I was inspired by my self-intervention, as we might call it, and so I chose a book from my stack of untackled tomes and got cracking. I picked William T. Vollman’s The Ice-Shirt, mostly because it was on top of the stack, but also a little bit because it belongs to a genre that I always forget that I like: way super-ancient historical fiction/mysticism/mythologies.
I’m only 65 pages in after this morning, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Expect a full review to come, hopefully, in a few weeks, but to anyone who can’t wait I highly recommend picking it up. So far it basically is taking names I’m sure we’ve all heard – Erik the Red, for one – and giving them much more stage time than history books usually do. Vollman’s prose successfully imitates the language you might expect to hear from the father of many Vikings on his deathbed, if he spoke English. Add a little creation mythology and give some kings the ability to turn into bears and you have a compelling history that sucks you right in and leaves you wondering why men don’t wear bear-shirts and burn each other at Yule-banquets anymore.
I wish they still did. It would make Presidential primary season so much more interesting.
-@
