Geek Reads: Founding Fathers and Pagan Goddesses
My latest Geek Reads column was published on 4/26/17 at Electric Literature. It looks at Halldór Laxness’s most radical novel and the importance of rethinking epic storytelling.
“Iceland’s sole Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) published twenty-two novels, among many other things, during his long career. I’ve not read all of them, but of those I have Kristnihald undir Jökli strikes me as by far his strangest, his funniest, and his most radical. Susan Sontag once declared, ‘It is like nothing else Laxness ever wrote’ and I’ll take her word for it. I’m also told that it was the last novel he completed before turning to playwriting.”