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A review by sundazebookcafe
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I’ve been meaning to read The Greenlanders for months, especially since hearing rave reviews from my peers in The Unseen Review Book Club. This one won’t be for everybody, yet I really do appreciate the quiet beauty of a vast, family saga and The Greenlanders is certainly that. Set in the fourteenth century, Jane Smiley brings to life one of the world’s toughest terrains, that of Greenland.
Smiley’s writing of Greenland is just beautiful. You can really be transported through her descriptions of the fjords, the stretches of plain land, the dark mountains, the wind, the sheer inhospitable conditions of their homeland. We follow one family, descendants of Nordic settlers, through their everyday life, into hunts, feasts, feuds, and beyond. Asgeir Gunnarsson owns Gunnars Stead, and his family are intertwined amongst the neighbouring families and their farms. I’d say the two focal protagonists in The Greenlanders are Asgeir’s daughter Margret – fearlessly independent, quiet and headstrong – and his son Gunnar – unlucky, a little violent, but who hosts a compelling quest for knowledge.
Like I said, this is a quiet and unassuming novel. We observe the everyday minutiae of a pretty vast set of characters, indulging in the little moments that make up their life in a harsh country with harsher neighbours. There is drama, but it is low stakes. Cleverly, Smiley weaves in major historical events that touch Greenland, thus creating a dazzling real picture of how this fictional family lived and how their real descendants might have lived too. In a busy and frantic modern world where life is about the big picture, The Greenlanders is a masterpiece in telling a story through the smaller moments. I also did a quick Google about 50 pages in that confirms the slightly formal and nearly cold prose style is in that of a Nordic or Icelandic saga. Nice.
Smiley’s writing of Greenland is just beautiful. You can really be transported through her descriptions of the fjords, the stretches of plain land, the dark mountains, the wind, the sheer inhospitable conditions of their homeland. We follow one family, descendants of Nordic settlers, through their everyday life, into hunts, feasts, feuds, and beyond. Asgeir Gunnarsson owns Gunnars Stead, and his family are intertwined amongst the neighbouring families and their farms. I’d say the two focal protagonists in The Greenlanders are Asgeir’s daughter Margret – fearlessly independent, quiet and headstrong – and his son Gunnar – unlucky, a little violent, but who hosts a compelling quest for knowledge.
Like I said, this is a quiet and unassuming novel. We observe the everyday minutiae of a pretty vast set of characters, indulging in the little moments that make up their life in a harsh country with harsher neighbours. There is drama, but it is low stakes. Cleverly, Smiley weaves in major historical events that touch Greenland, thus creating a dazzling real picture of how this fictional family lived and how their real descendants might have lived too. In a busy and frantic modern world where life is about the big picture, The Greenlanders is a masterpiece in telling a story through the smaller moments. I also did a quick Google about 50 pages in that confirms the slightly formal and nearly cold prose style is in that of a Nordic or Icelandic saga. Nice.