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Red Milk
A timely and provocative novel about a mysterious Icelandic neo-Nazi and the enduring global allure of fascism.
In England in 1962, an Icelandic man is found dead on a train bound for Cheltenham Spa. In his possession, policemen find a map on which a swastika has been drawn with a red pen. Who was he, and where was he going?
In a novel that reads as both biography and mystery, the internationally celebrated novelist Sjón tells the story of Gunnar Kampen, the founder of Iceland's anti-Semitic nationalist party, with ties to a burgeoning network of neo-Nazi groups across the globe. Told in a series of scenes and letters spanning Kampen's lifetime--from his childhood in Reykjavík during the Second World War, in a household strongly opposed to Hitler and his views, through his education, political radicalization, and final clandestine mission to England—Red Milk urges readers to confront the international legacy of twentieth-century fascism and the often unknowable forces that drive some people to extremism.
Based on one of the ringleaders of a little-known neo-Nazi group that operated in Reykjavík in the late 1950s and early 1960s, this taut and potent novel explores what shapes a young man and the enduring, disturbing allure of Nazi ideology.
In England in 1962, an Icelandic man is found dead on a train bound for Cheltenham Spa. In his possession, policemen find a map on which a swastika has been drawn with a red pen. Who was he, and where was he going?
In a novel that reads as both biography and mystery, the internationally celebrated novelist Sjón tells the story of Gunnar Kampen, the founder of Iceland's anti-Semitic nationalist party, with ties to a burgeoning network of neo-Nazi groups across the globe. Told in a series of scenes and letters spanning Kampen's lifetime--from his childhood in Reykjavík during the Second World War, in a household strongly opposed to Hitler and his views, through his education, political radicalization, and final clandestine mission to England—Red Milk urges readers to confront the international legacy of twentieth-century fascism and the often unknowable forces that drive some people to extremism.
Based on one of the ringleaders of a little-known neo-Nazi group that operated in Reykjavík in the late 1950s and early 1960s, this taut and potent novel explores what shapes a young man and the enduring, disturbing allure of Nazi ideology.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2019
43 people are currently reading
1192 people want to read
About the author
Sjón
58 books636 followersSjón (Sigurjón B. Sigurðsson) was born in Reykjavik on the 27th of August, 1962. He started his writing career early, publishing his first book of poetry, Sýnir (Visions), in 1978. Sjón was a founding member of the surrealist group, Medúsa, and soon became significant in Reykjavik's cultural landscape.
Since then, his prolific writing drove him to pen song lyrics, scripts for movies and of course novels such as The Blue Fox.
Since then, his prolific writing drove him to pen song lyrics, scripts for movies and of course novels such as The Blue Fox.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 148 reviews
October 14, 2024
Winner of the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize 2023
A dead Nazi is easier to deal with than a living one - this was Sjón's thought process when he decided to let his protaginist die right at the beginning of his new novel: Readers should be open to dive into the socialisation and mind of an Icelandic Nazi, knowing that he will fail. Cancer-stricken Gunnar Pálsson Kampen dies in a train compartment at 24 years old, while trying to travel to the first meeting of an international Nazi network. When the police arrives to record the incident, "silence reigns in his chest - but his brain is still working." His story is thus told chronologically in narrative flashbacks and letters, chronicling how the young man who grew up in Reykjavik during WW II came into contact with fascist ideas and became one of the leaders of the Icelandic Nazi organisation in the late 50's and 60's.
Sjón refers to many actual events and features real historic figures like author Savitri Devi (if you look at the reviews for her books here on GR, you will be shocked by the amount of praise this outright Hitler-fan receives on this platform), founder of the American Nazi Party George Lincoln Rockwell, infamous British Neo-Nazi Colin Jordan, and Swedish Neo-Nazi Göran Assar Oredsson. Iceland joining the NATO and the discussion concerning an American military base in the country also play a vital role, as in The Atom Station by Icelandic Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness.
But Sjón also brings in his family history: The author's grandfather had lived in Germany and, back in Iceland, was convicted for treason; in the book, it's Gunnar's Norwegian uncle who goes to jail for this (and another) crime. There are also theories, Sjón says, that his great-grandfather was part of a Nazi group in the Westman Islands, a region that features in "Red Milk". As in CoDex 1962: A Trilogy, Sjón shows that the repercussions of Nazism are still there and affect regular Icelanders like himself and many others. Gunnar, his protagonist, is intentionally crafted as a very average guy, "to the point of banality", as the author states (thus referring to Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil). This is also why in this novel, Sjón does not employ Icelandic mythology or surrealist elements (which he usually does): As fascist ideology relies on the perversion of mythologies, Sjón takes any non-realist storytelling away.
