Jane SmileyThe Greenlanders

Love this author's work and I tried to get into The Greenlanders but the type is too small and there is almost no space between lines, making it nearly impossible to literally read, so I had to give up. The publisher should be ashamed of themselves for putting this book out like this. I gave it a three-star because the author should not be criticized for this.

Note: this is a personal and somewhat rambling review.The Greenlanders was one of the great reading experiences of my adult life, and I have to confess that "great" reading experiences have become few and far between the older and more jaded I get. I had heard of the book for several years prior, and I knew that at some point, the time would ripe. I find that certain books reward a structured, self conscious approach to being read, The Greenlanders being a case in point. I am not sure why, it certainly isn't rational (another example was Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose). Most books I pick up and start reading immediately, but for certain others, I feel the need to anticipate and postpone.In this instance, I purchased a used hardback through an Amazon partner. When it arrived it was pleasingly large and heavy with a clear plastic cover protecting the jacket. The cover artwork is excellent, and the bookseller had included an additional bonus of a postcard version of the cover (or perhaps this was included by the publisher - in any case it made a great bookmark!) I set the book aside for several weeks on my bedside table to let the idea of it grow in my mind, occasionally picking it up just to enjoy the heft, and eventually, the time was right and I dove in.When I did start to read it I was immediately captivated. It is not an easy read as some reviewers have pointed out. The prose style is that of an actual Norse or Scandinavian saga, the dialog can seem stilted, and the overall tone is stylized, spare, and stark. Smiley frequently reuses certain phrases - "there came a time" for example - reinforcing the sense that one is listening to an oral story. The characters can be difficult to keep track of. Simple events (harvests, meals) are described with the same dispassionate tone as murder. If you read quickly or skim at all, you can miss vital developments.Despite its challenges, The Greenlanders richly rewards a reader's efforts. After the first few pages, I had sunk into it's mood, my inner ear adapting to the pacing and style of the prose, surrendering to the almost Biblical voice. I have a similar reaction to Shakespeare or Melville - difficult at first, but then as I get accustomed to the rhythm, it is as though I enter a different world. So as to not spoil the plot, I will say only that the story is truly epic in scope, covering decades and taking the character(s) from youth to old age. By the time I was finished, after several late nights of reading, I felt as though I were emerging from a dream. Images from the book remain with me, still vivid in my brain a year later.I am generally a fan of Jane Smiley, although I must admit that I prefer her less popular books (Moo, Horse Heaven) to her blockbusters (Thousand Acres). The Greenlanders definitely falls among the former. Highly recommended.

I had read this book several years ago and became fascinated by the story of the Greenland Vikings, their lives and their demise. In July 2008, my wife and I decided to visit both Iceland and the Greenland Viking sites to see for ourselves. It was 75 deg F when we stepped off the plane in Narsarssuaq (across from Erik the Red's farmstead) and we were surprised how colorful and pleasant it was. A warm wind was coming off the glacier, caused, they said, by a south wind cooling and compressing over the ice, creating heat and blowing back off the ice. The locals told us, however, that the past three years had been the coldest and snowiest in living memory, and still much colder than what the Vikings experienced some 1000 years ago. At the present time there are many local farms mostly growing hay for their sheep (they had cows, horses, sheep and goats then, as well as grain crops). There were wildflowers everywhere, and beautiful grasses. We walked the paths and places where the characters in the story lived. On reading the book again after our visit, it was surreal how precise Jane Smiley's descriptions are of the real thing. The old Vikings were peaceful and religious farmers who became isolated first by the Black Death in Europe, and the growing cold period. No traders or ships came anymore, and they had to live as best they could, many never having known other conditions after many generations. The hunger, illness and suffering from the gradually deteriorating conditions led to horrific and yet fateful events. No one really knows what happened to them beyond the middle of the 15th century. The use of old names and old style of writing give authenticity to the book, though this may be confusing and awkward for some readers, but not a lot worse than reading Dr. Zhivago. In fact those old names in Old Norse or modern Icelandic describe those places as they were: Brattahlid where Erik the Red had his farm means "steep hill" and there is one; Vatna Hverfi where Gunnars Stead was located means "lake district"; and Steinstraumstead (right by our hotel) means "the place of the stone stream" where the glacier left its moraine. For a great writer to create a folksy saga style and occasional repetitiveness adds reality to the nature of the barely literate people who recorded events of those days. I highly recommend the book as well as a trip to those sites.

