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Review
'The Blue Fox describes its world with brilliant, precise, concrete colour and detail...Comic and lyrical.' --A.S. Byatt, The Times
'Rarely does an author come loaded with such impressive indie and establishment credentials. As Björk s long time collaborator, Sjón was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics for the film Dancer in the Dark. Renowned throughout Iceland for his numerous plays and poetry collections (the first of which was published when he was just sixteen), in 2005, Skugga-Baldur (The Blue Fox) was awarded the Nordic Council s Literature Prize the Nordic equivalent of the Booker. Bile might start to rise in certain quarters at the thought of musical hipsters who think they can pull off a novel. But in this beautiful, tiny book, Sjón has produced the literary equivalent of a snowflake, a hundred page riff on the literature, landscape and history of Iceland which reads more like an epic poem, albeit with one striking piece of modernity thrown in.' --Sarah Hesketh: Ready Steady Book
'Book of the year? I shall cut to the chase. This is an exceptional book. Truly stunning. I adored every one of the 112 pages. I strongly suspect I shall spend most of the rest of the year recommending it to anyone who will listen, and probably anyone who won't. Stop reading this review and go and buy it now. You'll thank me later. The Blue Fox is short, and deceptively simple. On the surface it follows two loosely connected stories set across a few days in Iceland during winter 1883. The priest Baldur Skuggason is on a hunting trip, tracking the elusive titular blue fox through a biting blizzard. The biologist Fridrik Fridriksson is preparing the funeral of his maid, Abba, who had Down's Syndrome. What makes The Blue Fox so special is both the poetry of the language and the way that the stories build cumulatively, scene by scene. The effect is almost hypnotic. I never wanted it to end, but end it did with a subtle twist that brought the strands together neatly and cleverly.' --Scott Pack: Me and My Big Mouth
'Rarely does an author come loaded with such impressive indie and establishment credentials. As Björk s long time collaborator, Sjón was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics for the film Dancer in the Dark. Renowned throughout Iceland for his numerous plays and poetry collections (the first of which was published when he was just sixteen), in 2005, Skugga-Baldur (The Blue Fox) was awarded the Nordic Council s Literature Prize the Nordic equivalent of the Booker. Bile might start to rise in certain quarters at the thought of musical hipsters who think they can pull off a novel. But in this beautiful, tiny book, Sjón has produced the literary equivalent of a snowflake, a hundred page riff on the literature, landscape and history of Iceland which reads more like an epic poem, albeit with one striking piece of modernity thrown in.' --Sarah Hesketh: Ready Steady Book
'Book of the year? I shall cut to the chase. This is an exceptional book. Truly stunning. I adored every one of the 112 pages. I strongly suspect I shall spend most of the rest of the year recommending it to anyone who will listen, and probably anyone who won't. Stop reading this review and go and buy it now. You'll thank me later. The Blue Fox is short, and deceptively simple. On the surface it follows two loosely connected stories set across a few days in Iceland during winter 1883. The priest Baldur Skuggason is on a hunting trip, tracking the elusive titular blue fox through a biting blizzard. The biologist Fridrik Fridriksson is preparing the funeral of his maid, Abba, who had Down's Syndrome. What makes The Blue Fox so special is both the poetry of the language and the way that the stories build cumulatively, scene by scene. The effect is almost hypnotic. I never wanted it to end, but end it did with a subtle twist that brought the strands together neatly and cleverly.' --Scott Pack: Me and My Big Mouth
'Rarely does an author come loaded with such impressive indie and establishment credentials. As Björk s long time collaborator, Sjón was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics for the film Dancer in the Dark. Renowned throughout Iceland for his numerous plays and poetry collections (the first of which was published when he was just sixteen), in 2005, Skugga-Baldur (The Blue Fox) was awarded the Nordic Council s Literature Prize the Nordic equivalent of the Booker. Bile might start to rise in certain quarters at the thought of musical hipsters who think they can pull off a novel. But in this beautiful, tiny book, Sjón has produced the literary equivalent of a snowflake, a hundred page riff on the literature, landscape and history of Iceland which reads more like an epic poem, albeit with one striking piece of modernity thrown in.' --Sarah Hesketh: Ready Steady Book
