Ангели на вселената

by Einar Már Guðmundsson, Ейнар Маур Гвудмундсон, Стефан Паунов (Translator)

Born on the day Iceland joined NATO, this novel's unstable narrator worries this and other incidental phenomena into a highly complex, hilarious, and tragic cosmology. More interested in David Bowie and the Beatles than the Nordic sagas that shape the lives of the working-class peoples of Reykjavik, Paul retreats into his own fantastic, schizophrenic, painful world. His madness springs from bits of reality and brighter strikes of insanity. Out-of-work and aimless, tormented by bouts of drinking and ferocious tantrums, Paul walks Reykjavik's streets scaring his family, lusting after women, recounting petty humiliations, and imagining the forces that both guide and haunt him.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Scandinavian Literature, Drama, Contemporary, Literature, Novels

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Einar Már Guðmundsson received a B.A. in Comparative Literature and History from the University of Iceland in 1979, after which he moved to Copenhagen to do graduate work in Comparative Literature at the University of Copenhagen.

Einar's first book, the collection of poetry Er nokkur í kórónafötum hér inni? (Is Anyone Here Wearing the Korona Line?), appeared in 1980. In 1985 he received first prize in a literary competition held by Almenna Bókafélagið, Book Publishers and Book Club, for the novel Riddarar Hringstigans (The Knights of the Spiral Staircase). His books have been translated into several languages and the widely acclaimed novel Englar alheimsins (Angels of the Universe) received the Nordic Council's Literary Award in 1995. Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's movie which is based on the book premiered in Reykjavík on New Year's day in the year 2000.
Einar is currently living in Reykjavík. He is married and has five children.

Reviews

[Eduardo Santiago · Rating 5 out of 5]

First: ignore the title. This isn't woo-woo or jesusy: it's a haunting, almost sublime first-person tale of schizophrenia. There, that's out of the way.

The imagery is vivid. Narration is graceful, weaving snappily through time and space and characters. I found myself frequently pausing to take a breath, slow down, and start again a few pages back; pacing myself, letting myself stop and absorb. The story is sad but not in the way you'd expect: the narrator's perspective is curiously distant even though it's first-person. The sadness I felt was for our institutions, our helplessness.

This is probably a 5-star book. My rating reflects my own ignorance: I'm not Icelandic, and there is too much that simply flew past me. Too much culture, too much background that I'm not even aware of not knowing. I'm glad there's a translation, and am glad to have read it, but I think it may be enjoyed more by more seasoned Icelandophiles.

UPDATE: June 2022. Reread as a sort of post-Hidden Valley Road therapy... and by jove it worked. This reading felt darker than my first, but also more intimate. And, I’m bumping from four to five stars because I’m older and maybe a little more aware of the skill it must take to convey this perspective into a different reality, and to do so with such gentleness that it felt ethereal. I’ve kept thinking about this book since the first time I read it, and expect to continue doing so for more years.

[Nora Barnacle · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Svemirski anđeli“ su kao foto album: živopisna galerija mnogobrojnih likova, mahom epizodnih.

Gudmundson iz prvog lica, pod imenom Pautl, priča dogodovštine jednog Islanđanina, počevši od trenutka rođenja, do poslednjeg kadra, iz groba. Kako je reč o šizofrenom životu koji se vrti oko duševne bolnice, sve vrvi od ludaka i bizarnih situacija u koje upadaju bilo oni, bilo podstanari njihovih glava.

Ovo je vrlo zabavan roman koji sve vreme balansira između ludila kao ozbiljne teme, onih stvarnih muka koje mentalna oboljenja uzrokuju i bolesniku i okolini, i, ludila kao šašavosti i razoružavajuće lucidnosti koju sa sobom donosi. Na gubitku ste svakako, skrenuli s uma ili ne, ali ste svakako i na dobitku. Međutim, to uopšte nije važno. Ambivalencija je, naravno, nemoguća, baš kao u slučaju centralne figure Munkovog Vriska. Ta slika mi je sve vreme bila pred očima (iako se kroz priču provlače Van Gog i Gogen, a Munk se nigde i ne spominje), a posle sam pročitala da je piščev brat patio od šizofrenije, pa mi se uklopila još bolje. Dakle, nije sprdanje sa blesavima, ali nije ni lament nad ludilom.