As a result, this is a very unusual book for Sjón when you look at the storytelling, but it's also a logical step in his artistic progress when you consider how he dealt with the topic in CoDex 1962: A Trilogy and The Whispering Muse. I can't wait to read his next book.
You can listen to me chat with Sjón about "CoDex" and (a little) about "Red Milk" here.
A dead Nazi is easier to deal with than a living one - this was Sjón's thought process when he decided to let his protaginist die right at the beginning of his new novel: Readers should be open to dive into the socialisation and mind of an Icelandic Nazi, knowing that he will fail. Cancer-stricken Gunnar Pálsson Kampen dies in a train compartment at 24 years old, while trying to travel to the first meeting of an international Nazi network. When the police arrives to record the incident, "silence reigns in his chest - but his brain is still working." His story is thus told chronologically in narrative flashbacks and letters, chronicling how the young man who grew up in Reykjavik during WW II came into contact with fascist ideas and became one of the leaders of the Icelandic Nazi organisation in the late 50's and 60's.
Sjón refers to many actual events and features real historic figures like author Savitri Devi (if you look at the reviews for her books here on GR, you will be shocked by the amount of praise this outright Hitler-fan receives on this platform), founder of the American Nazi Party George Lincoln Rockwell, infamous British Neo-Nazi Colin Jordan, and Swedish Neo-Nazi Göran Assar Oredsson. Iceland joining the NATO and the discussion concerning an American military base in the country also play a vital role, as in The Atom Station by Icelandic Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness.
But Sjón also brings in his family history: The author's grandfather had lived in Germany and, back in Iceland, was convicted for treason; in the book, it's Gunnar's Norwegian uncle who goes to jail for this (and another) crime. There are also theories, Sjón says, that his great-grandfather was part of a Nazi group in the Westman Islands, a region that features in "Red Milk". As in CoDex 1962: A Trilogy, Sjón shows that the repercussions of Nazism are still there and affect regular Icelanders like himself and many others. Gunnar, his protagonist, is intentionally crafted as a very average guy, "to the point of banality", as the author states (thus referring to Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil). This is also why in this novel, Sjón does not employ Icelandic mythology or surrealist elements (which he usually does): As fascist ideology relies on the perversion of mythologies, Sjón takes any non-realist storytelling away.
As a result, this is a very unusual book for Sjón when you look at the storytelling, but it's also a logical step in his artistic progress when you consider how he dealt with the topic in CoDex 1962: A Trilogy and The Whispering Muse. I can't wait to read his next book.
You can listen to me chat with Sjón about "CoDex" and (a little) about "Red Milk" here.
August 7, 2021
4.5
A fictional biography of the founder of the neo-Nazi movement in Iceland, from his childhood during World War II through his political evolution in the 1950s until his death in 1962. Sjon's terse prose and alternation between 'objective,' almost camera-like, focus on the surrounding circumstances, family members, and friends (first and third part) with his character's inner thoughts as revealed in his letters (the epistolary 2nd part) most effectively serve to get into the mindset of someone who embraced monstrous political views despite the normality of life in a postwar country such as Iceland. The novel is mercifully short as it is difficult to keep company with a character who unquestionably follows the dictum of hatred and intolerance, and witnessing his gradual development into a neo-Nazi advocate (I suspect it must have been difficult for a writer as well). Yet, it's important to read it, especially in the times of the recent rise and open display of similar political convictions in a number of places around the world. As portrayed in the main character in Sjon's novel, there is nothing special or unique about such an individual, he is quite ordinary and average... someone who can be our neighbor or next in line at the supermarket register... and that is what makes it most chilling. It's a compelling semi-fictional portrayal of what Hannah Arendt famously called "the banality of evil."
My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC via NetGalley.
A fictional biography of the founder of the neo-Nazi movement in Iceland, from his childhood during World War II through his political evolution in the 1950s until his death in 1962. Sjon's terse prose and alternation between 'objective,' almost camera-like, focus on the surrounding circumstances, family members, and friends (first and third part) with his character's inner thoughts as revealed in his letters (the epistolary 2nd part) most effectively serve to get into the mindset of someone who embraced monstrous political views despite the normality of life in a postwar country such as Iceland. The novel is mercifully short as it is difficult to keep company with a character who unquestionably follows the dictum of hatred and intolerance, and witnessing his gradual development into a neo-Nazi advocate (I suspect it must have been difficult for a writer as well). Yet, it's important to read it, especially in the times of the recent rise and open display of similar political convictions in a number of places around the world. As portrayed in the main character in Sjon's novel, there is nothing special or unique about such an individual, he is quite ordinary and average... someone who can be our neighbor or next in line at the supermarket register... and that is what makes it most chilling. It's a compelling semi-fictional portrayal of what Hannah Arendt famously called "the banality of evil."
