If anyone's interested in modern Icelandic literature that echoes Laxness, I'd heartily recommend the recent novels of Jon Kalman Stefansson, translated by Phil Roughton [0].<p>You'll certainly get a feel for why they drink coffee.<p>[0] e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Hell-Jon-Kalman-Stefansson/dp/1849164061" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Hell-Jon-Kalman-Stefansson/dp/1...</a>
Strange that the article doesn't cover anything I'd call the essence of coffee, smell/taste/flavour.<p>I visited Iceland a few years ago, and while I was there for only 10days or so (and drove the length of the ring-road that encircles it), have an overwhelming memory of terrible American drip-style coffee. I wonder if that was coffee made for tourism or a reaction to ordering in English not Icelandic. Makes me hope so, so I can return and try again.
Wow, this article is absolutely unreadable. As an example,<p>> In this case, though, I’ll indulge just a little because, although a newcomer to the country, I am an old-comer to the culture: my mother-in-law, still with us at ninety-five, is as Icelandic as could be and, although Canadian Icelanders are not exactly the same as the homespun kind, they are still almost indistinguishable from the natives.<p>So many non-essential dependent clauses. Every other sentence is like this: fifty sentences and over one hundred commas. Who thinks this is good style?