'Book of the year? I shall cut to the chase. This is an exceptional book. Truly stunning. I adored every one of the 112 pages. I strongly suspect I shall spend most of the rest of the year recommending it to anyone who will listen, and probably anyone who won't. Stop reading this review and go and buy it now. You'll thank me later. The Blue Fox is short, and deceptively simple. On the surface it follows two loosely connected stories set across a few days in Iceland during winter 1883. The priest Baldur Skuggason is on a hunting trip, tracking the elusive titular blue fox through a biting blizzard. The biologist Fridrik Fridriksson is preparing the funeral of his maid, Abba, who had Down's Syndrome. What makes The Blue Fox so special is both the poetry of the language and the way that the stories build cumulatively, scene by scene. The effect is almost hypnotic. I never wanted it to end, but end it did with a subtle twist that brought the strands together neatly and cleverly.' --Scott Pack: Me and My Big Mouth
'Rarely does an author come loaded with such impressive indie and establishment credentials. As Björk s long time collaborator, Sjón was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics for the film Dancer in the Dark. Renowned throughout Iceland for his numerous plays and poetry collections (the first of which was published when he was just sixteen), in 2005, Skugga-Baldur (The Blue Fox) was awarded the Nordic Council s Literature Prize the Nordic equivalent of the Booker. Bile might start to rise in certain quarters at the thought of musical hipsters who think they can pull off a novel. But in this beautiful, tiny book, Sjón has produced the literary equivalent of a snowflake, a hundred page riff on the literature, landscape and history of Iceland which reads more like an epic poem, albeit with one striking piece of modernity thrown in.' --Sarah Hesketh: Ready Steady Book
'Book of the year? I shall cut to the chase. This is an exceptional book. Truly stunning. I adored every one of the 112 pages. I strongly suspect I shall spend most of the rest of the year recommending it to anyone who will listen, and probably anyone who won't. Stop reading this review and go and buy it now. You'll thank me later. The Blue Fox is short, and deceptively simple. On the surface it follows two loosely connected stories set across a few days in Iceland during winter 1883. The priest Baldur Skuggason is on a hunting trip, tracking the elusive titular blue fox through a biting blizzard. The biologist Fridrik Fridriksson is preparing the funeral of his maid, Abba, who had Down's Syndrome. What makes The Blue Fox so special is both the poetry of the language and the way that the stories build cumulatively, scene by scene. The effect is almost hypnotic. I never wanted it to end, but end it did with a subtle twist that brought the strands together neatly and cleverly.' --Scott Pack: Me and My Big Mouth
Product Description
The year is 1883. The stark Icelandic winter landscape is the backdrop. We follow the priest, Skugga-Baldur, on his hunt for the enigmatic blue fox. We're then transported to the world of the naturalist Friethrik B. Friethriksson and his charge, Abba, who suffers from Down's syndrome, and who came to his rescue when he was on the verge of disaster. Then to a shipwreck off the Icelandic coast in the spring of 1868. The fates of Friethrik, Abba and Baldur are intrinsically bound and unravelled in this spellbinding book that is part thriller, part fairy tale.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is 1883 and a man goes foxhunting in the mountains of Iceland, armed with plenty of confidence, wholesome food, and his trusted rifle.
Soon he catches the scent of the fox and starts pursuing it, getting strange vibes and hearing voices which speak of a bond between man, earth, and animal. Voices that let him track the prey effortlessly.
Then a blizzard sets in, the man moves deeper into the hills, and things take an ugly turn which eventually carve away his man suit to lay bare the animal flipside of humanity.
That's about it, really.
Or not.