My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC via NetGalley.
May 8, 2020
It is just by chance that I finished this book on 8th May, the day in 1945 on which the Second World War officially ended in Germany. This work of fiction about neo-nazis in Iceland (and elsewhere) in the 1950s and 1960s is a reminder that we must all continue to resist the existence of hatred and racism.
May 24, 2021
Not sure why they didn't translate the original title literally (Korngult hár, grá augu means 'Corn-gold Hair, Grey Eyes'), but I guess Red Milk is more evocative. Anyway, this glimpse into the life of Gunnar Kampen, founder of Iceland's New-Nazi movement, is a study in the banality of evil. It's a quick and evocative read, showing how ordinary individuals can be sucked into nationalistic movements quite easily.
April 13, 2021
Thoughts soon.
October 8, 2021
Red Milk is a fictional biography of Gunnar Kampen, a young Icelandic man whose death opens the book but whose life opens wide the world of post-war fascism in Europe and beyond for readers. We follow Gunnar’s life from his childhood in Reykjavik, in a home with his parents, sister and brother. A normal childhood except for the war and the early presence of German troops. As he grows, we see influences on his life: his discovery of a swastika at the cycle shop he loves, rumors about his uncle in Norway, choices in his reading and friends.
From this normalcy emerges an evangelist for neo-nazism. He reads, writes, communicates, ultimately connects with other like-minded people and groups around the world. He is what is needed in the early 1960s, a true believer who is capable of organizing. But in the end, he is human and ill.
Sjon has written an interesting and compelling historical fiction based on actual events in the 1950s and 1960s in Iceland reflecting the re-emergence of Nazi ideology in Iceland, Europe and the world. And he has shown it in perhaps its scariest face, its normalcy as it begins.
Recommended for anyone interested in history and the re-emergence of fascism post WWII. The author’s afterword is very thoughtful.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
From this normalcy emerges an evangelist for neo-nazism. He reads, writes, communicates, ultimately connects with other like-minded people and groups around the world. He is what is needed in the early 1960s, a true believer who is capable of organizing. But in the end, he is human and ill.
Sjon has written an interesting and compelling historical fiction based on actual events in the 1950s and 1960s in Iceland reflecting the re-emergence of Nazi ideology in Iceland, Europe and the world. And he has shown it in perhaps its scariest face, its normalcy as it begins.
Recommended for anyone interested in history and the re-emergence of fascism post WWII. The author’s afterword is very thoughtful.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
April 3, 2022
Part of the author's afterword says:
Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. I think Sjón succeeds in portraying banality. The novella also succeeds as a form of historical fiction (& one that has ramifications even today). A glimpse. Perhaps a reminder that choosing an evil path doesn't always stem from extreme or dramatic things, just various, incremental choices from everyday life. Much like the last book I read (Monsieur Monde Vanishes), this book also has a feeling of flat affect. The author's afterword has much more emotion & context than the story itself, I think. Regardless, the bare-bones prose gives you plenty to contemplate even as its style holds you at arm's length & provides no answers.
"In my research for my earlier novels, I had come across information about a small neo-Nazi group that operated in Reykjavík in the late fifties and early sixties. Not much was known about it and if it was written about at all, it was usually brushed off as an aberration in our postwar history. But when I decided to take a closer look at the subject of national Socialism and Iceland, it was this particular group that caught my writer's imagination, as there is always an opportunity for fiction in willfully forgotten, repressed stories. When my research uncovered the fact that one of the main actors within that small group had not only been in close contact with Savitri Devi, George Lincoln Rockwell, Colin Jordan, and Göran Asser Oredsson -- the very people who laid the foundation for the international network of far-right movements as we know it today -- but had died from cancer at a young age while fanatically working on the foundation of their World Union of National Socialists, I knew I had found a character who could carry that untold story. He had struggled for that abominable cause until his dying breath; now was the time for the autopsy.
...
But I have to admit that it was his early death, which I soon knew would be revealed on the novel's first page, that made it possible for me to write about how he came to be who he was at the end of his life in the clinical way I deemed necessary. And I suppose that, by extension, it makes it more acceptable to most readers to follow him on that journey, knowing that it will be cut short. It is easier to deal with a dead Nazi than a living one.
