CW: assault
A starkly different recommendation–from The Pale King to this, which couldn’t be more different if you’d tried. There’s more plot in a single paragraph of the latter than in all of the former’s million odd pages…and this book isn’t short by any means.
This is a fictionalized reconstruction of the Norwegian settlers of Greenland of the fourteenth century, written in the style of one of those old sagas originally passed down through oral tradition. It’s actually quite hard to sell this one, and I think you’ll realize very soon if it’s your sort of vibe or not. In tone there’s a lot in common with some of the fantasy novels of the 1980s and 1990s, that heavily stylized sort of omniscient narrator whose voice is super distinct but who, of course, is not a real character. Everyone has a long name and every name seems to be repeated (or seems like it’s repeated) such that I gave up very shortly on trying to fix them in my mind–I assumed that if someone was important, they’d soon have a characterization fixed to the name.
Ostensibly centered around Asgeir Gunnarsson (the son of…Gunnar) and his children Margret and Gunnar (see), the book is really a sweeping intergenerational drama charting the ups and downs of a series of colonizers who are perpetually one bad storm away from starvation.
Because, yes, most of this book passes in description of the mundane–thatching roofs, counting sheep, deciding how many sheep to slaughter pre-winter, growing hay for sheep, combing wool, weaving wool. If you don’t like sheep, this book might be a lot for you. But even still, there’s an entirely different thread that deals with the interactions between the settlers and the natives (always described from the point of view of our Greenlanders, so no revisionist history to be found) and an even more interesting one around religion. Namely that everyone is Catholic and struggling enough with keeping themselves fed, nevermind feeding the coffers of the Vatican (this also takes place partially during the reign of the dueling popes).
This is a novel with very little plot armor–you’d be surprised at how many characters go from alive to dead (or unknown to dead) within the course of a single paragraph, a death described as one might describe the movement of sheep (sheep being, of course, very important). As a result you’re forever on the edge of your seat, because not even the most well guarded and stocked storage barn can save your darlings from the ravages of Greenland.
Honestly one questions why anyone ever wanted to go to a land that is called Greenland and is mostly covered in ice.
It’s rare that I enjoy historical fiction that doesn’t include an element of anachronism vis-a-vis the treatment of women (at a minimum, some internal life navel gazing) and while I’m not going to throw this book under the bus and say that it doesn’t have that, it also doesn’t not not have it. Margret’s willful independence seems perfectly in character for time and place, not a relic of a modern audience looking for revisionism.
Although in some sense nothing much happens (the seasons roll forward, people either get enough to eat or starve) I was always really keen to get back to this book and luxuriate in the world Smiley has created. I distinctly recall getting into my warmed bed the day after finishing (because reading about being cold constantly necessitates reading while bundled up in covers) and realizing that I didn’t have any more to read with sadness…which is not a thing that usually happens to me 😉