The Far-Farers: A Journey from Viking Iceland to ... (ISBN 0802714226)

Fun to read:
I enjoyed Victoria Clark's book, "The Far-Farers." The title is from the name given a Viking who lived ten centuries ago, Thorvald the Far-Farer. And Clark tried duplicating Thorvald's trip in a way, a little like William Dalrymple did as described in his book "From the Holy Mountain." I read and reviewed Dalrymple's book and I found it way too biased to suit my tastes. And this book is biased as well, although it's not as bad as Dalrymple's. I know that the conversion of Iceland to Christianity, in the year 1000, was under duress. But I still regard it as a great tragedy. Clark regards it as a wise compromise. And I think that's overdoing it. And there's more politics when we get to Jerusalem, where Clark says that the Levantine Arabs have been "paying" for what happened to the Jews in Europe! Well, I think that's preposterous, and it's a little like saying that the Whites in the American South have been "paying" for what happened to the Blacks in Africa. I know that Clark (and Dalrymple) are free to say what they please. And this is Clark's book and she's done just that. Well, it is my review, and I'm saying what I think. On the whole, I found the book, both the modern travelogue and the history behind it, worth reading. But I was put off by some of the bias Clark showed.