...
With Red Milk, what I wouldn't allow myself to do was employ pathos or myth. I decided that in the story there would be no epiphanies, no dreams, no moments of agony, nor would there be a fervent engagement with the Nordic pantheon or its symbols, or any feeding off the heroic deeds and words of the characters from the Icelandic sagas. There are hints of all of this in Gunnar Kampen's world, that is for sure, but as the neo-Nazis' own narratives are driven so much by an emotional connection with these elements, in the hope of attaining or confirming their superiority, I had to refrain from using them. Everything that ultimately serves to make Nazism exotic had to be put aside. What I was looking for instead was what made my character normal, to the point of banality."
Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. I think Sjón succeeds in portraying banality. The novella also succeeds as a form of historical fiction (& one that has ramifications even today). A glimpse. Perhaps a reminder that choosing an evil path doesn't always stem from extreme or dramatic things, just various, incremental choices from everyday life. Much like the last book I read (Monsieur Monde Vanishes), this book also has a feeling of flat affect. The author's afterword has much more emotion & context than the story itself, I think. Regardless, the bare-bones prose gives you plenty to contemplate even as its style holds you at arm's length & provides no answers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2021
It seems that all of the Icelandic fiction I’ve read up till now was genre variety, from mystery thrillers to ghost stories, featuring primarily contemporary settings (outside of flashbacks). It was time for proper literature, a work of historical fiction no less. And so…Red Milk. Infinitely more ominous than all other milks out there. The most nourishing of substances tinged with blood.
This novel, despite its slender size, is a sledgehammer albeit a cleverly subtle one. It speaks more to the banality of evil than its grandiosity. At a very basic level it’s a portrait of a young man as a neo nazi. Set during and in the decades following WWII, it’s a story of a young man of Icelandic and Norwegian descent growing up and coming to age admiring fascism more and more and then getting directly involved with it, setting up a local neo nazi party. The narrative comprises biographical sketches, epistolary entries of various correspondences and more until slowly the grand design of a person emerges. It’s a really ingenious approach to something that might have been easily done in a much cruder fashion with much broader brushstrokes. The author was inspired by a real life person and real life events in creating this book and thus brought to it all the complexity of real life and every effort to understand how a person like that might come to be. Is it a seemingly innocuous conglomeration of random occurrences, such as a quisling for an uncle or a neighbor’s language club or it is more than that? What does it take for someone to develop such a dangerous and horrible system of beliefs? What a resonant question to contemplate in this day and age of the ever increasing radical ideologies.
At any rate, from both psychological and pure readership perspective, this made for a fascinating read. All the more so because Iceland is a country just far enough off the sidelines to have been only distantly affected by WWII, comparable to the rest of Europe, but apparently it hasn’t emerged completely unscathed either, for an event of such grand evil it’s only fitting to ripple so far and so wide and so malevolently. So a historical perspective…also covered.
All in all, a great find and an excellent introduction to a new author for me. I’d certainly read more of his work, given a chance. Very good read indeed. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
This novel, despite its slender size, is a sledgehammer albeit a cleverly subtle one. It speaks more to the banality of evil than its grandiosity. At a very basic level it’s a portrait of a young man as a neo nazi. Set during and in the decades following WWII, it’s a story of a young man of Icelandic and Norwegian descent growing up and coming to age admiring fascism more and more and then getting directly involved with it, setting up a local neo nazi party. The narrative comprises biographical sketches, epistolary entries of various correspondences and more until slowly the grand design of a person emerges. It’s a really ingenious approach to something that might have been easily done in a much cruder fashion with much broader brushstrokes. The author was inspired by a real life person and real life events in creating this book and thus brought to it all the complexity of real life and every effort to understand how a person like that might come to be. Is it a seemingly innocuous conglomeration of random occurrences, such as a quisling for an uncle or a neighbor’s language club or it is more than that? What does it take for someone to develop such a dangerous and horrible system of beliefs? What a resonant question to contemplate in this day and age of the ever increasing radical ideologies.
At any rate, from both psychological and pure readership perspective, this made for a fascinating read. All the more so because Iceland is a country just far enough off the sidelines to have been only distantly affected by WWII, comparable to the rest of Europe, but apparently it hasn’t emerged completely unscathed either, for an event of such grand evil it’s only fitting to ripple so far and so wide and so malevolently. So a historical perspective…also covered.
All in all, a great find and an excellent introduction to a new author for me. I’d certainly read more of his work, given a chance. Very good read indeed. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
January 28, 2022
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: There is so much that goes into making a person's life. So many moments of seeming ordinariness, so many times unremembered but never forgotten.
