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The Fish Can Sing
 
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The Fish Can Sing (Paperback)

by Halldor Laxness (Author), Jane Smiley (Introduction)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 16.50
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The Fish Can Sing + World Light + Independent People
Total List Price: CDN$ 56.45
Price For All Three: CDN$ 41.07

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  • This item: The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness

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Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Laxness, Iceland's best-known fiction writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize for literature, authored well over 60 novels and other books before his death in 1998 at the age of 90. This lyrical novel, first published in English in 1966 (nine years after its original publication in Iceland), concerns a boy named Alfgr¡mur Hannson of Brekkukot, the humble fishing cottage where he is raised by adoptive grandparents. The novel's plot--if so formal a term may be used to describe the tale's slow and meandering progress through Alfgr¡mur's uneventful youth--involves an Icelandic singing star known as Gardar H¢lm. All Iceland, except for H¢lm's own mother and the folks at Brekkukot, dote on H¢lm because of his international reputation for performing lieder. Yet few have ever heard him sing--the beloved H¢lm is growing old and he is mysteriously elusive. Young Alfgr¡mur may also be a gifted singer, and he tracks H¢lm down assiduously. Once he finds him, however, he learns that singing is only one way of seeking "the one true note"--and he who has heard that note never sings again. Laxness portrays the backwardness of turn-of-the-century Iceland with gentle humor and irony. Tiny Iceland needs its "singing fish"--celebrities like Gardar H¢lm, and perhaps Alfgr¡mur Hannson--but the moral of Laxness's lovely fable references a simpler sentiment: glory may just as well be sought in the humblest walks of life.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Fay Weldon, The Daily Telegraph

"[Laxness] is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows us plot...."
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The Fish Can Sing
73% buy the item featured on this page:
The Fish Can Sing 5.0 out of 5 stars (4)
CDN$ 11.91
Independent People
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Independent People 4.7 out of 5 stars (54)
CDN$ 14.56
Iceland's Bell
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Iceland's Bell 4.4 out of 5 stars (5)
CDN$ 16.75
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable read, Dec 19 2001
By Jay Stevens (Missoula, MT) - See all my reviews
Laxness' book, "The Fish Can Sing" is a remarkable book. At first, it seems like a random series of vignettes about early 20th-century Icelandic life, full of detail and life, but appearing loosely bound at best. But by the end of the novel, the reader realizes he is in the hands of a master craftsman as the rich detail provided in earlier chapters come back to play important roles in the culmination of the book and its plot.

There's an endless array of well-defined, complicated, and vivid characters. There's the lavish countryside painted simply - evoking the same feeling you get from a good watercolor. Then there's the plot, which is mysterious and complex, but leaves you with much to ponder.

A nod to the translator, Magnus Magnussen, because the prose is fertile and poetic. It's unbelievably rich, yet brilliantly sparse. This is the way prose should be.

Laxness and Magnussen have given us a beautiful, soulful book. It's a remarkable read.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece!, April 27 2001
By Louis S. Mosier (Chesapeake, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This brilliant work amply demonstrates why its author, Halldor Laxness, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955(?). Without much of a plot--it portrays the maturation and awakening of a young man, Alfgrimur Hanson--"The Fish Can Sing" is nonetheless very rich in characterization and aptly depicts life in early 20th century Iceland. As an American who has lived in Iceland for the last two years, I have grown to appreciate Laxness's insight into the character of the proud and independent Icelandic people. I have read two other Laxness books which I could find printed in English--"Under the Glacier" and "Independent People"--and although those are very good, "The Fish Can Sing" is outstanding and clearly my favorite. Humorous, though-provoking and ultimately very moving, this book is one which you will surely enjoy and not readily forget.
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5.0 out of 5 stars The Tao of Lumpfish, Mar 19 2001
By James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
I could not help but think while reading this novel of a Frank Capra film from the 1930s entitled YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU about an eccentric household headed by Lionel Barrymore full of amiable zanies who stump the frenetic world around them.

Laxness, Iceland's only Nobelist, writes of a young orphan named Alfgrim who may or may not be a relative of the great opera singer Gardar Holm, who also hails from Brekkukot, where the old lumpfisherman Bjork maintains a rambling house on the outskirts of what was to become the country's new capital, Reykjavik. This house is filled with lodgers who get to stay rent-free for no other reason than that they ask.

Alfgrim keeps crossing paths with Gardar Holm and the young woman who wants to become the singer's lover. For some reason, the singer always cancels his appointments to the chagrin of his sponsors and fans; and the young woman, Blaer Gudmunsen, is always given the slip. The unhappy Holm is in stark contrast to Alfgrim, who maintains his balance by being suspicious of fame and content with a future of gathering lumpfish.

In the end, this is an feel-good work of considerable artistry, with a masterful, rich sense of characterization. The translation by Magnus Magnusson is excellent, as befits the man who at one and the same time is both one of the best translators of Icelandic Sagas and the TV host of BBC's MASTERMIND and WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYHOW?

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, wonderful book
The Fish can Sing (or, as it is known in Icelandic, The Annal of Brekkukot) is one of Laxness's finest and most intimate novels. Read more
Published on Oct 6 2000

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