Product Description
As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet’s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.
As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf’s ambition drives him onward–and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women–World Light demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A Remarkable Novel by a Master

World Light is a long novel, nearly 600 pages, and not always an easy journey for Olafur or the reader, yet well worth the effort. The great master, Halldor Laxness, is at his powerful best in this complex tale of a wannabe poet who falls comfortably into the role of martyr to the muse and life itself. Laxness is a major artist who plays the beauty of nature and language against the petty and venial natures of man, yet never loses a basic sympathy for all his characters, even the villians.

A world apart
I started reading Laxness when we decided to go to Iceland. Since then I have read 4 of his novels: Iceland's Bell, World Light, Independent People, and Atomic Station. These first three are very powerful stories of a beautiful and dangerous land, a poetical yet brutal culture, and a troubled history. After our trip, the word I use to describe Iceland is "haunting." I'm not sure if I can ever extricate Laxness's vision from my own perceptions and memories.If you are going to visit Iceland, I'd recommend that you read Njal's Saga and the first three books I mentioned. Atomic Station is optional. It's much slighter in scope and purpose.

"World Light" by Halldor Laxness
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.

"Fool, good-for-nothing, layabout, every bad name imaginable"
Pity the poor poet. And Olaf Karason, Laxness's unlikely (and sometimes unlikable) hero, commands--and even demands--our pity, for he is a most unproductive poet. "I'm the village good-for-nothing whom everyone jeers at because I stay up at night and write books about men who were just as useless as I am myself.... On the day the world becomes good, the poet will cease to suffer, and not before; but at the same time he will also cease to be a poet." Ah, yes--the familiar lament of the long-suffering artiste: poetry as martyrdom, and poetry is martyrdom. A free spirit, Olaf is not of the world, but the world--often in the form of a woman--is always grabbing him in its clutches and dragging him down in the muck.

Throughout each the four books of "World Light" (annually published as individual volumes from 1937 to 1940), Olaf plays the martyr--and his suffering is as often self-inflicted as not. We meet our scribbler as a youngster in "The Revelation of the Deity," the first and by far the best of the four books. Abandoned by his mother (who becomes an idealized muse), the boy is adopted by a family looking for someone who'll do all the chores. Caught amidst the turf wars of two unpredictably abusive brothers, he finds refuge in the folk tales told to him by his stepmother. But he spends much of his adolescence in bed with a paralyzing illness, relying for sustenance on his reluctant providers--a harbinger of his adult life's existence on the dole of whatever parish he calls home.

The remaining books follow Olaf (who is an uneven poet, like his real-life inspiration Magnus Magnusson) from his miraculous recovery and social isolation as a young poet-dreamer; through his common-law marriage, fatherhood, and the political demands of village life; to his public disgrace and imprisonment (borrowing again from an incident in Magnusson's biography) and finally his redemption in "the sun of the day of resurrection."

Unlike the pseudo-Dickensian set-up of the first book, the subsequent three parts have an episodic, repetitive, even dreamlike quality that is almost surely meant to recall Iceland's tradition of epic poems (to which there are dozens of references). But those same qualities can seem, in a novel, unfocused at times, and "World Light" is neither the most accessible nor the most coherent of Laxness's works. Yet--although its plotting is chaotic, its symbolism can be cumbersome, its themes seem contradictory--the novel remains endlessly fascinating. The first-time reader of Laxness will want to start elsewhere (I recommend "Independent People"), but anyone who enjoys his work will want to end up here.