Author Sjón absolutely understands this, relies on it, makes me aware of how unaware I am in my life. Living it day-to-day it's unremarkable. After it's over, as it's ending...those are the times reflection becomes available to the average person. Author Sjón takes that truth and makes it the structure of the novel.
We're reading the life of Gunnar after it's over, after it's been picked apart and examined...this book reads like an evidence box would, pick up this letter, what did this key open...and that lets us contextualize the story as the tragedy it really is.
I was gobsmacked to learn this is a based-in-fact story, this was a real person, the ending is factual. How Gunnar came to hold beliefs so horrible to me was all in the oblique and the sidewise and the interstitial parts of the text. Lest that sound Arty and pretentious, I hasten to say that there is no better way I evoke an honest emotional response than this. Author Sjón trusts you to Get It. He allows you not to know.
I'll take that sense of being allowed to find the truth in the fiction over being spoonfed any day.
What I hope you'll enjoy, resonate with, in this read is that quality of discovering the meat of the life Gunnar led, and placing the pieces in order for yourself. While you're never left in doubt about your position in time, you're not going to get everything there is simply by that means.
I think it was a real, living person that I found in this novel. Would I have "liked" him? I don't think so. But I wouldn't have known him the way I do because Author Sjón showed him to me in this simple, elegant piece-by-piece fashion. I like novel-Gunnar a little bit. He was so very empty. He found something to fill what a human can't live without having full. AND it was something awful. Something vile, foul...but it filled the void.
I understand the souls whose quest to be Whole leads them in dark, ugly, despicable places that one fraction better.
Thank you, Author Sjón. I can get better at being a good version of me after this read.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: There is so much that goes into making a person's life. So many moments of seeming ordinariness, so many times unremembered but never forgotten.
Author Sjón absolutely understands this, relies on it, makes me aware of how unaware I am in my life. Living it day-to-day it's unremarkable. After it's over, as it's ending...those are the times reflection becomes available to the average person. Author Sjón takes that truth and makes it the structure of the novel.
We're reading the life of Gunnar after it's over, after it's been picked apart and examined...this book reads like an evidence box would, pick up this letter, what did this key open...and that lets us contextualize the story as the tragedy it really is.
I was gobsmacked to learn this is a based-in-fact story, this was a real person, the ending is factual. How Gunnar came to hold beliefs so horrible to me was all in the oblique and the sidewise and the interstitial parts of the text. Lest that sound Arty and pretentious, I hasten to say that there is no better way I evoke an honest emotional response than this. Author Sjón trusts you to Get It. He allows you not to know.
I'll take that sense of being allowed to find the truth in the fiction over being spoonfed any day.
What I hope you'll enjoy, resonate with, in this read is that quality of discovering the meat of the life Gunnar led, and placing the pieces in order for yourself. While you're never left in doubt about your position in time, you're not going to get everything there is simply by that means.
I think it was a real, living person that I found in this novel. Would I have "liked" him? I don't think so. But I wouldn't have known him the way I do because Author Sjón showed him to me in this simple, elegant piece-by-piece fashion. I like novel-Gunnar a little bit. He was so very empty. He found something to fill what a human can't live without having full. AND it was something awful. Something vile, foul...but it filled the void.
I understand the souls whose quest to be Whole leads them in dark, ugly, despicable places that one fraction better.
Thank you, Author Sjón. I can get better at being a good version of me after this read.
April 6, 2022
Eagerly read.
Gunnar of the flowery letters, the racist philosophy, the family, the ill-health. All packed in nicely in this novella where Sion's economy of words is a blessing.
Gunnar of the flowery letters, the racist philosophy, the family, the ill-health. All packed in nicely in this novella where Sion's economy of words is a blessing.
July 27, 2024
Päädyin sattumalta tapahtuneella vuoden vaihteen pohjoismaisella lukumatkalla Islantiin. Pohjoismainen kirjallisuus on paljon muutakin kuin dekkareita. Tosin Sjónin kirjastakin löytyy dekkarivivahde. Se alkaa kuolemasta, jonka kohde ja osittain myös tarina myöhemmin selviää.
Maissinkeltaiset hiukset, harmaat silmät kuuluvat nuorelle Gunnar Pålsson Kampenille. Hän on intohimoinen nationalisti eli uusnatsi. Hän on myös suloinen poika ja ihana sisarus vammaiselle veljelleen.
