Narrator

by Bragi Ólafsson, Lytton Smith (Translator)

A thirty-something aspiring writer, G., encounters a former romantic rival at the post office, a man he once wished didn’t exist. On a whim, G. begins trailing the man throughout Reykjavik. What starts as an amusing tale of cat and mouse turns into a complex, introspective journey of a man struggling to complete the unfinished narrative of his own life.

Genres: Fiction

151 pages, Paperback

Published August 14, 2018

About the author

Bragi studied Spanish at the University of Iceland and the University of Granada. He has had a number of different jobs in Reykjavík, at the post office, in a bank and in a record store. He was also a member of the Sugarcubes, and toured with them in Europe and America.
Bragi's first published work, the poetry collection Dragsúgur (Draught), appeared in 1986. Since then, he has published other books of poetry, short story collections, plays and novels. His first novel, Hvíldardagar (Days of Repose) was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 1999 and the next one, Gæludýrin (The Pets) also in 2001. He received the DV Cultural Prize for the novel Samkvæmisleikir (Party Games) in 2004 and his novel Sendiherrann (The Ambassador) was nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 2008.
Bragi is one of the founders of the publishing company Smekkleysa (Bad Taste) which has mostly put out music and organised various kinds of events.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this meandering novel from the former bassist in The Sugarcubes, a character named an initial (when will this Kafkan cliché ever cease?) wanders around the Icelandic capital trailing a nemesis named Aron who used to sleep with the same woman he used to (or wants to) sleep with for 150 pages. Fragments of the protagonist’s past are revealed in untantalising dribbles, and the narrative voice flips between first and third persons, calling into question the author’s ID and narratorial truthfulness (like the nouveau roman never happened), and for the most part the novel describes, in plodding pedestrian prose, a string of unremarkable events and thoughts that take place over a short timespan and serve up no concrete reasons to care about the outcome of this mercifully brief tale of ciphers.

[Sanja_Sanjalica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like stories where seemingly nothing happens exactly, just thoughts and actions and sequences, and in their combination, there is a story. Lovely sentences and well crafted translation. I've enjoyed it without knowing the reason why it has been so. Must be the writing style.

[Ferris · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the way through this novel, by Icelandic author, Bragi Olafsson, I was thinking about "Waiting For Godot". The plot is a bit more elaborate, but nothing happens. Does that make any sense? Fears, memories, fantasies are omnipresent, yet nothing happens. This one is a bit of a fever dream, perhaps born of a deep Icelandic winter?

[Danni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read from Open Letter Press, and it certainly will not be the last. I fully intend to check out a few of the other books they've put out.


Ólafsson has written a modernist novel that reminded me of Paul Auster's Ghosts. Both feature a man stalking another man while he performs everyday tasks. G. is both the main character and the narrator, not meaning that the novel is told from his perspective as an intradiegetic character but rather that the novel is told in both first person POV and third person POV, both using G. as the narrator. Ólafsson treats us to an unflinching look at a man who is deeply dissatisfied with this life and mentally unbalanced. His parents were middle-aged when they had him, he lives in his parents' basement, he is working on a manuscript and has yet to find the courage to submit, and a woman he once loved did not reciprocate those feelings.

This book challenged me and required that I come to with a sharp mind. Ólafsson did one of my favorite literary tricks: misdirection. On the surface, this novel is about G. who is stalking a man, the source of his hatred, because of an affair that the man had with the woman he loved over a decade ago. We experience Aron Cesar, the stalkee, through G. playing omniscient narrator and giving us insight into the background and inner thoughts of Aron. However, because this is all filtered through G. we quickly see that G. is a man plagued by inner turmoil and loneliness. He relays the events of the novel through a more distanced and objective vantage point because he, like one of the characters in a movie both men sit through, suppresses his emotions. We see how his upbringing was one marked by repression, a repression that has carried over to his adult life.

While reading this novel, I struggled to believe that Aron even existed. Could it not be that this whole novel was in the mind of G. who was using his writing as a way to confess and deal with his emotional trauma that stems from his childhood? In any case, I will not soon forget the remarkable wit and talent it took to write such a short, complicated, and compelling novel.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically an Icelandic version of Auster's City of Glass, but not as nicely done. While it does a good job of making the reader interested enough in "the chase," it lacks in developing any of the characters that much. Additionally, the author makes it easy to be disinterested in the main character, which I believe his intention. However, the ending makes that feeling feel a little flimsy as well. The one thing this novel does really well is highlight the racist attitudes that nonPoC western Europeans have with those who come from the global south. Overall, it was worth the dollar I paid for it and ate up a couple hours while I recover from being sick.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, kind of experimental book. Olafsson embraces the idea of the unreliable narrator. The protagonist, G., follows another character, Aron around. They appear to have a past - Aron dated a girl that G was interested in, but the actual events are murky and never become clear. G imagines a very colourful life for Aron, in contrast to his own rather dull one. There are glimpses of a bigger picture for G, but we never get a full reveal. I did enjoy it, though - there was enough there to keep me interested.

[Christopher Litsinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

At one point this book describes a biography:

Something on every page screams out to the reader’s desire for the subject to be removed from play immediately, even though the reader knows it won’t happen until the end of the book, on page six hundred something.

and that pretty much summed up my feelings about this book. I just didn't connect in any way with the "Narrator".

[Lavender · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was some good prose in it and I liked the introspection but the protagonist wasn't likable enough or compelling enough for me to care about his life. I also didn't get why it kept switching from first to third person, maybe it was something I missed since it was difficult to keep my attention on it which sucks because it's such a short book too.

[Rob Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short and dull, unfortunately. I really loved his first novel.

[Mohammad H · Rating 4 out of 5]

“G. feels how good it is to have someone concerning themselves with what you do, or where you go.” Brilliant!

[Etienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lu en français. Un récit un peu vide. Bien écrit, mais il se passe trop peu de chose et trop peu de réflexion, ou trop peu de pas mal tout pour valoir la peine selon moi. Décevant!

[lara phillips · Rating 1 out of 5]

way too existential for me. at least it was short (151 pgs).

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was a fever dream

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lúði eltir töffara um miðbæinn. Fyndin bók um "ekki neitt".

[Ásta Sólveig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mér fannst þessi góð, er svo hrifin af Braga Ólafssyni