Far Afield (Vintage Contemporaries) (1990) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Jonathan Brand: a Harvard graduate student in anthropology who has decided to to his fieldwork studying the folkways of the remote Faroe Islands
• Lars: night clerk and teenage son of the Egil and his wife, proprieters of a hotel in Reykjavík, Iceland
• Professor Olsen: Harvard professor and Runic and Old Norse scholar who had given Jonathan private instruction in Faroese and been his only support in his decision to study the habits of the Faroe Islanders. Tells him to contact Eyvindur Poulsen for the history and ways of the islanders.
• Eyvindur Poulsen: Jonathan's contact in Tórshavn. Married to Anna, daughters Little Anna and Marta. A booming political discontent and leader of the Independence Party in the Faroes. Studied painting in Italy.
• Bart: American in Torshavn. with the Air Force, checking on the early warning missile system
• Bear Brand: Jonathan's father - a Harvard sociologist respected for his work on closed institutions - prisons and the like
• Gerda Brand: Jonathan's mother - a sociologist who linked voting behavior and buying behavior
• Sigurd: proprietor of Skopun's "hardware-grocery-stationary-ship's-chandler" store, with a propensity for literary references
• Jón Hendrik: tobacco chewing 84 year old man who knows the islands history, but seldom talks.
• Jens Símun: Sigurd's bigger & rougher brother, one blue eye, one brown eye, father of Sigrid and young Petur
• Petur: Jonathan's neighbor, ans brother of Sigurd and Jens Símun
• Maria: Petur's wife - mother of Jens Símun and Heôin
• Heôin: Son of Maria and Petur
• Sigrid: daughter of Jens Símun, about 15 years old
• Olí: Maria's younger brother who works on the boat with his brother-in-law
• Daniela Smith: the well-educated young woman from Icelandair whom Jonathan continually contacted about his lost luggage, and whom the Faroese say he is going to marry. She is the sister of Marius Smith, secretary at the Folklore Institute
• Jim Wooly: American anthropologist on island of Fugloy - connections to the Folklore institute where Magnus Mohr Jens Pauli worked on a collection of Faroese legends and ballads with assistant Marius Smith
• Frank Swithin: English ornithologist

Quotes edit see section history

• “In Jonathan the need to observe and take note of the world was so pressing that even a trip around the corner in Cambridge generated the equivalent of five pages of commentary––not mere notation, but speculation and attempt at synthetic description: that is, a description that reveals––as though his internal life were a perpetual effort at writing a case study of Jonathan and his perceptions. He did not know to locate his unhappiness in this effort, but the traces of this very exertion on his face and character were what revealed him to those others wise enough to read the signs as miserable.”

• “Jonathan's life was entirely filtered through words. words were his sixth sense, a brushing of his consciousness against the world that was necessary for experience to be felt. Nothing could be known that was not named.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Cambridge, MA
• Faroe Islands: set in the northern Atlantic, midway between the northern coast of Scotland and the Arctic Circle, NW of the Shetland Islands and SE of Iceland. Usually only visited by ornithologists.
• Tórshaven: village on Streymoy Island, largest of the Faroe Islands
• Skopun: fishing village on Sandoy, the southern Faroe Island where Jonathan rents a house for the year of his stay

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Skyr: yogurt
• spik: whale blubber, cured in salt, sliced thin and eaten on bread
• turrur fiskur: rotted fish - white and shredded
• kjøt: rotted meat - hang it, it softens, gets maggots which eventually die, and the meat hardens and then keeps well. Leathery, salty and sweet
• grind: whale meat
• drylur: flat, round, dry bread
• temum: a tea meal with cookies, bread & butter &jam, and cake
• livurhøvd: boiled cod heads stuffed with cod liver
• bøur: infield - field closer in where sheep are kept for the winter
• huldufólk: gray people who live in the hagi

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Susanna Kaysen (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( K ) › Kaysen, Susanna
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary