- e-book
Read from April 27th till May 24th
2015
My rating:
“Where
fish leaves off in Iceland, Latin takes over”
I know I am
unjust with my three-star rating, but The
Fish Can Sing is one of those books I’ve instantly recognized the literary
value of, but I couldn’t care much for. Moreover, it constantly reminded me of
Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses (I
hear some very loud, very heartfelt protests here!) in a bizarre, twisted kind
of way, not only because I had the same mixed feelings about that one too, but
also because it is its total opposite: instead of a rich, overcrowded,
overcoloured narrative, a severe, grey and angular one; instead of an
aggressive magic realism an apparently naïve, primitive one; instead of a complicated,
postmodern structure, the medieval form of a chronicle, instead of a chaotic,
devouring city, a quiet and uneventful village. What connects them, however, is
the same search of identity, be it social like in Rushdie’s novel, be it
artistic, like in Laxness’s one.
