The Stars of Constantinople: Stories

In these 12 skillfully crafted stories, a noted Icelandic poet and novelist contrasts the traditional values of his country's not-so-distant rural past with the new mores prompted by urbanization. Sigurdsson (1918-1988) builds his tales slowly, dramatizing the claustrophobic, parsimonious lives of ``the little people'' against the backdrop of a lyrically described landscape. In ``Pastor Bodvar's Letter,'' a timid, intellectual minister reviews the petty disappointments of his life shortly before dying, grudgingly realizing that the persistence of his coarse, overbearing wife has made his career possible. In the title story, a young farm boy is overcome with grief when his sister breaks a toy bought from a traveling salesman who, with his easy patter and stories of adventure, embodies the allure of the outside world. ``The Changing Earth'' describes the fluctuating emotions of a teenager falling in--and out--of love for the first time. These traditional narratives, informed with Sigurdsson's love of nature and ambivalence about rural life, evoke a land suspended in time. ( Sept. )