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  <title><![CDATA[World Light]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]></description>
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        <name><![CDATA[Halldór Kiljan Laxness]]></name>
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    <![CDATA[World Light]]>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[World Light is a mammoth novel, but once you start it you wouldn't want it any other way. It begins with Olafur Karason's childhood in an abusive household, basically an orphan, and spans his life till old age. He is bedridden throughout much of his childhood, and is eventually sent away to live in ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45230132">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[World Light]]>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
  </description>
  <published>1969</published>
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  <read_at>Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[This is a novel about truth, beauty and art, to put it simply. It is abstract and often bizarre in both style and content; those looking for gritty realism should not read World Light. <br/>The story is of Ólafur of Ljósavík, an orphan mistreated by his foster family and who spends much of his c...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15318862">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[World Light]]>
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  <average_rating>4.16</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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  <published>1969</published>
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    <body><![CDATA[Slow starter, but boy does this book grow in stature as it progresses. Very rarely does one come across such a masterly blend of lyricism, monumentality and existential fury in a single book. ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/55648021]]></url>
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      <review>
  <id>57473976</id>
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    <![CDATA[World Light]]>
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  <average_rating>4.16</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>51</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
  </description>
  <published>1969</published>
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  <read_at>Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1971</read_at>
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  <date_updated>Wed May 27 05:11:07 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[This novel, based on the life of Iceland's bumbling national poet, is delightful.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57473976]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57473976]]></link>
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      <review>
  <id>40989428</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Stefán]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Reykjavik, Iceland]]></location>
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  <isbn>9979200014</isbn>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Heimsljós]]>
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  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>4.00</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>1</ratings_count>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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  <published>1969</published>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <date_added>Sat Dec 27 00:24:28 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Dec 27 00:25:15 -0800 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Quite entertaining, at least for Icelanders]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40989428]]></url>
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[World Light]]>
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  <average_rating>4.16</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Between exquisite wretchedness at the beginning and a short sweet fade at the end, this is definitely a funny book–especially the seance scene, Petur Dhrihross, Olafur clueless in Reykjavik, and great minor characters. Ljosvikingur is certainly not a likable character, but you never know what is g...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/13703862">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/13703862]]></url>
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[World Light]]>
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  <average_rating>4.16</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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  <published>1969</published>
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  <date_added>Mon Sep 29 10:47:27 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Sep 29 11:27:47 -0700 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[William T. Vollman praised Halldor Laxness in an interview and inspired me to read World Light. I haven't enjoyed reading a book so much since reading Don Quixote almost 30 years ago. World Light is tender, tragic, sad, hilarious, humane. ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34128469]]></url>
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    <![CDATA[World Light]]>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[When I run out of the Laxness works that are available in English, I will have to learn Icelandic. ]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[fell in love then had to break up, turned out I'd married a misogynist]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Didn't do it for me like the others--]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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    <![CDATA[As an unloved foster child on a farm in rural Iceland, Olaf Karason has only one consolation: the belief that one day he will be a great poet.  The indifference and contempt of most of the people around him only reinforces his sense of destiny, for in Iceland poets are as likely to be scorned as they are to be revered. Over the ensuing years, Olaf comes to lead the paradigmatic poet&#8217;s life of poverty, loneliness, ruinous love affairs and sexual scandal. But he will never attain anything like greatness.<br/>As imagined by Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness in this magnificently humane novel, what might be cruel farce achieves pathos and genuine exaltation. For as Olaf&#8217;s ambition drives him onward&#8211;and into the orbits of an unstable spiritualist, a shady entrepreneur, and several susceptible women&#8211;<strong>World Light</strong> demonstrates how the creative spirit can survive in even the most crushing environment and even the most unpromising human vessel.]]>
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