Tämä on kirja maailmansodan jälkeisestä nationalismista Islannissa. Sitä oli suvuissa. Se ei kadonnut toisen maailmansodan jälkeen, vaikka niin haluttiin uskoa.
Sjón on kiinnostava, omatyylinen ja taitava kirjailija. Sjón uskaltaa jättää lukijalle paljon tilaa ja kokeilla tekstilajeja. Hän kertoo säästellen ja jättää poikkeuksellisen paljon kertomatta. Sjón säästelee muutenkin sanojaan: lukemani kirjat ovat lähinnä pienoisromaaneja.
Sjónin minimalismin äärellä voisi ymmärrys kadota, mutta jotenkin taianomaisesti hän kertoo juuri ja juuri riittävästi.
Sjónin mestarillisesta kerronnasta tulee mieleen suuri suosikkini Olli Jalonen.
Maissinkeltaiset hiukset, harmaat silmät kuuluvat nuorelle Gunnar Pålsson Kampenille. Hän on intohimoinen nationalisti eli uusnatsi. Hän on myös suloinen poika ja ihana sisarus vammaiselle veljelleen.
Tämä on kirja maailmansodan jälkeisestä nationalismista Islannissa. Sitä oli suvuissa. Se ei kadonnut toisen maailmansodan jälkeen, vaikka niin haluttiin uskoa.
Sjón on kiinnostava, omatyylinen ja taitava kirjailija. Sjón uskaltaa jättää lukijalle paljon tilaa ja kokeilla tekstilajeja. Hän kertoo säästellen ja jättää poikkeuksellisen paljon kertomatta. Sjón säästelee muutenkin sanojaan: lukemani kirjat ovat lähinnä pienoisromaaneja.
Sjónin minimalismin äärellä voisi ymmärrys kadota, mutta jotenkin taianomaisesti hän kertoo juuri ja juuri riittävästi.
Sjónin mestarillisesta kerronnasta tulee mieleen suuri suosikkini Olli Jalonen.
September 12, 2024
Atât de subțire și, totuși, atât de lungă... Ideea ar fi putut fi rezumată în maximum trei fraze.
February 1, 2022
Icelandic writer, Sjón’s novels seem to be profound in their depth despite their brevity. Red Milk, the seventh novel translated to English, and the third of his books I have read is absolutely no exception. It’s an intriguing little book.. disturbing in its banality; sobering in its evolution.
Red Milk follows the short life of a character named Gunnar Kampen, a man who, for no obvious reason becomes enamoured with extreme right wing neo-nazism in post ww2 Iceland. It’s the ‘no obvious reason’ bit that it the most disturbing. As Sjón himself writes in an afterword, “with Red Milk, what I wouldn’t allow myself to do was employ pathos or myth....what I was looking for instead was what made my character normal to the point of banality”. Gunnar Kampen became what he became, following a trajectory that could perhaps just as easily have been nudged in a different direction at the beginning of his journey but for some reason developed a burning passion for a cause that was believed to be unjustly denied its transformative power.
I love the way Sjón has created a fictional character based on an understanding of an individual who really existed and has used events and people in the same way. Red Milk tells a story of an otherwise silent individual and reminds us of perhaps how close we all are to trajectories of darkness.
Red Milk follows the short life of a character named Gunnar Kampen, a man who, for no obvious reason becomes enamoured with extreme right wing neo-nazism in post ww2 Iceland. It’s the ‘no obvious reason’ bit that it the most disturbing. As Sjón himself writes in an afterword, “with Red Milk, what I wouldn’t allow myself to do was employ pathos or myth....what I was looking for instead was what made my character normal to the point of banality”. Gunnar Kampen became what he became, following a trajectory that could perhaps just as easily have been nudged in a different direction at the beginning of his journey but for some reason developed a burning passion for a cause that was believed to be unjustly denied its transformative power.
I love the way Sjón has created a fictional character based on an understanding of an individual who really existed and has used events and people in the same way. Red Milk tells a story of an otherwise silent individual and reminds us of perhaps how close we all are to trajectories of darkness.
December 29, 2019
Stórgóð og ljóslifandi bók, — hún er einskonar albúm samansett úr slæsum úr lífi íslensks nýnasista. Sjón er afar flinkur við þetta. Mikil nautn að lesa og hann málar afar sannfærandi mynd af nasíska persónuleikanum
September 24, 2025
Sjón m-a cucerit cu Vulpea albastră. Apoi am spus că o să-l citesc...iată că a venit și timpul lui. Clar cartea asta m-a convins cu titlul.
