My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The story of Káre Gíslason’s search for identity segues with the Viking sagas of Iceland. Instead of the vicious and horrifying physical violence that underpins the Viking culture, Gíslason’s personal saga is psychological. The impact of his father’s denial of him as his son haunts him. Richard Fidler accompanies Gíslason to Iceland, and motivates him to take steps to ascertain his Icelandic identity.
The Icelandic sagas are there, told in the context of the places the authors visited. I found the quantity of characters and their names confusing. I had to resort to keeping a list. Many of the names are similar, many starting with ‘Thor’ as in Thórd Sturluson, Thórdís Snorradóttir, Thorfinn, Thorgerd, Thorgrim, and so on and so forth. There is a list at the beginning of the book that is helpful.
My main issue with this book are the black and white illustrations. Really, they could be omitted without disadvantaging the book in any way. Imagine, if you will, the blurred CCTV pictures of hooded criminals with the Police caption, “Have you seen this person?” Well, that is the quality of most of the black and white photos in the book. Pathetic. The colour plates are reasonable but I’m not sure what they pertain to – thereby irrelevant.
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.
thoughts and memories 