The Windows of Brimnes
An American in Iceland
by Bill Holm
Poet, musician, wit, and polemicist—Bill Holm is one of a kind. A Minnesotan of Icelandic ancestry, his travels have taken him all over the world, providing the material for a number of rich and memorable books. In The Windows of Brimnes, Holm repairs to Brimnes, his fisherman’s cottage on the shore of a fjord in northern Iceland. Looking west from this place of seemingly endless and kaleidoscopic light, and surrounded by little more than the sound of the sea and the birds beyond his windows, he considers America—“my home, my citizenship, my burden.” In contrast with the warmth and genuine community of Iceland, its traditions of secularism, pacifism, and love of nature, poetry, and music, Holm sees an America in danger of betraying the ideals of liberty and freedom that animated its founding. This provocative, ambitious work is now in paperback.
Author's Bio:BILL HOLM was born to Icelandic immigrants on a farm north of Minneota,
Minnesota in 1943. A long-time resident of Minneota, Holm lived with
his wife Marcie and taught at Southwest Minnesota State University in
Marshall from 1980 until he retired in 2007. He traveled widely, to
Iceland on a Fulbright in 1979, and more recently to his summer home in
Hofsos; and to China, where he taught on an academic exchange program
in 1986 and again in 1992. The recipient of the 2008 McKnight
Distinguished Artist Award, Holm is the author of several books of
essays and poetry including, The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth, Coming Home Crazy, Playing the Black Piano, and most recently, The Windows of Brimnes. Known both regionally and nationally as a humorist, writer, and prairie radical, Bill Holm passed away on February 26, 2009.
Quotes:“One can't help but like Iceland and its inhabitants as Holm hews them on the page. . . . The author himself remains the most captivating phenomenon in view.” Star Tribune
“Holm, who looks like a cross between Robertson Davies and Father Christmas, is as forceful, insightful, and lyrical as ever in The Windows of Brimnes. A reader sinks almost immediately into the hands of a master storyteller, a true rambler.” Los Angeles Times
“Holm writes prose that seems to have honed the font: Words on the page actually seem more sharply etched. The clarity is bracing, shocking, a jolt of literary frisson.” San Diego Union Tribune
“A good, old-fashioned read you'll find yourself quoting to friends.” Jonis Agee, author of The River Wife
You may also be interested in this/these product(s):
Coming Home Crazy
A book about what happened to an American in China, his adventures of
daily life and on the road, and what America looked like after he got
home. This edition includes a new afterword by the author about China
since Tiananmen. more...
$ 16.00
Add to Cart
|
Eccentric Islands
Eccentric Islands is a literary expedition across the map to islands both real and imaginary. more...
$ 22.95
Add to Cart
|
The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth
The author of Eccentric Islands and Coming Home Crazy
sends us a postcard from home, investigating—through the lens of
small-town life—what community means to us and the rigid definitions we
give to "success" and "failure." more...
$ 16.00
Add to Cart
|
Playing the Black Piano
Like a modern-day Walt Whitman bestriding America and the world, Holm
comments on the waywardness and promise of the human species. more...
$ 14.95
Add to Cart
|
|
Price:
$ 15.00
Binding: Paperback
Availability In Stock: 239
Available Immediately
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Published: 2008
Size: 5.5x8.5
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781571313102
|