Diskretno poigravanje sa formom, stil jednostavan, bez pretendovanja na kosmičke književne visine i filozofska mudrovanja o nekakvim suštinama. Uostalom, raspravljati da li je bog slep i/ili oštećenog sluha je legitimno pitanje koliko i ono da li on uopšte postoji i da li nam je takav, ćorav, potreban. Zabavnije je, izvesno.
Prevod sa islandskog me posebno obradovao.

Sasvim korektna četvorka i jedna od onih knjiga koja se može skoro svakome preporučiti.

[Lesley R M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark, humorous and haunting read! This book goes on with the way the mentally ill are treated. Schizophrenia seems to be the most conspicuous.

Paul, the main character. The prose is wonderful and Paul’s life and his fall into mental illness. He falls again into deep madness.

This is a short book and a fast read, although I found myself rereading pages again to make sure those in the book come back. Paul’s friends die. The book covers the lives of and deaths of Paul’s friend’s In Paul’s eyes we see his gradual dissent into Schizophrenia. A lovely and very tragic read.

That last chapter prose is magnificent and covers when Paul dies.

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Ahogy a régi történetekben mondják: mesébe illő kaland volt.”

Ne olyasmire számítsunk, mint a Virágot Algernon-nak. Guðmundsson megőrüléstörténetet ír belső nézőpontból, de amit látunk, annak sokáig (talán végig) jóval több köze van a lírához, mint a pszichológiához. Úgy is mondhatnánk, hogy a kötet fele hangulatos, de nem egyedülálló gyermekkor-regény, langyos négyes, ha számszerűsíteni kell. Aztán persze egyre több jel utal arra, hogy elbeszélőnk mentális állapota kötéltáncot jár, és egyre gyakrabban szédül le a mélységbe. Kiszámíthatatlan, hajlamos agresszív kitörésekre, kényszerképzetek gyötrik – ez idáig csupa olyan dolog, ami, ha a vikingek korát élnénk, tán még erénynek is számítana. De hát nem éljük a vikingek korát. Talán pont ez a baj. Páll ezer évvel ezelőtt talán jókedvűen hadonászhatott volna a baltájával, és a hadonászás szüneteiben rímeket farigcsál – amíg agyon nem ütik. A XX. században viszont megfogják, beteszik a sárga házba, és teletömik gyógyszerrel.

Ami a szöveget illeti, Guðmundsson a sagák hagyományához nyúl vissza. Töredékes, egyszerű nyelven szól, gyakran kedélyesen kezdi a jelenetet, hogy aztán tragikumba menjen át, majd ebből a tragikumból visszakanyarodik a komikumba. Inkább laza anekdotafüzért bocsát elénk, mint klasszikus regényt – de ezek az anekdoták azért jól látható ívbe rendeződnek, úgy követik egymást, mint a lépcső fokai. És ez a lépcső a pincébe vezet, a nyirkos, sötét, félelmes pincébe. Ahol Páll kucorog egyedül.

[Calzean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A breathtaking read following Paul's life, his descent into schizophrenia, with his experiences in Iceland's mental asylum in the second half of the 20th century. It is humorous in parts, dark in others. Paul and his friends are completely mad at times and quite wise on other occasions. Their night out holding a wake was quite a scene.
But the highlight of the book was the writing. When Paul was deep in madness, the book carried his thoughts with reality and surrealism. It is quite an achievement for a writer to be able to inhabit the dark and light side of this disease. I thought this was a book of impeccable quality.

