The Greenlanders
4.5/5 "There is no place for anger in a good wife.""Then indeed, there is no place for honor or virtue, it seems to me.["] This is not a work whose worth lends itself well to being expressed through quotes and other breeds of pithy summations. To put it colloquially, this is the kind of writing that evokes such swells of emotion that GoT and co. ape at: a never ending pall of threat of death and worse by the wildest and most inexplicable means and striking down all and sundry, driving religion,
The sad decline of Greenland's eastern settlement features death by starvation, the vomiting ill, being swept into the sea and drowning, falling through the ice and freezing and drowning, murder both justified and not, wasting away due to emotional trauma, and being burned to death for adultery. But the tone and pace are not as intense as you might expect from this account - instead, the tale is told in measured tones with very little reference to feelings, presumably much like the sagas
This was written in a Norse Saga style. Perhaps you may not like the style but I dare anyone to be able to pull it off as well as Smiley does. We are
For a modern book, this struck me as a lot like the old icelandic/greenlandic stories that I've read. Of course, that is both good and bad as far as my personal tastes go. I cannot fault the characterization, depth of detail, or scope. However, it just goes on and on and on and on and on. You sometimes see entire lives in a couple of pages, but that's only a tiny portion. It is extremely dense, but I have to wonder if some of that could have been cut. It makes it seem more like the old Norse
This may be my new favorite novel. It was hard going at first, but Smiley's strange, impersonal way of telling the story really got under my skin. I read it six months ago and it still comes to mind constantly. What did I like about it? The pared-down world of the Greenlanders, the subtly wrought characters, specific, gorgeous detail, and the emotion, which was somehow both stifled and explosive. There is something incredibly moving about their painful struggle to survive and their ultimate
Jane Smiley
Paperback | Pages: 608 pages Rating: 3.9 | 2293 Users | 348 Reviews
List Books In Pursuance Of The Greenlanders
Original Title: | The Greenlanders |
ISBN: | 1400095468 (ISBN13: 9781400095469) |
Edition Language: | English |
Setting: | Greenland |
Rendition Toward Books The Greenlanders
Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Jane Smiley’s The Greenlanders is an enthralling novel in the epic tradition of the old Norse sagas. Set in the fourteenth century in Europe’s most far-flung outpost, a land of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains, The Greenlanders is the story of one family–proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Jane Smiley takes us into this world of farmers, priests, and lawspeakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us.Be Specific About Appertaining To Books The Greenlanders
Title | : | The Greenlanders |
Author | : | Jane Smiley |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 608 pages |
Published | : | September 13th 2005 by Anchor (first published March 12th 1988) |
Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Novels |
Rating Appertaining To Books The Greenlanders
Ratings: 3.9 From 2293 Users | 348 ReviewsDiscuss Appertaining To Books The Greenlanders
A fun, breezy summer read!. . . this is NOT. The Greenlanders is a multi-generational epic told in the Norse style of the old sagas. Read the first few chapters of the Bible if you want to get a feel for Smiley's language. There is murder on the third page of this 584 page tome--told as casually as if a character in a modern story decided to take a drive to the grocery store. That's the first of many, many deaths that befall the Greenlanders: of starvation, exposure, childbirth, etc. The4.5/5 "There is no place for anger in a good wife.""Then indeed, there is no place for honor or virtue, it seems to me.["] This is not a work whose worth lends itself well to being expressed through quotes and other breeds of pithy summations. To put it colloquially, this is the kind of writing that evokes such swells of emotion that GoT and co. ape at: a never ending pall of threat of death and worse by the wildest and most inexplicable means and striking down all and sundry, driving religion,
The sad decline of Greenland's eastern settlement features death by starvation, the vomiting ill, being swept into the sea and drowning, falling through the ice and freezing and drowning, murder both justified and not, wasting away due to emotional trauma, and being burned to death for adultery. But the tone and pace are not as intense as you might expect from this account - instead, the tale is told in measured tones with very little reference to feelings, presumably much like the sagas
This was written in a Norse Saga style. Perhaps you may not like the style but I dare anyone to be able to pull it off as well as Smiley does. We are
For a modern book, this struck me as a lot like the old icelandic/greenlandic stories that I've read. Of course, that is both good and bad as far as my personal tastes go. I cannot fault the characterization, depth of detail, or scope. However, it just goes on and on and on and on and on. You sometimes see entire lives in a couple of pages, but that's only a tiny portion. It is extremely dense, but I have to wonder if some of that could have been cut. It makes it seem more like the old Norse
This may be my new favorite novel. It was hard going at first, but Smiley's strange, impersonal way of telling the story really got under my skin. I read it six months ago and it still comes to mind constantly. What did I like about it? The pared-down world of the Greenlanders, the subtly wrought characters, specific, gorgeous detail, and the emotion, which was somehow both stifled and explosive. There is something incredibly moving about their painful struggle to survive and their ultimate
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