I recently had dinner with an Icelandic friend who asked me who my favorite Icelandic authors were. It was the Double Jeopardy question from hell. After admitting that I knew none of them he sent me a copy of Independent People. It's absolutely brilliant, so strange and funny and dark. It was unlike anything I've read before.

Why didn't everyone in the world read this book? Why wasn't he swept onto the shoulders of the people and hailed as a genius? I do not confuse my love for the writer with my love for what is written. This is a great book.

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I own this one. It's one of the only movies I'll watch over and over again. It's so satisfying to see angry mobs rioting over poetry. It's also fun to see how one's opinion of Who Is the Most Beautiful Character changes over the years.

For a person who is all about opera I can't exactly explain why I so love Courtney Love. If I could get everything into a novel that she gets into the song "Northern Star" I would be a truly great writer.