Perfect
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. ... Read more

Product Description
When the Americans make an offer to buy land in Iceland to build a NATO airbase after World War II, a storm of protest is provoked throughout the country. The airbase provides Laxness with the catalyst for his astonishing and powerful satire. Narrated by a country girl from the north, the novel follows her experiences after she takes up employment as a maid in the house of her Member of Parliament. Marvelling at the customs and behaviour of the people around her, she emerges as the one obstinate reality in a world of unreality. Her observations and experiences expose the bourgeois society of the south as rootless and shallow and in stark contrast to the age-old culture of the solid and less fanciful north. A witty and moving satire on politics and politicians, Communists and anti-Communists, phoney culture fiends, big business and all the pretensions of authority, Laxness' masterpiece of social commentary is as relevant today as when it was written in 1948. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

History sadly repeats itself
The Atom Station is a scathing satire of the political mores in a very isolated society. Laxness makes bitter fun of the upper classes' petit-bourgeois snobbery, the blatant opportunism and short termism of the country's leadership, the backstage dealings, the unhealthily close alliance between business and politics. That was in the late 1940s. Sixty years later Iceland does not seem to have been able to escape that predicament. Laxness writes about the phony businesses with impressive front ends, befuddling investors and customers with hot air: "F.F.F.: in English, the Federation of Fulminating Fish, New York; in Icelandic, the Figures-Faking-Federation. One button costs half an eyrir over here in the west, but you have a company in New York, the F.F.F., which sells you the button at 2 kronur and writes on the invoice: button, 2 kronur. You make a profit of 4000%. After a month you are a millionaire." This is a prescient account of the basic mechanics behind Iceland's recent meteoric rise and equally dramatic economic collapse, leaving the country at the mercy of its international creditors. Today, Keflavik's US air base - the "atom station" in Laxness' novel - is no more. The Americans pulled out a couple of years ago. But the issue of Iceland's sovereignty is not of the table. It's not about being a forward base in the Cold War anymore, but the prize has now become the country's significant reserves of hydro-electric power. The Icelandic government's policy of selling off these reserves to the lowest (!) bidder, i.e. to extremely energy intensive industries such as aluminium refineries, is as controversial today as the establishment of a US air base was in the 1940s. Andri Snaer Magnason "Dreamland - Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation" (sadly only available via amazon.co.uk) is recommended reading to understand the deeper ramifications of this dispute. It is amazing how politics in such a small country continue to be driven by deeply atavistic reflexes. So Laxness' satire is still as topical as when it was written.

The world is one atom station
This book is a biting satire on world and Icelandic policies and on Capitalism and Communism. It lays bare the world's blatant immorality.

Against the will of the `populace', the corrupt Iceland establishment agrees to sell the whole country to a superpower who wants to build an atom station on the island `for use in an atomic war'.
For H. Laxness, `there is no such thing as morality'. In a context of any warmongering, there is only one overall immoral commandment: `hate one another in the same way European nations used to do before the concept of nationalism became obsolete and East and West were substituted in its place. The battlefield covers all lands, all seas, all skies; and particularly our innermost consciousness. The whole world is one atom station.'

H. Laxness sees no future for Capitalism (the wealthy few against the poor many): `no one imagines for one moment that it is possible to save Capitalism. (It) will drag world civilization down with it.'
Its foremost proponent, the US, has only one policy: `the dollar shall conquer'. It even exports fish to the greatest fish nation in the world: `Portuguese Sardines imported from America, the only fish which could scale the highest tariff walls in the world and yet be sold at a thousand per cent profit in the greatest fish country in the world, where even the dogs walk out and vomit at the mention of salmon.'

But also Communism is rejected. As the main character in this book, a maid in a wealthy family, states: `I betrayed the party'. What she wants is to be `a person among persons. Neither an impaid bondwoman like the wives of the poor, nor a bought madam like the wives of the rich; much less a paid mistress.' In one word: she wants freedom.

This book, written in 1948, didn't loose one bit of its human and world relevance.
It is a must read for all lovers of world literature.

Timely Political Satire from Iceland's Greatest Writer
Halldór Laxness' post-WWII satire The Atom Station has many parallels to the current Kreppa (crisis) in Iceland. As the story begins the country is in turmoil, there are demonstrations in the streets, and foreign powers threaten Iceland's recently won independence. Ugla (the name translates as "owl") is a young woman from the rural north, who finds employment as a housekeeper at the home of Búi Árland: Businessman, Doctor of Philosophy and Member of Parliament. In Ugla's eyes Búi's wife and children are spoiled rotten, symptomatic of the degenerate modern life in the city. When asked as to why she is in Reykjavík, Ugla says that she has come "south" to learn how to play the harmonium for church services back home. As the story progresses, however, she reveals that her real longing is to "...become a person, to know something, to be able to do something for myself..."

