Rating: 
Summary: Not sure what it is...but it ain't a novel!
Review: This author has a way with words and very credibly weaves the mythic & legendary tales of the old Norse folk (as we have these through the medium of 12th & 13th century Icelandic saga literature) into a meandering and sometimes interesting speculative essay on the experience of exploration & discovery, as recorded in the old sagas (both of the Icelanders & of the Eskimos of Greenland). But whatever else this book is, and Vollman's rendering of some of the old Norse legendry is quite nice, it is most definitely NOT a novel. There is no plot here, no development of a tale out of a person or persons' experiences, no imaginary world somehow made flesh through the medium of events told or re-told by a storyteller of any sort. In fact, except for the fact that this is a compendium of fictions and mental meanderings in prose, there is nothing here to even suggest that this writing is properly to be called a novel. There IS, on the other hand, an interesting stream of words here which occasionally seems compelling but which rarely enwraps us and which, in fact, grows quite tiring at times, what with all its talk of ice shirts and blue shirts and bear shirts, etc. The shirt metaphor, in fact, is apparently Mr. Vollman's way of describing an attitude/point of view which informs some of his characters' world views ("blue" for death-oriented, as in the symbolism of the old sagas themselves, "ice" for cold indifference to others, "bear" for dangerous, overweening madness which poses harm to those around us). It seems that Vollman is here eager to make a comment on the ugliness of European colonization of the "New World" and what it did to the innocent indigenous folk they found here, as exemplified, in one vignette, by the Eskimo father who rescues his son from cold-hearted Norse kidnappers in Greenland and then, regrettably, kills the child for fear of contamination which cannot be undone. If only those unenlightened Norse had not meddled with the pristine, good-hearted natives! This book, in the end, is tendentious and tedious and just plain heavy-handed. And, as Gertrude Stein once said of her native town, "there's no there there." I came to this book because of a bad review I saw of Jane Smiley's Greenlanders (a saga-like novel of the last days of the Norse colony in Greenland) in which the reviewer took Ms. Smiley to task for her prose and urged the interested reader to try Vollman's The Ice Shirt, instead, for a really good rendering of saga material. Well, allow me to attempt to reverse that rather silly judgement here. Smiley did it well; on the other hand, I'm not sure what Mr. Vollman has done. But, at the least, he has not written an historical novel. -- Stuart W. Mirsky swmirsky@usa.net
Rating: 
Summary: History & Myth, a Nordic Adventure of Changes
Review: This was the first Vollmann novel I've ever read, but I may just try another one before all is said and done. The book starts out focusing on norse mythology and legend and leads up to the adventure of Leif Erikson's sisters to Vineland (later the Americas). Interspersed between the history/legend are snippits of a modern iceland/greenland that reflects much of the norms set forth in the more historical portions of the piece. A main theme in the novel seems to be change. This is largely reflected in what "shirt" (or serk) a character is wearing and the change in character based on goals. There is also a sort of sad lesson about the "Skraelings" (or perhaps Eskimos/natives/Indians) and their ultimate demise as a race but passing on of noble traits "definitely not acquired from European teachers...." A good read, but a little confusing at first.
Rating: 
Summary: Riffing on Thule
Review: Vollmann can be difficult to read, but this book is worth a little effort. What makes this work interesting is the verbal jazzing of original sources from Icelandic saga, history, travel accounts, scholarship, Arctic folklore, and a little contemporary personal experience. This book is what might happen if Magnus Magnusson had brain fever--a phantasmagoric recreation of the North. What made this book enjoyable to me was the fact that I'm familiar with most of the sources and I appreciate the blends, melds, extrapolations, and abuses that Vollmann perpetuates on them. I'm not sure how this book would come across to someone without this background, but if nothing else they wouldn't be bored.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Epic Vollmann style
Review: Vollmann takes his first full length stab at historical writing with an epic proportion. The genesis-style delineation of events leading up to his main story becomes tedious and drawn, but Vollmann's style can perhaps entertain you until the mid-point of the novel when his real story begins. The nordic adventuring is set against a Vollmann adventurer, getting his feet wet in the cold surroundings of the north atlantic. A good start to a much better series.
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