A BOOK REVIEW

HOW ICELAND CHANGED THE WORLD,

The Big History of a Small Island

by Egill Bjarnason

Penguin Books, USA 3rd Printing

ISBN 9780143135883 (paperback)

How much time do you have?

This book is so factual and so entertaining that it’s going to take you a while to read, full of information you thought you already knew but with a twist, maybe, and certainly with new insights. I read the book a few weeks ago and I was all set to write the review but I made the mistake of taking the time to refresh my memory of Egill’s expertise and style, both surprising.

You do know that I am not being disrespectful of the author; Icelanders are always referred to by their first name. Most of them, Egill included, will explain to you the use of the patronymic, and also, more recently, of the matronymic, for the “surname”. Everyone gets listed twice in the Icelandic phone book, separately by first and last name. It’s a good thing the population is so small, else it would be a cumbersome book. Egill’s book, too, has proved to be cumbersome, that is, time-consuming, for a different reason--because I want to re-read it right now.

It took me a long time to write this much. I want to tell you everything but then why would you bother to read the book? And you should read it, if only to clarify your own thinking--and maybe to settle a few arguments with friends. Iceland has been pivotal in our (all of our) history for 1200 years. Egill deals with the French Revolution, the Cold War, the moon landing, a couple of significant volcanic eruptions with far-reaching effects, the Chess-Board War between the United States (29-year-old Bobby Fischer) and the Soviet Union (24-years-straight-winner Boris Spassky), the financial crisis in 2008, and the foundation of Israel. Among other things.

Hard to condense, but easy to enjoy. In his acknowledgements Egill is grateful to recognize his editors’ efforts to limit his allowance of bad jokes. I enjoyed them all.