Framed by the ill-fated foxhunt of Reverend Baldur Skyggeson (whose name it is well worth looking into a little bit...) a second storyline picks up. It is the tale of the burial of Abba, a strange girl who arrived as the only survivor on a huge, shipwrecked Dutch trading vessel years before.
She is buried by Fridrik B. Fridjonsson, the man who has taken care of her through most of her life, and seemingly he is just about the only man who has also respected her as a human being.
Others have hurried to put her Down's Syndrome into an evolutionary classification system where she ends up somewhere after negro and before indians - and far from white men.
The system goes like this: Fish-reptile-bird-dog-monkey-negro-asian-indian-white, with the "asian" category also containing those with Down's Syndrome since their evolution in the mother's womb most have somehow halted at this stage after which they we born. Cute...
Kids like that are usually killed in Iceland anno 1883. But Abba has survived, and to cut to the chase without too many spoilers: her existence links together the two storyline in a very subtle but important way.
The context for this Icelandic masterpiece, and 2005 winner of the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Price, is what Fridrik fittingly calls "the edge of the inhabitable world", somewhere in rural Iceland, closer to giant jökulls and avalanche prone peaks, blizzardous skies and stony grounds than towns or townships, farmlands or settlements.
Out here the foxes and ravens roam, and men walk into the hills only to disappear forever in a flash of ugly weather.
Sjón, who among a million other things has written lyrics for fairy-pop-poetress-icon Björk herself, has cut back the story to expose only the tersest, dry descriptions of hunting, burying, living.
It is North Atlantic prose-poetry-novel-style at its best, and once you get your mind working, and you get down to speed, you can slowly start filling in the blanks, connect the dots, do whatever you gotta do, as long as you use your imagination. Then Skugga-Baldur ignites with life.
Soon he catches the scent of the fox and starts pursuing it, getting strange vibes and hearing voices which speak of a bond between man, earth, and animal. Voices that let him track the prey effortlessly.
Then a blizzard sets in, the man moves deeper into the hills, and things take an ugly turn which eventually carve away his man suit to lay bare the animal flipside of humanity.
That's about it, really.
Or not.
Framed by the ill-fated foxhunt of Reverend Baldur Skyggeson (whose name it is well worth looking into a little bit...) a second storyline picks up. It is the tale of the burial of Abba, a strange girl who arrived as the only survivor on a huge, shipwrecked Dutch trading vessel years before.
She is buried by Fridrik B. Fridjonsson, the man who has taken care of her through most of her life, and seemingly he is just about the only man who has also respected her as a human being.
Others have hurried to put her Down's Syndrome into an evolutionary classification system where she ends up somewhere after negro and before indians - and far from white men.
The system goes like this: Fish-reptile-bird-dog-monkey-negro-asian-indian-white, with the "asian" category also containing those with Down's Syndrome since their evolution in the mother's womb most have somehow halted at this stage after which they we born. Cute...
Kids like that are usually killed in Iceland anno 1883. But Abba has survived, and to cut to the chase without too many spoilers: her existence links together the two storyline in a very subtle but important way.
The context for this Icelandic masterpiece, and 2005 winner of the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Price, is what Fridrik fittingly calls "the edge of the inhabitable world", somewhere in rural Iceland, closer to giant jökulls and avalanche prone peaks, blizzardous skies and stony grounds than towns or townships, farmlands or settlements.
Out here the foxes and ravens roam, and men walk into the hills only to disappear forever in a flash of ugly weather.
Sjón, who among a million other things has written lyrics for fairy-pop-poetress-icon Björk herself, has cut back the story to expose only the tersest, dry descriptions of hunting, burying, living.
It is North Atlantic prose-poetry-novel-style at its best, and once you get your mind working, and you get down to speed, you can slowly start filling in the blanks, connect the dots, do whatever you gotta do, as long as you use your imagination. Then Skugga-Baldur ignites with life.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This Icelandic novella from Bjork's longtime co-writer is a mystical tale of two halves. First we have the tale of man versus cunning vixen as the parson goes out into the winter to hunt a rare blue fox. This is told in short bursts as a battle of minds that veers into mystical fairy tale territory as an avalanche entraps the hunter and the hunted. The other half tells how a naturalist and a girl, Abba, with Downs syndrome rescue each other, and of Fridrik's coping with her death. The mystery of where she comes from is gradually revealed as the two stories come together.
