An accurate and engrossing tale for history buffs and Viking aficionados.
An ambitious story of interclan feuding in Iceland set against sweeping European events in 1000 CE.
Kári Sigurdsson is a hero in Iceland–he boasts riches earned while fighting for the Norwegian King Olaf in England, a marriage to the daughter of one of the most powerful godar (or chieftains) and a prosperous farm. At the time Iceland is one of the most democratic countries in Europe; the legislative core of the Icelandic state is the Althing, an annual gathering where disputes are settled and the law maintaining order is enforced. After the murder of an innocent retainer, Kári slays the killer in a fair fight. Still, his adversary's father flouts the law, threatening Kári's homestead and ultimately inciting the murder of Kári's comrade-in-arms, Norwegian Bjorn Thorsteinson. When Kári sets out to avenge Bjorn's death, he comes up against the most powerful men in the land–as well as the treachery of his coldhearted, ambitious wife Helga. Seeking allies, Kári pleads his case to his own chieftain Egil, whose response is lukewarm. Iceland's system of governance has room for greed, loopholes and moral cowardice, but Kári's courage and sense of honor–bolstered by the support of Gudrid, Egil's beautiful crippled daughter–hold firm. Jansson's carefully researched descriptions of turf houses, vadmal (handwoven wool cloth), furniture, burial customs and the clash between pagans and Christians evoke comparison with Jane Smiley's The Greenlanders. The author laces the story with references to Iceland's connections with the rest of Europe, from Norway, Denmark and the Orkney Islands to France and Byzantium. While the early chapters are bogged down by an overabundance of characters and historic facts, the story picks up energy as it progresses, ultimately reaching a satisfying conclusion.
An accurate and engrossing tale for history buffs and Viking aficionados.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4196-8245-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
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.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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