[amapola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il romanzo di una storia vera, la tragica storia della schizofrenia del fratello dell'autore. Scritto in prima persona (impressionante la capacità di immedesimazione di Gudmundsson); commovente, mai sentimentale, con momenti di umorismo, è un romanzo particolare, di grande spessore etico, scritto con sensibilità rarissima. Il tema della schizofrenia è trattato con leggerezza e poesia. Un piccolo gioiello.

[McKinley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually love this book, I was unsure about it when I started reading it, but the ending was perfect for the plot. This book is also a work in translation, and I did not feel like I was missing much of anything, the story was told beautifully and the writing was honestly very amazing. I highly recommend!

[Larissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a short story by Einar Mar Gudmundsson ("Uninvited") in the Icelandic issue of McSweeny's (Issue 15--it's really good, you should pick it up) and it had quite an effect on me. The story was broken into discreet sections, each a photographic anecdote which wasn't necessarily being included in linear order, but was organized in such a way that you felt as if you were entering the situation--and the events leading up to the immediate story--in an organic fashion. there was an event, there were emotions, there were moments leading up to and progressing from that event, and they all got sort of muddled up in the re-telling. Which is about as accurate of a portrayal of one's personal experience as I think you can get.

This is a narrative approach that I know I've harped on before--Isak Dinesen addresses her characters' memories and anecdotes in a similar fashion--but I think it really does merit some further attention. Chances are, when you're meeting someone new and sharing stories about your life, you don't reel off a time-line of events starting with your birth, progressing through your adolescence, and skipping one by one through each of the important events of your adult life without ever stopping on a digression, or more detailed explanation, or being pulled off course by a memory that perhaps isn't the point per se, but really did make a difference to the way your perspective developed. But for some reason, every biopic (what a foul terrible genre that is) and ever so many biographies approach one's life in this fashion. Which to me is a veritable attack on the nature of memory and a truly boring way to tell a story.

Like Gudmundsson's aforementioned short story, Angels of the Universe, understands memory and experience fully, and really gets to the heart of these by building meaning and significance slowly, as the book progresses. Chapters are divided into mini 'chaplets,' each of which relates a memory or image or exchange that when collaged together, gives you a broad, layered picture of the main character and of his experiences going in and out of a psychiatric hospital in Reykjavik in the 60s.

It doesn't sound like a fast, 'fun' read, but it's very compelling--wry and observant and funny, and never in the least self-pitying.

[Matteo Fumagalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il punto di vista visionario e criptico sul senso della (propria) vita di un uomo annegato nella follia. Una lettura non sempre facile, ma ricca di fascino, che si impara a comprendere a lettura conclusa. Lasciatevi guidare.

[Neva · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Сега, когато краят наближава, стените се струтват и завесите падат, аз ще кажа откровено: живял съм при пълнолуние и съм обходил небосвода и дълбините. Обичал съм, смял съм се, плакал съм и сега, когато сълзите текат и нещата са така приятни, ще кажа: правих всичко по свой собствен начин."

Обичам тихите книги и свободното влизане в нечия глава. Добавям една звездичка специално заради сцената с Омар и класьора на с. 185. Радвам се на бележките, които ми разширяват хоризонта и дават нужен контекст за четенето*, на хубавия превод на Стефан Паунов и на запознанството с Кристин Гунльойсдоухтир, фрагмент от чиято картина е използван за корицата.

"...немският философ Хегел, когато чул коментар, че тезите му не са адекватни на действителността: "Горката действителност, наистина ми е жал за нея."

"хора с добавъчно зрение"... "ти, лебед със сияйно оперение"... "телосложение на трол"... "усойно е в открития космос"... "обзет от пустота като стар градски квартал"... "невидими като кошмарите на птиците"... "подобно на дракон, който се носи през вечността"... "студът, наречен още "общество"... "когато заклокочат вулканите в душата"... "Не си се грижил за ангелите си!"... "Навън се рее крилатото време."

