The New Icelanders: A North American Community

Eileen Goltz is an associate librarian and chair of the Public Services
Department at Laurentian University.

This is the story of a colony established in the 19th century in
Manitoba by Icelanders seeking a better life. The Arnasons, father and
son, are direct descendants of those early settlers.

But this is not history in the conventional sense. The authors present
a number of narratives, poems, myths, recipes, photographs, and
documents, from which they request that the reader construct with them
an interactive history. Through this process, they attempt to share with
the reader several possible versions of what the original settlers—and
later their descendants—experienced.

The book contains 32 short sections (all noted in the table of
contents) and a preface wherein the authors explain themselves. Many of
the sections are no more than one page in length, and some are even
shorter. One of the longest, “The Constitution of New Iceland,”
suggests how the settlers wished to govern themselves.

This interesting coffee-table book is well-written, and the photographs
chosen for reproduction are appropriate and interesting. The New
Iceland, however, remains elusive for this reader.