O carte scurtă, însă cu multe cărări, cu multe relatări, mai ales cu secrete descoperite dincolo de ceea ce scrie Sjón, căci omul ăsta are darul de a dezvălui mult mai mult printre rânduri, dincolo de ce scrie. Mie nu-mi place politica, asta nu înseamnă că nu o înțeleg, dincolo de bula pe care mi-am construit-o, însă mă sperie. Și cartea asta mi-a arătat ce ușor te duci acolo unde nu trebuie, ce ușor te cuceresc cei care știu să vorbească, mi-a arătat unde duce extremismul, nu că nu aș fi știut.
Mi-a plăcut, mergea pe alocuri dezvoltat mai mult, explicat mai mult...însă nu ar mai fi fost Sjón. 😊
O carte scurtă, însă cu multe cărări, cu multe relatări, mai ales cu secrete descoperite dincolo de ceea ce scrie Sjón, căci omul ăsta are darul de a dezvălui mult mai mult printre rânduri, dincolo de ce scrie. Mie nu-mi place politica, asta nu înseamnă că nu o înțeleg, dincolo de bula pe care mi-am construit-o, însă mă sperie. Și cartea asta mi-a arătat ce ușor te duci acolo unde nu trebuie, ce ușor te cuceresc cei care știu să vorbească, mi-a arătat unde duce extremismul, nu că nu aș fi știut.
Mi-a plăcut, mergea pe alocuri dezvoltat mai mult, explicat mai mult...însă nu ar mai fi fost Sjón. 😊
March 18, 2022
On a train stopped at Cheltenham Spa station in 1962, a young man is found dead in a railway carriage, wearing nothing but an overcoat and pyjamas from a London hospital. In his pocket is a wad of banknotes and a drawing of a swastika. He is 24 year old Gunnar Kampen from Iceland.
Its quite an opening to a tale told in reverse.
Anyone who has read Sjón before knows already there are two of his trademarks evident, the brevity of his work with so much crammed in, and his reference to Nazi resurgence in the 1950s and 60s. In this novel however, the latter becomes the subject of the piece, as he has discovered the perfect vehicle with which to do this, the young Icelander. This, he explains very well in his Afterword, which also clarifies where exactly he needed to embellish the otherwise true story.
Its a side of Iceland's dark past that we do not usually see, though with their blond Norse gods and epic folk tales it is easy to see the attraction to prospective Nazis. Indeed it was a meeting with the notorious American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell in Reykjavík that inflamed Gunnar's extremism.
Sjón's tale is a powerful one, and if the message is in anyway obscured, he summarises it in the Afterword..
Its quite an opening to a tale told in reverse.
Anyone who has read Sjón before knows already there are two of his trademarks evident, the brevity of his work with so much crammed in, and his reference to Nazi resurgence in the 1950s and 60s. In this novel however, the latter becomes the subject of the piece, as he has discovered the perfect vehicle with which to do this, the young Icelander. This, he explains very well in his Afterword, which also clarifies where exactly he needed to embellish the otherwise true story.
Its a side of Iceland's dark past that we do not usually see, though with their blond Norse gods and epic folk tales it is easy to see the attraction to prospective Nazis. Indeed it was a meeting with the notorious American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell in Reykjavík that inflamed Gunnar's extremism.
Sjón's tale is a powerful one, and if the message is in anyway obscured, he summarises it in the Afterword..
..we must start with what we have in common with these people … we can at least show them for what they are, that we know they come from childhoods fundamentally similar to our own, that they had been nudged in a different direction by individuals and events at the beginning of their journeys, that they could so easily have become something else – that a Neo-Nazi is no more special than that.
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June 3, 2021Red Milk is based on the life of one of the leaders of a small neo-Nazi group that was formed in Iceland in the 1950s. The book divides the main character’s life into three sections: Gunnar’s childhood, his young adulthood as he becomes enthralled with the tenets of Fascism and founds his own anti-Semitic political group in Reykjavik and the final section as Gunnar sets out on one last clandestine activity.
Gunnar grows up in an average middle-class family home surrounded by adults who have participated in and reacted to WWII and its aftermath in various ways. His relationships with his siblings are not out of the ordinary (and his relationship with his cognitively disabled brother is loving and supportive), nor is his schooling. As the author says in his afterword: “…in order to begin to understand what makes it possible for people to heed the call of Nazism in all its guises, old and new…….we must start with what we have in common with such people…..we can at least show them that we see them for what they are, that we know they come from childhoods fundamentally similar to our own…that they could have so easily have become something else.”