This is a big and strangely fascinating book -- and it breaks almost all of the normal rules of fiction. There are no real heroes or heroines, and no real villains, and the story structure is difficult to discern. There is no climax or denouement -- and the tale simply describes the gradual decline of a once-vibrant settlement in a new land, to the point where it becomes virtually extinct. There is a sad inexorability to the tale. There's not much emotion, and even less humour. All that having been said, Jane Smiley is a clever writer who has clearly done a phenomenal amount of research into the lifestyle of these fourteenth-century Greenlanders stuck in an outpost of the Viking world which is gradually abandoned by the outside world. So from an historical point of view, she has done us all a great service.The writing style is unique, and the whole tale is told in the flat, unemotional and sparse language of a translated Icelandic Saga -- with a few American anachronisms thrown in for good measure! On the whole this is effective, although after more than 500 pages one does begin to tire of it. There is virtually no romance between individuals, and even the great events of life and death are dealt with in such a cursory -- almost brutal -- fashion that it's almost impossible to feel any empathy for any of the characters. On several occasions in the narrative, one starts to get interested in a character, and then suddenly, in the space of a sentence, he or she is disposed of, frozen to death in the wilderness, or killed by a neighbour, or lost in a seal hunt, never to be mentioned again. It was clearly the author's intention to portray this lost world of the Greenlanders as harsh and crude, with short life expectancy and the loss of loved ones and enemies accepted by those who remained with a shrug of the shoulders and a sort of fatalistic acceptance of disaster and loss simply as crude retributions from a vengeful God.There are few great events in the story, and no dominating characters, and the narrative delivers accounts of a multitude of small events involving one family or another in one location or another, almost to the point where confusion reigns. There are so many names and locations that even the most determined and devoted reader must find it almost impossible to keep track. The character list is useful, while omitting many characters; and the maps at the beginning of the book are poorly drawn, and would have been more useful if printed on fold-out pages.So with nobody in particular to root for or cheer on, as he or she copes with one disaster after another, we simply need to look on this book as an imagined historical narrative which delivers -- in a string of subtle vignettes -- explanations as to why this strange settlement of 5,000 souls started with such optimism and vigour and eventually faded away over 500 years until there was nobody left alive. The environment, close to the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet, was much more harsh than that of Iceland or Norway, and became harsher as the climate deteriorated with the onset of the Little Ice Age. The sea ice belt thickened and widened and became more persistent, making trading exchanges between Greenland and the rest of the Viking world more and more difficult. Ships, people and trading goods were lost with alarming frequency -- and that was critical, since the Greenlanders had no way of making metal tools or weapons or artifacts, and no timber to make boats of their own. Effectively, they were stranded and isolated, until others came to visit them. They were also visited periodically by famine and plague. There were conflicts with the Inuits (skraelings) who were expanding southwards along the Greenland coast and who were competing for natural resources like seals, whales and fish; and Smiley shows effectively how the Greenlanders viewed these strange hunters and gatherers as devils or demons because they were unChristian and because they were not enlightened enough to be farmers. In reality, of course, the skraeling lifestyle was beautifully adapted to the environment, whereas an "advanced" farming ecomomy based upon cattle, sheep and horses was, from the beginning, impossible to maintain. Smiley also describes, quite touchingly, the weird belief system of these early Christians, so simplistic and packed with symbolism and superstition that we can hardly credit some of the things said and done by the characters. But it all rings true. Then there is the long wait for a new Bishop -- who of course never arrives -- and the gradual decline in the influence of the church and its priests, and the gradual decline in respect for the law and the administration of justice. The respect for the lawspeaker and the influence of the annual Thing slips, year by year. As the narrative proceeds, everything decays -- the economy, religion, adherence to the law, and the behaviour and mutual respect of one family or community towards another. In the distance, the skraelings get on with their lives, presumably aware that they do not have to be in conflict with the Viking Greenlanders, for these strange people with a superfluous religion and a redundant lifestyle are inevitably doomed, and will die out without any great help from anybody else.Ironically, at the end, with a relict Viking community having dreamed for decades of a visitation from outside, with ships bringing in new trade goods, and maybe a new bishop and new settlers, a ship does arrive -- carrying privateers from Bristol, who have nothing on their minds other than rape and pillage.......

A compelling and unforgettable novel, but not an easy read. The plot line/s are fragile and it's really all about atmosphere and realistically not always lovable characters - it's a very tough life, in a tough landscape that seems quite alien to most readers, and the characters are tough too. It seems, in hindsight, very realistic and credible. Moving, fascinating and vividly memorable - it is a remarkable creation.

Extremely moving and exceptionally well written. Modern novel about life and demise of the last Scandinavian settlers during the Middle Ages in Greenland, similar in style to the Icelandic sagas but psychologically more accessible. Indeed this book made me research geographical information about Greenland and I was lucky enough to visit the National Museum in Copenhagen (Denmark) where several artefacts from the period are on display.

I have read other books by Jane Smiley, but this was the most fascinating. An engaging story about a culture far, far removed from ours. I started it with some trepidation, but soon became immersed in the landscape and characters.

I have read many of Jane Smiley' s books and while this one is very different from some, it sows the seeds for her trilogy of American life. There are similarities in the characters and the rolling flow of the tale. Not an easy read but worth the effort!