A poetic little novel that will certainly appeal to fans of Icelandic great Halldor Laxness.
A poetic little novel that will certainly appeal to fans of Icelandic great Halldor Laxness.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sjón is an Icelandic writer, and first and foremost a poet. His novel The Blue Fox is a very slim little volume - barely more than 100 pages. But those pages are so full of magic and beauty and harshness and such a vivid sense of place that I could barely believe the author managed to say so much in so few words. In that sense, and in some of its themes, this book reminds me of Alan Garner's brilliant Thursbitch - and coming from me, that is not a comparison to be taken lightly.
The Blue Fox is the story of a huntsman-priest in 19th century Iceland, Baldur Skuggason, obsessed with hunting the mysterious 'blue fox' or 'skugga-baldur' that roams the snow-covered mountain landscape in the dark days of midwinter. It's also the story of the herbalist Fridrik Fridjonsson and Abba, the horribly abused young Down's Syndrome woman he has taken in and loves like a daughter, helping her to compile a collection of carefully-identified feathers from Iceland's rich and varied bird life as he gradually learns the strange language she has created for herself during her years of neglect. It's the story of life, death, shamanism, landscape and metamorphosis, as the hunter becomes the hunted, human beings become puzzles, and the landscape and language become one and the same.
The Blue Fox could only ever have been written in Iceland, in that unique landscape, that odd mixture of beauty and harshness. Like a Nordic fairytale, it combines magic and brutality, gentleness and violence, the metaphysical and the mundane.
As a young man, studying in Denmark, Fridrik tells his opium-smoking companions: "I have seen the universe; it is made of poems." His Danish friends laugh and tell him he is "a true Icelander" - and they are right. I've been to Iceland, and never before have I ever been so convinced that the universe is, without a doubt, made of poems.
The Blue Fox is the story of a huntsman-priest in 19th century Iceland, Baldur Skuggason, obsessed with hunting the mysterious 'blue fox' or 'skugga-baldur' that roams the snow-covered mountain landscape in the dark days of midwinter. It's also the story of the herbalist Fridrik Fridjonsson and Abba, the horribly abused young Down's Syndrome woman he has taken in and loves like a daughter, helping her to compile a collection of carefully-identified feathers from Iceland's rich and varied bird life as he gradually learns the strange language she has created for herself during her years of neglect. It's the story of life, death, shamanism, landscape and metamorphosis, as the hunter becomes the hunted, human beings become puzzles, and the landscape and language become one and the same.
The Blue Fox could only ever have been written in Iceland, in that unique landscape, that odd mixture of beauty and harshness. Like a Nordic fairytale, it combines magic and brutality, gentleness and violence, the metaphysical and the mundane.
As a young man, studying in Denmark, Fridrik tells his opium-smoking companions: "I have seen the universe; it is made of poems." His Danish friends laugh and tell him he is "a true Icelander" - and they are right. I've been to Iceland, and never before have I ever been so convinced that the universe is, without a doubt, made of poems.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
It's Icelandic novell then it's interesting
I'm so interested by Icelandic novells and sagas, also like interested by its language, then I like it for that it's Icelandic firstly. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Eugene (Evgeniy)
an intense, overpowering ode to psychological aesthetics
I'm not going to go indepth with a review of this book, but I felt the need to review it as the other reviewers were not as dazzled by this book as I was and, though I've never... Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2009 by Heathcote Ruthven
Losing track ...
This is a strange mix of fairy tale and surreal mystery. It started off well and interestingly enough, with the blue fox and the vengeful preacher. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2009 by Ms. A. Brooke
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