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Reviews tagging 'Animal death'
Independent People by James Anderson Thompson, Halldór Laxness
5 reviews
kalupy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, and Blood
jodar's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This long novel took me several weeks to finish and it is grim reading, with little joyfulness. But it has great depths to it and is well worth the effort.
Set in late-19th and early-20th-century Iceland, the MC is a poor sheep farmer who has worked for years till he could buy his small holding and so become financially and socially independent. In fact, extreme independence is the MC’s ’philosophy of life’; he is willing to sacrifice his own happiness and the happiness and wellbeing of his children and family before this obsession:
Set in late-19th and early-20th-century Iceland, the MC is a poor sheep farmer who has worked for years till he could buy his small holding and so become financially and socially independent. In fact, extreme independence is the MC’s ’philosophy of life’; he is willing to sacrifice his own happiness and the happiness and wellbeing of his children and family before this obsession:
[The MC comments to a son:] I consider that a man should make up his mind himself and follow none but his own behests. (Chapter 56)
and as the MC later contemplates,
The strongest man is he who stands alone. A man is born alone. A man dies alone. Then why shouldn’t he live alone? Is not the ability to stand alone the perfection of life, the goal? (Chapter 62)
The harshness of the climate reflects the harshness of the family’s life. In both there are brief respites of warmth and comfort, only to be replaced once again with bitterness and loss. The writing, even in translation, evokes a sense of immediacy and realism in these stark rural lives.
There are also some psychological contradictions that feel convincingly true to life: an MC who is so stubborn and even cruel, yet also an admirer of the beauty of old Icelandic bardic poetry; the MC’s foster daughter, who develops an intense hatred for her father and yet is emotionally overwhelmed with love for him.
The novel is unique to me in exploring the ugly results of the pursuit of extreme independence: the MC bows before no one, not even before God, and is reluctant to accept anyone else’s opinions. More often I have read books that consider the dangers of conformity with society, the “tyranny of mankind” (Chapter 32) and the needful challenge of an individual to pursue a noble path towards their ‘true self’. Although set in a particular time period and place, there is a timeless and universal precept for the reader to contemplate: a view of what self-centred, extreme individualism can lead to, when any consideration of others or the understandings of other people are rejected if they don’t conform to the individual’s desires.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Minor: Incest and Xenophobia
thomasdj's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder
lolosadcat's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is a beautifully written book about an Icelandic sheep farmer who fights fiercely to maintain his independence, bring beholden to no one (including his own family!), despite everything that early 1900s Iceland throws at him and his sheep.
The prose was a little dense at times for my personal tastes, but I overall really enjoyed reading this. Laxness has a knack for capturing both the beautiful highs and tragic lows of ordinary farming life, but he also manages to give pointed commentary on Iceland's changing political and economic systems and its effects, good and bad, on characters of disparate economic classes.
If you have the edition with the Brad Leithauser introduction, I would not recommend reading the intro until you complete the book. It contained major spoilers.
The prose was a little dense at times for my personal tastes, but I overall really enjoyed reading this. Laxness has a knack for capturing both the beautiful highs and tragic lows of ordinary farming life, but he also manages to give pointed commentary on Iceland's changing political and economic systems and its effects, good and bad, on characters of disparate economic classes.
If you have the edition with the Brad Leithauser introduction, I would not recommend reading the intro until you complete the book. It contained major spoilers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Racism
onceandfuturereads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Racism
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