C4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, JUNE 7 , 2022
his break, and was disturbed by
the impoverished and homeless
people he saw.)
Laxness was prolific — he
wrote 22 novels, as well as sto-
ries, plays, poetry, travelogues,
He also translated Ernest Hem-
ingway’s works into Icelandic.
But he was a seeker, like Salka
and her fellow characters, eager
to understand how the world
works and how it can be made to
work better.
For modern readers, especially
those who are aware of what a
prosperous and enlightened
tourist destination Iceland has
become, “Salka Valka” is a won-
derful exposure to Iceland’s trou-
bled past and to the Icelandic
sensibility that comes from mak-
ing the best of things even when
there isn’t much to be made.
Laxness’s characters are rough
and honest, and “Salka Valka” is
one of the most empathetic por-
traits of a girl and a woman that
I’ve read by a male author. This
new translation is readable and
compelling.Jane Smiley is the author of
numerous novels, including “The
Greenlanders,” which was
influenced by Icelandic literature.think will work the best for
themselves and their fellow vil-
lagers.
Laxness demonstrates that in
the 1920s and ‘30s, choosing the
Soviet model or the American
model was an individual’s choice
that depended on circumstances,
personality and the difficulties of
actually knowing what was hap-
pening outside the village, or the
city, that a person might live in.
Toward the end, Salka and Arnal-
dur get into an argument that
explores whether the political
and the personal can coexist. It
feels exactly like the back-and-
forth a brilliant and sophisticat-
ed 30-year-old writer would
come up with about the nature of
love and passion and what politi-
cal truths they express. Undoubt-
edly, this aspect of “Salka Valka”
was shaped by the trouble Lax-
ness got into in 1929 for publish-
ing an article in a Canadian
magazine focused on Icelandic
immigrants to the United States
that was critical of the United
States. (Laxness lived for two
years in Hollywood, trying to getservations. At one point, Salka is
talking with her somewhat mys-
terious but longtime friend, Ar-
naldur, about a politician Salka
thinks is a Marxist (Marxism vs.
capitalism is an ongoing theme
of the novel). He says, “We are the
people of Ormar Orlygsson, who
despises the victory the moment
it is won, and Thorsteinn Sidu-
Hallsson, who had no desire to
flee the enemy army at the Battle
of Clontarf, but instead sat down
and tied his shoelace.”
Because it was written in the
early 1930s, Laxness is reticent
about the event that turned Sal-
ka away from the normal wom-
an’s life that her mother is des-
perate for, but the reader can
sense that some sort of sexual
violation is the trigger. However,
Laxness is not as interested in
how Salka processes that event
as he is in how her self-determi-
nation and strength take her
through many events and deci-
sions, and he is also interested in
how citizens of this dark town
survive their troubles and argue
over which political system they“Independent People,” just as
interesting.
The story begins when Salka
Valka and her mother, Sigurlina,
show up in the village from
somewhere Salka cannot re-
member. Salka is 8. She would
rather go on to Reykjavik and is
already aware that there are no
adults that she can rely on, partly
because her parents weren’t mar-
ried. The village’s economy is
based on the fishing industry,
and no one is paid a salary — the
money owed to them is deposited
in the accounts of a general store
owned by the man who also owns
the fishing company, and that is
where the local families get the
few basics that they can afford.
Sigurlina and Salka turn to the
Salvation Army for aid.
Laxness explores Salka’s inner
life and the social and economic
circumstances of the village as
both change over the course of
about 20 years. Her story is long
and somber, but Laxness is adept
at putting in some amusing ob-
BOOK WORLD FROM C1
A sprawling story set in a little village
GLJUFRASTEINN HALLDOR LAXNESS MUSEUM
Halldor Laxness, the Nobel Prize-winning author of “Salka Valka,”
unpacks Icelandic sensibility and the country’s troubled past.officer who zip-tied a student.
Finding a way to improve
school safety is “complicated,”
says Beckford, 41, adding that
some parents have told her their
children have had positive inter-
actions with school resource offi-
cers. But that is the exception, she
says.
“There’s not enough space to
dream beyond a world where we
rely so heavily on police for every-
thing,” she says. “We rely on them
to discipline in the classroom. We
rely on them to intervene when
there’s a mental health crisis.”
As the debate about how to stop
school shootings escalates,
Ratasha Harley, a 37-year-old
mother of four in Maryland and
member of the advocacy organi-
zation Parents of Black Children,
says she is dismayed but not sur-
prised to see the perspectives of
families like hers overlooked. She
thinks of how when she tried to
rally community action following
outbreaks of gun violence that
affected predominantly Black
neighborhoods in her area, those
efforts didn’t gain much attention
or support from White parents.
