you'll want to return to it. You'll never look at a sunbeam on the ceiling the same way again.

Beautiful, engaging, utterly incredible writing. Every line is perfect and resounding. The main character is truly a poet and there is a recurring theme of "light," light as beauty, hope: "I'm a Christian rationalist. I believe there should be light." "You have to see light." Iceland is fascinating, and the author loves his native land, the beauty of the land, the people, the modulations of their voices. His relationships with the women are very subtle. Laxness describes the fragile interplay of life and poetry, and this novel is exquisitely humane, understanding, tender, melancholy, realistic and perfect. It is one of the very best books I have ever read, this pure and sweet plea for poetry and understanding.

Halldor Laxness is by far the most incredible author I've ever come across. After reading Independent People, one of his most famous novels, I decided to read World Light. And to be honest, I found World Light to be even better! Something about Halldor Laxness's novels always gets me sucked in. He elicits so much poetry and beauty into his works, paints the image of Iceland with such a stark, melancholy, and haunting light, while at the same time emersing you into a world that feels almost like a dream! And Halldor's characters, regardless of how crass, ignoble, and hardheaded that some of them are ( I believe the character of World Light has more heart than any other character in Laxness's books), somehow make you love, embrace, and envy them for all the struggles they go through and all the sacrifices they had to make to get there. Highly recommend WORLD LIGHT and INDEPENDENT PEOPLE. Honestly, reading the novels by such a masterful Icelandic storyteller and writer will be the most refreshing literary experience of your life. There are more to classic novels than Dickins, Austen, and Steinbeck. If you want to broaden your literary horizons and simply emerse your mind into a completely different world, read WORLD LIGHT, INDEPENDENT PEOPLE, and any other books by Halldor Laxness. If you take your time at reading and getting used to the settings, ideas, themes, and characters, it will truly be a worthwhile experience, trust me.

I read this book during the dark days of December and it fitted so well. I especially loved the discriptions of the relationships between the hero, Olafur Karasson, and the various women; the refined, exact ways of describing emotions like love, suffering and fear. They bring about an impressive poetic strength. I also learned al lot about the landscape and the history of Iceland, but most of all I found its plea for poetry as the hope for mankind impressive and convincing. Compliments for the translator as well! For all those who love to read beautiful language.

Of all the Nobel prizewinners in literature, the one who most elicits an uncomprehending reaction is the late Halldór Laxness, Iceland's greatest writer of the modern era. In my reading, I have always attempted at times to cross the mainstream and see what lies beyond. Iceland is as far from the mainstream as you can get and still be part of Western Culture. What we sometimes forget is that almost a thousand years ago, Iceland was a literary giant; and some of the sagas that came from that island are among the greatest works of literature ever written.Laxness is therefore the recipient of a great tradition. Sadly, Iceland -- after discovering Greenland and North America and giving them up as a bad lot -- became a colony of Norway, and later of Denmark. The loss of hegemony coupled with the horrendous disasters of a mini ice age and catastrophic volcanic explosions led to a grinding poverty that drained the mind and spirit.WORLD LIGHT is at one and the same time the greatest Laxness novel I have read and also the most difficult. Its hero, the poet Olaf Karason of Ljosavik, is born into poverty and spends his youth as a foster child in a home utterly lacking in love. After being kicked out, he moves to Svidinskvik, where he becomes a ward of the parish. He writes poems in support of local Danish bigwig, Peter Palsson, whose grandiloquent "Rehabilitation Company" is behind a series of mostly abortive moves to improve the town's economy and morale. The young poet is so feckless that it is difficult to identify with him, but as the story progressed, I began to see his flaws writ large over the entire landscape.The cigar-chomping Danes go around either claiming "I'm no Icelander, s'help me!" or attempting to prove themselves the most patriotic Icelanders of all. We see Olaf's attempts at finding himself with an incredible array of characters, including Juel Juel Juel of Grim Hairycheek Ltd, Eternity-Dave (who only has three expressions: "Jesus" ... "My Brother!" ... "Heave up!"), a succession of women who share his bed and drive him to distraction, and a supporting cast large and odd enough to populate a Dickens novel.I did say earlier that I found this Laxness's most difficult novel. It is difficult to know where the author is headed, though at the same time I kept getting drawn into the complex plot with its thick undergrowth of transitory characters. In the end, I saw Olaf's fecklessness being mirrored in the fecklessness of the Danish colonial administration, and the fecklessness of a pre-Independence Iceland that felt lost, and indeed of all human beings cast adrift upon the waters into a cruel world that mocks the life of the spirit and ends all too soon in disorder and early sorrow.The translator of this edition, Magnus Magnusson, writes a beautiful clear English (that also comes across in his Icelandic saga translations). British readers may remember him as the TV host of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"You will not be disappointed with WORLD LIGHT i