an old new favorite

While in Morocco i was reading 'Independent People' written in 1935 by Halldor Laxness. I'd escape from the world outside where it was 44 degrees into this tale of a crofter in Iceland who has this fierce desire to be totally independent, and to be independent a man has to put the welfare of his sheep before anything else. He is principled to the point of absurdity: at one point he has a house keeper living with him, here is a man that is hard to get any praise out of but you get the sense that he loves this housekeeper. She makes the simplest food taste good, she works as hard as a man, she keeps a good house and has pillows and a duvet softer than he would have believed possible. While he is continually struggling to make ends meet she has a little money of her own and one day, when things have become very tough, there is even no coffee left and coffee seems to be what keeps body and soul together through the long bitter winters, she goes into town and comes back with coffee, tobacco, a little wheatflour, some sugar. Bjartur doesn't speak to her or look at her for 24 hours, then when she makes him a big steaming cup of coffee he says "you better go". She packs her bags and leaves.

The book is set in the 1800's and life is harsh. Bjartur looses one of his sheep and decides to set out looking for him, he takes a bit of bread and a bottle of coffee, he is going to be gone for 2 or 3 days and is looking forward to this little outing. It is autumn and sleety snow is in the air, he walks all day heading for a place where he knows he can spend the night. This place turns out to be a cave with a large flat stone which, apparently, makes an ideal bed. He sleeps a couple of hours then wakes up shivering, he is freezing cold. But in this cave there is a trick to staying warm, you get up and turn this massive stone around 18 times, by which time you are warm again, enough to sleep another couple of hours. You then repeat this through the night!
I don't think i have ever enjoyed a book more. It is beautifully written, as one review says "He embodies the Joycean idea that nothing is more universal than the local perfectly described."
Here is my favorite quote - "Some people grumble about monotony, - such complaints are the marks of immaturity, sensible people don't like things happening."