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A young
woman suffers a frightening array of unfortunate circumstances in
her life as a child in Iceland, then moves to England where she and
a close companion manage an English country-house. When she discovers
that she has been stricken with a terminal illness, she embarks on
a journey home to the place where so many sad things happened to her,
to make peace once and for all with the people she still loves before
she is gone. Olaf Olafsson's THE JOURNEY HOME is the sensitive and
truly literary telling of this tale, a singular achievement that combines
the pathos of Graham Greene with the lilting and pure voice of Kazuo
Ishiguro.
Disa,
the protagonist, travels back and forth between her present and
her past through both narrative and letters. Although estranged
from her mother at a young age, Disa continues to attempt a close
relationship with her throughout her life and so writes her at every
turn, putting the basic details of her life's adventures on paper
as if trying to make her mother fall in love with her bravado. When
Disa turns to the culinary arts as a way to make a living, she tries
to impart the joy of that discovery to her family back home. Her
other relationships, relationships that are by all means more successful
and meaningful than Disa's relationships with her immediate family,
get similarly in-depth treatment --- especially that with her friend
Anthony, the man with whom she runs the estate. As she travels home
to die, she passes through the stages and key incidents of her life
with her faculties intact, describing not only the physical journey
of traveling to Iceland but also the emotional one that is stirred
up by her return.
THE
JOURNEY HOME is able to put this highly emotional situation into
truly moving language --- none of the situations are exploited for
heavy-handed sentimentalism. Olafsson, a Vice Chairman of Time Warner
Digital Media, is a natural-born writer: he has a gentle touch with
the quiet moments that make up a life well-lived, with the difficult
times that mark the passages of any human being's path on earth.
THE JOURNEY HOME is a truly beautiful and moving novel, even as
it is fierce and complex. Olaf Olafsson tells an important story
in a simple and elegant way that will stay in your heart well after
the last page is turned.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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