"Понякога чувам струните на света. Понякога виждам как снежнобелите планини пристъпват тромаво."

"Такъв ореол сияе и около теб - каза той тогава, - и около всички останали, които се борят за каузата на любовта."

*вж. например "викинг" - човек, който живее край залив ("вик" - "залив") - или Планинската жена и пр.

[Mare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moja ocjena je 4.5. Radnja romana se odvija u psihijatrijskoj bolnici na Islandu. Glavni protagonist je obojan shizofrenijom čije lice nitko ne razumije. Umjesto pokušaja liječenja problema iz korijena, pacijente se drogira i pretvara u nefunkcionalne hodajuće sjenke. Jako lijep roman.
" Pred Bogom smo svi isti, bez obzira na to što smo bolesni. Mi smo anđeli. Svemirski anđeli."

[Patryx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho trovato questo romanzo bello, poetico a tratti e molto triste. Pall (il protagonsta) racconta la sua vita, da una normale infanzia a un'adolescenza turbolenta sino al trasferimento in un ospedale psichiatrico. Le cause (neurofisiologiche, familiari, sociali) son del tutto irrilevanti perché non cambiano la condizione di chi si trova ad affrontare la follia. La storia di Pall e di tutti gli altri di cui ci vengono raccontate le vite avvertono che il confine tra normalità e follia è molto sottile ma una volta attraversato la nostra vita cambierà per sempre.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a DNF for me. I just couldn't get into the author's style.

[Margret Sol · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a very well written book, it's really poetic and creative. But my personal opinion is that it was quite confusing and boring.
Confusing because the author kept switching the time, like, in one chapter he was talking about when the man was 30 years old but in the next chapter the man was 10.
I thought it was boring because there was nothing big happening in the book. It was just about this crazy guy who was just minding his own business, walking around in Reykjavik. And it was about his whole life.
I'm more into fantasy and thriller books so...

[Erla Diljá]

át þessa í mig. undir ullarteppi í nýjadal með bók í hægri og kafffibolla í vinstri. naut þess að lesa hana. langaði ekki að leggja hana frá mér. er satt að segja bara hissa á því að hafa ekki lesið hana fyrr??

[Jim Elkins]

Not the world's darkest novel

A person I met in Iceland said this was their saddest contemporary novel. It's about a man who spends years in a mental asylum in Reykjavik, watching as several of his friends commit suicide. Eventually he kills himself.

It is desolate, but I don't think its humor makes it less so. I have the impression the author thinks humor brightens or relieves the tragedy, and several reviewers have said the same thing. To me, that's a mistaken estimation of the place and power of the kind of gentle absurdism that stands for humor in this book. That kind of simple laugh at fate, embarrassment, coincidence, or circumstance can't possibly lighten the passages in which the author, writing in the voice of a man who is chronically depressed and sometimes schizophrenic, meditates on the emptiness of his mind, of the landscape, and of the few people he knows who are still alive. Even so, reviewers -- and, I gather, the author himself -- thinks the scattered humorous episodes counterbalance the bleakest images of the sea, the waves, the stars, and the deaths of the narrator's friends. Does that mean he is so used to black imagery that he experiences trivial jokes as relief? Or that he is so entranced by trivial jokes that he gives them a redemptive power? I would have liked this better without the sense that absurdism, surrealism, or humor somehow alleviate the narrator's pain. I have a hard time understanding how the authors thinks about humor: if it is ultimately ineffectual, why keep returning to it? If it is effective, how is it possible to explain how an ocean of unhappiness is brightened by a second-rate joke?