She thinks of the White mom at
one PTA meeting who, after re-
cently proposing an active-shoot-
er simulation drill in their school,
said: Well, some kids already
know what this is like, because
they see this in their neighbor-
hoods.
“Our parents remain voiceless,”
Harley says. “Nobody is ever real-
ly saying: How is this going to
affect schools that are predomi-
nantly Black, that have negative
perceptions and interactions with
police all the time, that have trau-
ma from gun violence?”lice, he is to keep his responses
terse, saying no more than what is
necessary. Name. Age. I do not
consent to any search. Please call
my parents.
“My fear is that in being his full,
free self, which he has every right
to be, that some police officer will
see him as a criminal,” Beckford
says.
Beckford, who lives in the his-
torically Black Bronzeville section
of Chicago, says her community is
already “inundated with school
police” and she’s heard horror
stories, including one about anrector of the social welfare organi-
zation Moms Rising, has spoken
with her own son numerous times
about what to do if he has to
interact with law enforcement.
She often acts as a drill instructor,
giving pop quizzes on car rides to
make sure her message is re-
ceived.
They rehearse the scenarios;
there is a script. “I don’t want him
to forget,” she says. “I want it to
become muscle memory so that
when he’s in that moment, he
hears my voice.”
If he is ever questioned by po-Justice Department investiga-
tion.
“I think that what people have
to pay close attention to is how
these changing stories bring dis-
trust in law enforcement, particu-
larly in the African American
community as well as communi-
ties of color,” Moss says. “I have all
these questions. How do I know
what’s true and what’s not? As a
Black parent, what about any of
this would evoke any level of con-
fidence that more police would
benefit my Black sons?”
Beatriz Beckford, national di-“It only takes one incident for my
son or daughter to have an arrest
record, a juvenile record,” Neil
says, “and those things stick with
you, they follow you.”
Natalie Moss, 43, who works in
intellectual property and patent
prosecution and lives in Prince
George’s County with her hus-
band and their two preschool-age
sons, finds the idea of anointing
teachers as de facto law enforce-
ment officers disturbing. She
thinks of her older son, who just
turned 4: “There’s a culture of
adultification bias against Black
children,” she says. “They’re cute
when they’re 2 or 3. But when they
reach a certain height, it’s differ-
ent. My child is in the 99th per-
centile for height — he’s on par
with most 6-year-olds in terms of
height, so when people approach
him, they often think he’s older
than he is, already.”
Moss knows what that will
mean in just another year or two,
she says; her friend recently gave
her own young son “the talk”:
“Types of toys that he’s not al-
lowed to play with outdoors, types
of toys that he can’t bring to
school with him, certain things he
can’t say,” she says. “The way that
she wants him to interact if he
does encounter law enforcement,
because the ultimate goal as a
Black parent is to have your child
get home safe.”
It doesn’t help, she adds, that
the credibility of the police who
responded to the shooting in
Uvalde has steadily unraveled, as
law enforcement officials have
made contradictory statements
and changed their story numer-
ous times. The failed police re-
sponse is now the subject of aWhite parents it was, ‘We don’t
want to bring more guns into
school,’ ” he said. “For myself and
other Black parents, it’s that we
don’t want to force police interac-
tion in school with our children in
particular.”
In the aftermath of the ram-
page in Uvalde, Republican law-
makers have revived a familiar
array of proposals: More police in
schools. Increased patrols. “Hard-
ened” campuses with more strin-
gent security measures. Several
conservative leaders, including
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), insist
that arming teachers or school
staff with guns might be the best
way to guard against another
mass shooting.
But the implications of more
police, or even the possibility of
armed teachers, resonate differ-
ently for marginalized communi-
ties that already feel dispropor-
tionately targeted by law enforce-
ment and school officials. Black
and Latino students are suspend-
ed or expelled from school at
inordinate rates compared with
their White peers, and are also
less likely to be placed in ad-
vanced classes or programs for
gifted children. Federal research
shows that even Black preschool-
ers are disciplined at far higher
rates than White children. Black
and disabled children are the
most likely to be referred to or
arrested by police, according to
the American Civil Liberties
Union.
More law enforcement officers
at schools, Neil says, means more
potential for encounters with
Black children that could go awry.
PARENTS FROM C1
2 fears for Black parents: Gun violence and more policing
KENA BETANCUR/VIEWPRESS/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
A police vehicle sits outside a Guttenberg, N.J., elementary school last week after the mass shooting at
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