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... a brilliantly observed social comedy. At the heart of Brú s fable is a clash of two ways of living: the centuries-old subsistence economy of fulmar-hunting and stewed whale liver and the modern world of the telephone and the motorboat. While our sympathies lie with Ketil, the book never spares us the awfulness of his existence or his foolishness. The Faroese voted this their book of the 20th century; by any nation s standards it s a classic. --Adrian Turpin, Financial Times 8th July, 2011
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These are the Faroe Islands as they were some fifty years ago: sea-washed and remote, with one generation still tied to the ocean for sustenance, and a younger generation turning towards commerce and clerical work in the towns. Following the blood, foam and fury of a whale kill, the normally cautious Ketil finds himself caught up in the frenzy of post celebrations, enthusiastically bidding for more meat than he can afford. Thus in his seventieth year, Ketil and his wife, along with their youngest son, struggle to repay their debt. Forced to accept the brutal reality of their precarious existence, they scavenge for driftwood and stranded seals.
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1 review
Life on the Faroe Islands
24 Dec 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have just finished reading this wonderful short book set in the Faroe islands and it has become one of my favorites.
Acting on a impulse, Ketil, the main character, buys more whale meat than he can afford, and this sets off an array of tragicomic events. Past and present views on life, work, religion, family and sex are contrasted in this book in a fabled-like way narrating the vicissitudes Ketil and his family go through in order to gather the money to pay for the whale meat bill.
The Old Man and His Sons is organized similar to Italo Calvino's Marcovaldo. The ten chapters work as ten tragicomic vignettes depicting different aspects of life on the Faroe islands. At first, I feared the writing style would resemble that of Halldór Laxness, which I consider a bit flowery and hard to follow at times. However, while the plot vaguely reminds me of that of The Fish Can Sing, The Old Man and His Sons is written in a simple way. I think that John F. West did a wonderful job with the translation, which is very fluent and natural.
Hopefully, more work by Heðin Brú will be translated and published in the near future, since this is the only title available in English so far.
Acting on a impulse, Ketil, the main character, buys more whale meat than he can afford, and this sets off an array of tragicomic events. Past and present views on life, work, religion, family and sex are contrasted in this book in a fabled-like way narrating the vicissitudes Ketil and his family go through in order to gather the money to pay for the whale meat bill.
The Old Man and His Sons is organized similar to Italo Calvino's Marcovaldo. The ten chapters work as ten tragicomic vignettes depicting different aspects of life on the Faroe islands. At first, I feared the writing style would resemble that of Halldór Laxness, which I consider a bit flowery and hard to follow at times. However, while the plot vaguely reminds me of that of The Fish Can Sing, The Old Man and His Sons is written in a simple way. I think that John F. West did a wonderful job with the translation, which is very fluent and natural.
Hopefully, more work by Heðin Brú will be translated and published in the near future, since this is the only title available in English so far.
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