The Windows of Brimnes (An American in Iceland) - 9781571313027

In his most ambitious book to date, poet, musician, wit, and polemicist Bill Holm repairs to his Icelandic cottage to reflect on the United States and what it might learn from the land of his ancestral roots. The book begins with a description of the extraordinary setting of Brimnes, a small fishing village on the Arctic Circle. From his house, Holm captures Iceland’s warmth and genuine community, its secularism, pacifism, and love of nature, poetry, and music. Writing of the America to which his ancestors fled only two generations before, he wonders whether the compelling dream of liberty, freedom, and inquiry still animates his native country. For the legions of Bill Holm fans as well as for those yearning for some straight if often comical reflection on the state of America today, this book provides a memorable experience.