William Heinesen (1900–1991)

Heinesen’s characters are always vivid and well-sketched people. They are also always…quirky. To say the least. This book tells the story of a family of brothers in the Faroe Islands in the early 20th century. Although the primary focus lies in a battle for prohibition (of all alcohol) led by a somewhat cliched joyless, thoughtless, religious fanatic, the other story lines and tangents shine. I found the book was best not in its depiction of particular characters but rather in portraying the entire large cast of characters and their interrelationships.… (mehr)

Heinesen's last novel is an autobiographical look back from the perspective of old age at how a child experiences the process of discovering the world it lives in.

The narrator, Amaldus, in 1976, looks down from his metaphorical tower at the (chronological) end of his own world at the child-Amaldus living in the early years of the 20th century on a little rocky patch of land in the sea, a world that clearly stretches no further than the lighthouse at the tip of the island. But the years pass, he learns that there is a bigger world out there, places his father's ships sail to, and indeed that he is living on a round ball, spinning through space, that can project its shadow onto the Moon.

He is also, as children are, brought face to face with the realities of birth and death, with the inscrutable complexities of adult relationships, with the mysteries of religion, folklore, and witchcraft; with the complicated feelings he has for his friends, the clever and subversive girl Merrit and the would-be juvenile delinquent Hannibal, and so on.

But this isn't just an "end of innocence" novel, it's more complicated than that. Heinesen plays with biblical metaphors, weather-imagery, and all kinds of other structural and poetic devices, he brings his older narrator-self in and out of the story. And, as ever, there is a lot about the human need for beauty and the arts, and the damage that happens when that need is frustrated.

In the background to start with, but gradually taking over at the centre of the plot, there's another version of the story of The lost musicians, in this case driven by the ambition of Amaldus's hard, "practical", sea-captain/capitalist father to gain full control of the family business from his "feckless idiot" brother-in-law, Amaldus's uncle Hans. Hans prefers to spend his time drinking and making music with three close friends, when he isn't chasing girls or sailing his pleasure-yacht. Of course, there are tragic consequences to the father's intervention, but it's strange to see how strong the parallels are between the crazed Evangelical bank-manager in the earlier book and the ultra-sane, sceptical captain in this one.

Another lovely little book, and it makes me want to leap onto a ship and head for the North Atlantic!… (mehr)