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THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS

Name: THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS
Author: Örnólfur Thorsson
ISBN: 0-670-88990-3

edited by Örnólfur Thorsson & translated by Katrina C. Attwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2000

novel. All honor to (appropriately enough) Viking for making these treasures available.

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What better way to begin a new century than with a generous collection—the first such in English—of some of the greatest

stories ever told. This compendium is a distillation of the Complete Sagas of Icelanders published in five fat volumes in Great Britain in 1997. From that original edition’s 40 sagas and 49 related briefer tales, Thorsson’s edition extracts ten sagas and seven tales. The excellence of the sagas (oral tales that were written down in the 13th and 14th centuries, though having existed much earlier) as literature is attested to in an appreciative Preface by Jane Smiley (whose recent novel, The Greenlanders, is a skillful imitation of this venerable form) and in a long and informative Introduction by scholar Robert Kellogg. But these wise, blunt tales of hardship, conflict, and destiny speak eloquently enough for themselves. The greatest of them all, the brooding, Aeschylean Njal’s Saga is understandably not included. Still, it’s hard to imagine a reader who won’t be hooked by the masterly Egil’s Saga, the tale of a stubborn farmer’s ongoing feud with several generations of Norwegian royalty. The unforgiving Egil, who’s also an accomplished poet and warrior, is the saga’s single most memorable figure—unless that distinction belongs to Gudrun Osvifsdottir, the vengeful hellion of The Saga of the People of Laxardal. Also of highest interest: The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey’ s Godi, a taut dramatization of the implacability of fate that recalls Sir Walter Scott's magnificent "The Two Drovers"; Gisli Sursson’s Saga, a compact and thrilling, almost Dostoevskyan revenge tale filled with unforgettable dream imagery; and the "Tale of Thorstein Shiver," a terrific story of the supernatural. Irresistible tales that are, as surely as the masterpieces of Homer and Cervantes, the forerunners of the modern European

novel. All honor to (appropriately enough) Viking for making these treasures available.

Pub Date: April 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-670-88990-3

Page Count: 848

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.