For me the most interesting aspect of the novel is its fragmentary narrative. The author, Einar Mar Gudmundsson, begins chapters with anticipations of things to come, and then circles back to explain them. Chains of those cycles constitute the book's structure. Within each cycle the book progresses in page-long or even sentence-long "pieces" of narrative: prose poems, narrative fragments, quotations, and scenes separated by white spaces. Some of those "pieces" contribute to the stories, or add to our anticipation of what happens next, or help build our sense of the characters. Other pieces are self-contained because they are jokes; they end with punch lines. But there is a third principle at work in the cutting and arrangement of the "pieces," which is the most intriguing: their abrupt transitions and their unfinished feeling are intended as signs of the narrator's mental state. After all, the protagonist is himself suffering from delusions and blackouts, and he was incarcerated for years in a mental asylum. He is an undependable narrator, and the nature of his undependability is exactly what is expressive about the book. It matters that some fragments end where his self-awareness ends, and that others end where his own experiences ended. As we read past those breaks, we are reading into blacked-out spaces and times in his own experience, which can be very poignant. It is the written analogue of listening to someone who is very ill, as they drift in and out of coherent speech. The problem is that I'm not convinced that Gudmundsson is in control of that device. Sometimes the fragments are typical novelist's compositional devices, and sometimes they are vehicles for jokes: it is not always possible to tell if the sudden gap in a story, the sudden change of subject, is intended to express the narrator's mental state, or whether we are to take it as part of the novel's construction. If I could have been sure of that, I might have found this even sadder, more heartbreaking, than other reviewers have found it.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Araceli · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really enjoy it. I didn't like the way it was written, the story was too confusing. I didn't really care for the characters. Honestly, just a no.

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[María Einarsdóttir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stórkostleg! Las hana í 10. bekk og man bara að hún náði mér alveg og mér fannst hún frábær, sem er magnað miðað við gamla bók sem er skyldulesning í grunnskóla. Og hún stóðst algjörlega væntingar í annað
sinn. Las hana reyndar alfarið í vinnunni á bráðageðdeild sem ýkti upplifunina ef svo má segja.
En hún er svo fallega ljóðrænt skrifuð án þess samt að
vera neitt tilgerðarleg eða ólæsileg. Og skrifuð af svo miklu innsæi með kærleik en líka raunsæi í garð persónanna. Líf fólks með geðsjúkdóma er alls ekki fegrað, en þau eru samt skrifuð sem heilar manneskjur á fallegan hátt.
Kleppur er víða baby

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great piece of Icelandic lit, that really surprised me and really struck a cord with me. Dark, humorous, poetic, brilliant, unusual, chilling yet still manages to warm one's heart too, and easy to read in one sitting. It is certainly not the dour depressing book I thought it might be, when thinking of a cold bleak landscape and the dread associated with institutionalization, putting the joy Paul experiences with friends, giving it an uplifting feel, at the heart of the narrative. Sure mental illness surrounds the book but it doesn't engulf it completely, and whilst clearly a very personal account, the wider picture of Icelandic society is drawn upon too.

[Anne Mette Møller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeg er faldet for islandsk litteratur!
Den er så anderledes.

[elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

(scroll down for english review)

ITA — Preso per caso in biblioteca e ne sono rimasta molto soddifsfatta. Questo libro, pubblicato in Islanda nel 1993, è la storia di un uomo proveniente dagli ambienti operai di Reykjavik che, crescendo, viene diagnosticato con schizofrenia e passa degli anni in un ospedale per i malati di mente. Se dalla premessa non sembra un gran che, ripensateci; mi è piaciuto da morire.

Ho apprezzato molto le descrizioni di vari problemi di salute mentale in questo romanzo, che rimane rispettoso e compassionato nei confronti di persone i cui sintomi sono visti come pericolosi dalla società. Rimane toccante senza scendere nel melenso, e senza tralasciare le parti più "brutte" di problemi di salute mentale. I personaggi — la famiglia di Pall, i suoi amici da giovane, o pazienti i medici e gli infermieri dell'ospedale di Kleppur — hanno tutti qualcosa da dire, e contribuiscono a rendere olto vivido un romanzo che fondamentalmente racconta una storia di alienazione. La prosa (tradtotta da Fulvio Ferrari) è quasi poetica a tratti, e il sottofondo di Reykjavik nella seconda metà del ventesimo secolo aggiunge tantissimo alla storia. Ho iniziato questo libro sapendo pochissimo dell'Islanda, tutto filtrato tramite lenti "turistiche", ma il romanzo si colloca in maniera netta in uno sfondo culturale e storico ben preciso e ben definito, cond dettagli che rendono la storia molto più ricca.

