World Light

Well I couldn't hold off on the Halldor Laxness novel till flight time and picked it up a few nights ago.Like the other two novels of his I have read this one is hard to describe as so far it's all over the place as to what kind of book it's going to turn out to be but like the other two it's saga like in the telling and for me so far a delight albeit a strange one.No matter what Laxness is a wonderful story teller no matter how odd the folks in it are and in old Iceland they were odd indeed.The sly humor in light of the incredible poverty is one of his gifts.That something like a scrap of paper to write on is a luxury is something hard to comprehend.Dave(Nnyhav) if you are out there have you read this one?It seems to wander a bit more than Independent People and Icelands Bell but I'm in a 130 pages of about 600 and beginning to think this might be my favorite so far though in Independent People you sort of knew what things were about right away as to the story and this one just seems like it will ramble till the end.As for the Russian book of horror stories I liked it fine till the last one a short novel"The Double" by Dostoevsky which I haven't finished.It just seems out of place here and it also seems like the whole story could have been a longish short story instead of a short novel.It reminds me a bit of Peter Taylor for years writing those great collections of classic American South short stories and finally winning a major award for his novel"A Summons to Memphis" which is basically one of his short stories made far to long and not nearly as good as his wonderful stories.In other things after being 67 on Saturday it was 96 today and more of the same on Wed before it drops to the mid 70's again.This weather plays havoc trying to shake a little cold.I may post again before next Wed but then I'll be back east till Nov 6th so doubt I'll be posting here while on the road.I still might make it down to NYCity by train or perhaps a short trip out to Truro depending on what happens but usually once I land in Rochester in the fall and park myself at some friends Finger Lakes cottage or one on a little bay off Lake Ontario out towards Syracuse along with time in Rochester I wind up doing very little except enjoying the countryside and it's gifts natural and manmade.