About this title: Nobel laureate Halldor Laxness’s Under the Glacier is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, a wryly provocative novel at once earthy and otherworldly. At its outset, the Bishop of Iceland dispatches a young emissary to investigate certain charges against the pastor at Sn?fells Glacier, who, among other things, appears to have given up burying ...
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Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 256 p. Vintage International Original. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 2005-03-08
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781400034413. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: New. 9979200197 Cover has NO wear. NO spine seams. NO remainder mark. Pages are clean with NO markings, NO creases and NO dog-ears. Originally published in Icelandic 1968. First published in English 1972 under the title Christianity at Glacier. Trade Paperback. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: Good. Books have varying amounts of wear and highlighting. Usually ships within 24 hours in quality packaging. Satisfaction guaranteed. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: Paperback. Used. Some Bent Pages; Frayed Corners/Bent Cover. SKU: 21662858 All orders shipped within 1 business day. 14 day money back guarantee ISBN: 9781400034413 Used. Some Bent Pages; Frayed Corners/Bent Cover. SKU: 21662858 All orders shipped within 1 business day. 14 day money back guarantee. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: Paperback. Used. Some Bent Pages; Frayed Corners/Bent Cover. SKU: 21648236 All orders shipped within 1 business day. 14 day money back guarantee ISBN: 9781400034413 Used. Some Bent Pages; Frayed Corners/Bent Cover. SKU: 21648236 All orders shipped within 1 business day. 14 day money back guarantee. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2005-03-08
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: Very Good. Softcover in very good condition. Some visible signs of wear from previous ownership, but still a very good looking copy. May have remainder mark, or a small amount of writing on the inside. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400034413ISBN:1400034418
Description: New. Nobel laureate Halldor Laxness's Under the Glacier" is a" one-of-a-kind masterpiece, a wryly provocative novel at once earthy and otherworldly. At its outset, the Bishop of Iceland dispatches a young emissary to investigate certain charges against th... read more
"Hilarious and disturbing. A book of ancient fears, straying from the path and unanswerable questions. When you venture down this path to Snaefells Glacier with the appointed emissary to the bishop of Iceland, first you will believe that nothing is as it seems. Later you may realize that everything was always precisely as it seemed and it was you who were too dense to grasp the meaning of the word "seems." The dialogue will make you want to write, the wandering mysterious plot will keep you reading and the untrammelable wit will make you want to visit Iceland."
"I re-read this one recently, which is pretty rare for me to do with books I'm not teaching. I remember really liking this the first time I read it a couple years ago, but also feeling like I didn't quite get it, so I went back, and I'm glad I did.
The rap on this book is that it's a weird cosmic-philosophical exploration of terms of Christianity in a humorous, light-touch kind of way, with a lovable Candide-esque narrator. That's at least partly true, and I think I was able to follow the threads of that conversation much more closely this time, to see the intended truth behind the hyperbole of what is being satirized. But what really struck me is less sexy, but somehow more moving: Laxness writing about the natural landscape, and especially about birds, is totally amazing here. It's more in the run of the kind of writing he does elsewhere, and I don't think it works because it has some metaphysical significance; instead, I think it's just really good writing, and displays an obvious love for elements of the landscape that stand outside of whatever larger critique or noogies we might find Laxness bringing out here.
I'd read it a third time-- it's really quite a winner."
"It's not fair for me to give this book a low score. It's the kind of book that you would like, if you liked this kind of book. It's deconstructed and strange and has lots of digressions. There's religion and Icelandic myth and lots of descriptions of the glacier. Mysterious people come and go, and are not as they seem. My linear and lumpen brain struggles to be patient with creative structures so after 90 pages i had to put it down. But give it a whirl if you enjoy being confused!"
"Found it hard to condense my still tangled senses of this book to a staff pick card, since I only truly enjoyed the last part, when Ua returned. But here was my (very boring) try:
"Following a host of strange rumors, a young man is sent as an emissary of the Bishop of Iceland to investigate the parish at Snaefells Glacier, a landscape which profoundly roots and underlines the novel. Written by Iceland's premier author, Under the Glacier is a novel both comic and metaphysical, mythic and odd."
Then I read Adam W's card and must shake my fist at his powers of elegant condensation:
"In a village beyond the edge of the civilized world, a minister is challenged on grounds of heresy even while bona fide miracles lurk around every corner of his parish. In fact, reality seems to have become largely negotiable, even pliant, at the foot of Snaefells Glacier. A funny, fast-paced, dialogue-oriented book that is as bizarre as any otehr magical realism novel I've read."
Oh well. I did give it to my friend Patrick who is a sometime philosopher/thinker and who enjoyed Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita."
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