She takes "lessons" from a strange "organist" and his suspect circle of "friends." These lessons are as much about the way the world works as they are about music. Ugla also encounters a "cell" of Communists, further raising her awareness. Meanwhile, Búi hosts U.S. military men and members of parliament during negotiations to "sell the country" for an "atom station"- an event which did, in reality, lead to the existence of a U.S. military base in Keflavík for nearly sixty years.

All this inter-twined plot gives plenty of room for Laxness to explore the social issues of the day. Many of them, such as fraudulent deals by sham Icelandic businesses, read as if they were torn from today's headlines. Ugla's faith in the values of her rural upbringing is challenged, but she is ultimately faithful to them by her refusal to become Búi's mistress. Her decision to start a family with the somewhat shady man who fathered her child, while possibly not the best choice (although he is a Northerner as well), is a life of her choosing.

This book isn't on the epic scale of some of Laxness' other works, but I found it to be an enjoyable read- and much better the second time after I had gotten a little more background on its setting and themes. It has a much faster pace than most of his other novels, the whole story unfolds in less than a year. Laxness again shows sensitivity and insight in handling a female protagonist, and while Ugla is hardly the heroic figure portrayed in his earlier novel Salka Valka, her character has real depth. I've found myself quoting this book on more than one occasion. It might be a bit bewildering at times for the beginning Laxness reader, but it is a solid effort by a truly great novelist.

A Charming Tale
The Atom Station is a highly entertaining work by the great Icelandic storyteller Halldor Laxness. The heroine of the tale is Ugla, a plain speaking country girl from the North who is working as a maid in the house of her Member of Parliament. In the privileged, eccentric household she is the one character who stands out as real. Incapable of displaying the submissive obedience expected of her by the mistress of the house, Ugla soon falls out of favour with her. 'This woman has given me nothing but insolence ever since she came into this house, full of some sort of northishness as if she were my superior,' complains the lady to her husband, who has a warmer view of Ugla. The country girl's influence is a positive one on the children of the disfunctional household, who come to respect her authority and down to earth ways. Exposed to and baffled by the political world around her, Ugla is rather untouched by it, as if by a fantasy. She becomes pregnant and returns to the north country and her father's horse farm, where life has real meaning. Halldor Laxness writes the tale with humour and a sense of longing at times. His heroine stands head and shoulders over the mad characters she encounters in the city, like the calm hub in the centre of a strangely turning wheel. This reader for one couldn't help but fall in love with her. A great read.

Saga style
One should not read this book before getting acquainted with the sagas, if you read only one, then try Njal's Saga. Laxness tries to convey to us the destructiveness of globalization long before it was called by that name, the destructiveness of making a liquid market in everything, putting a price on everything, eliminating all stability formed by old tradition. The girl in the story is the voice of the past, the voice from the sagas, and you cannot hear this voice at all if you have been programmed, indoctrinated by the ideology of neo-classical economic theory (the 'religion' of totally unregulated free markets, which are now known anyway to be dynamically unstable). Other books for some perspective: Berger's Pig Earth, Levi's Christ Stopped at Eboli, Barber's Jihad vs. McWorld, Ross's The Annexation of Mexico. Also strongly recommended: Laxness's Independent People. Like John Berger, Laxness points out for us the destructiveness of unregulated 'development' and suggests that the antidote lies in something that most of us have'forgotten' about the past, about human relations as human relations rather than human beings as 'rational agents' in the neo-classical economic theory implicitly assumed true by the IMF, The World Bank, and The EU, the disastrous philosophy of totally unregulated free markets that has been swallowed hook, line and sinker by recent US leaders. If you wonder why the world is in crisis, look for the answer in the assumptions that are taken for granted by the leaders, the assumptions that they don't question. ... Read more