******

ENG

Randomly picked this up at the library on a vague rec, and I'm very glad I did. Angels of the Universe, published in Iceland in the early 90s, is a book about a working-class man from Reykjavik who suffers from schizophrenia. The portrayal of mental health struggles in this novel is extremely well done — it's respectful and sympathetic even for people whose symptoms are considered scary and alienating; it's touching without being patronising; it doesn't shy away from the ugliness but always in a way that makes the humanity of every character shine through. The writing is eerily beautiful. The setting could be its own character — not just the city of Reykjavik or the Kleppur mental hospital; but the specific nuances of the cultural moment and historical period are portrayed so vividly. I came into this book knowing nothing about 20th-century Iceland and finished it with some awareness of family life and class dynamics, all details that make the story richer and more grounded. Definitely would rec.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just passed through Reykjavik for a day, en route to Sweden, I chose this book to read as an escape from the Kindle interface. The bookstore, near the Fron Hotel (highly recommended), carried a few Icelandic writers, including Halidor Laxness, but I wanted to discover a writer who would be more difficult to find. Angels of the Universe was the perfect traveling companion, reminding me in some ways of Saramago (esp Blindness), with its quirky merging of the trajectories of insanity / sanity with humor, and how it captures the surreal geography of Iceland. Yet Gudmundsson's book seems difficult to find for a reasonable price in the U.S. If anyone wants to borrow it let me know...

[Giedrė Ir Viskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Po daug metų, ratas grįžo į pradinį tašką, knyga antrąkart pakliuvo į mano rankas. Visai nepamenu apie ką, tik žinau, kad skaityta, buvo gera. Tebėra. Beprotybės biografija, nuo gimimo, brandos, iki paskutinės minutės. Retai sutinki tokių nuogai nuoširdžių, sukrečiančių istorijų apie tyruose paklydusį žmogaus protą, jo kančią ir vienatvę.

[António Jacinto · Rating 4 out of 5]

É um livro muito bom, que passa aquela ternura amarga das coisas que não se podem consertar. Tive a sorte e oportunidade de conhecer o autor, enquanto lia o livro, e acabei por entrevistá-lo. Uma pessoa serena e muito cordial, em parte com essa atitude sóbria e delicada que imprime ao livro. Na realidade, o livro é sobre o seu irmão. Toca, portanto, filamentos delicados.

[Agris Fakingsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

..lai gan lasāmo grāmatu saraksts aizvien ir nemainīgi liels, es paņēmu uz darbu izlasīt šo Dimiņa tulkoto un dāvāto grāmatu, kuru izlasīju ar lielu aizrautību. dažbrīd tiešām bija sajūta, ka varētu raudāt (par raudāšanu Dimiņš dāvināšanas dienā teica).

[Þóra · Rating 5 out of 5]

ótrúlega falleg, hlý og fyndin þrátt fyrir að fjalla um ævi manns með geðklofa á tíma þar sem fordómar í samfélaginu voru svakalegir

[Josefine]

Fremragende bog, mest spændende til sidst. Sune Auken forstår at vælge interessant litteratur til os.

[Gintarė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Labai įdomi knyga, lengvai skaitosi. Knygoje pasakojama vaikino gyvenimo istorija, nuo vaikystės nuotykių iki gydymo psichiatrinėje ligoninėje. Pasakojimas vietomis niūrus, vietomis labai šviesus, su šiek tiek sarkazmo.