in 1927, determined to become a scriptwriter in Hollywood. The very interesting thing about the novel is that it started out as a manuscript for a motion picture, written in Los Angeles, and it so happens that this manuscript was printed for the first time this year, both in English and Icelandic, in the literary magazine Tímarit Máls og menningar (1/2004). Salka Valka is a milestone in Laxness’ career but people do not agree as to whether it is his last juvenile novel or his first mature one. If life is to go on for both of them, Arnaldur and Salka must part. I was deeply moved by the story this first time through, and the final unforgettable sentences of Salka Valka still make me cry. Then I read practically all of them during one winter, mostly aloud to my husband (we had no television but we did have a baby so we could not go out much). So although I loved my father dearly, I hated his idol and did not read his novels until I had to at university. But what he saw in the novels was what he wanted to see, and his endless quotes from Laxness were not tempting for a girl growing up.
My father was a male chauvinistic working class man, and he adored Laxness’ books, especially Independent People. Why then did I not read it earlier? The answer is personal.
Salka Valka – A Political Love Story, as Halldór called the second half of the novel, tells the story of the headstrong pauper Salka Valka from the age of ten to twenty-five and is an excellent book for adolescents, girls especially.
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