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| | Amazon.com: Independent People: Books: Halldor Laxness (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21) |
 | | Laxness is merciless with the hypocrisy of the upper classes, as exemplified by the Bailiff's poetess wife, who applauds the simple life of poor country people, or the Bailiff's son, whose social-welfare schemes help him but undermine the crofters. |
 | | Laxness is not easy on Bjartur, who is bloody-minded in the extreme, but he is tender enough to compose a poem to his exiled adoptive daughter, and bold enough to engrave a simple marker in honor of the misunderstood ghoul who has haunted his farm and family. |
 | | Laxness has penned a great satire of Icelandic mores and customs, turning Bjartur into the sort of close-minded, impossibly stubborn farmer who, the more he strives for independence, the greater and tighter are the shackles that bind him. |
| www.amazon.com /Independent-People-Halldor-Laxness/dp/0679767924 (3146 words) |
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