Naively I had hoped Sjon might have an answer, but I was left with the question I had before I read this novel: What is it about fascism that has made it so attractive to so many people for so many generations? Nevertheless I recommend this short, intense, well-written novel.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to review the ARC via Netgalley.
Gunnar grows up in an average middle-class family home surrounded by adults who have participated in and reacted to WWII and its aftermath in various ways. His relationships with his siblings are not out of the ordinary (and his relationship with his cognitively disabled brother is loving and supportive), nor is his schooling. As the author says in his afterword: “…in order to begin to understand what makes it possible for people to heed the call of Nazism in all its guises, old and new…….we must start with what we have in common with such people…..we can at least show them that we see them for what they are, that we know they come from childhoods fundamentally similar to our own…that they could have so easily have become something else.”
Naively I had hoped Sjon might have an answer, but I was left with the question I had before I read this novel: What is it about fascism that has made it so attractive to so many people for so many generations? Nevertheless I recommend this short, intense, well-written novel.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to review the ARC via Netgalley.
November 8, 2025
ég er smá óviss hvað mér finnst. ég túlka sem svo að sjón sé að benda á hve auðveldlega venjulegt fólk afvegaleiðist inn í myrka hugmyndafræði og það umræðuefni finnst mér mjög mikilvægt í dag. við erum öll að reyna að finna svörin og “við á móti hinum” hugsunarháttur er sjaldnast hjálplegur. hins vegar get ég ekki beint sagt að ég hafi skemmt mér stórkostlega við lesturinn. en það er annað mál.
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December 3, 2024Citesc Păr auriu ca porumbul, ochi cenușii de Sjón pe măsură ce trei partide de extremă dreapta sunt alese să intre în parlamentul României.
E un roman subțire, dar plini de liniști ingenioase. Păr auriu ca porumbul, ochi cenușii spune povestea lui Gunnar Kampen, un tânăr islandez care, crescând după cel de-al doilea război mondial, se apropie tot mai mult de ideologia neo-nazistă. Începând cu mici secvențe din copilăria sa, continuând cu scrisorile pe care le trimite altor fasciști și finalizând cu partidul pe care îl fondează (Mișcarea Puterea Suverană) urmând ca apoi să meargă la prima întâlnire internațională, cartea îl urmărește secvențial, marcând câteva momente-cheie ale devenirii sale. Gunnar, așa cum ne este prezentat, nu e un om deosebit în vreun fel, și nici nu pare să aibă, în viața personală, izbucniri violente. Totuși, ideile de supremație a rasei albe în jurul cărora crește (care-l survolează, să zicem, în fraze și întâmplări, încă de mic), se imprimă asupra sa, crescând incredibil cu timpul. Încă din primele pagini, ne este prezentată moartea sa timpurie din cauza bolii, artificiu despre care autorul (într-o postfață netradusă în versiunea română) spune că ne „ajută” să rămânem alături de un asemenea personaj, știind cum va sfârși.
E atât de straniu și de înfricoșător cât de tare se aseamănă discursul partidului fondat de personajul neonazist, Gunnar, cu retoricile pe care le auzim acum: despre invazia din „vest” cu ideile sale, despre naționalism și frica de a fi călcat în picioare ca țară, despre primejdia NATO și a bazelor americane (identificat ca motiv important de a crește mișcarea suverană), apărarea vechilor „eroi” fasciști și inclusiv alăturarea comunismului și a capitalismului ca două ideologii la fel de rele. Cumva, discursurile astea continuă să capete putere, în tot mai multe părți ale lumii.
E un roman subțire, dar plini de liniști ingenioase. Păr auriu ca porumbul, ochi cenușii spune povestea lui Gunnar Kampen, un tânăr islandez care, crescând după cel de-al doilea război mondial, se apropie tot mai mult de ideologia neo-nazistă. Începând cu mici secvențe din copilăria sa, continuând cu scrisorile pe care le trimite altor fasciști și finalizând cu partidul pe care îl fondează (Mișcarea Puterea Suverană) urmând ca apoi să meargă la prima întâlnire internațională, cartea îl urmărește secvențial, marcând câteva momente-cheie ale devenirii sale. Gunnar, așa cum ne este prezentat, nu e un om deosebit în vreun fel, și nici nu pare să aibă, în viața personală, izbucniri violente. Totuși, ideile de supremație a rasei albe în jurul cărora crește (care-l survolează, să zicem, în fraze și întâmplări, încă de mic), se imprimă asupra sa, crescând incredibil cu timpul. Încă din primele pagini, ne este prezentată moartea sa timpurie din cauza bolii, artificiu despre care autorul (într-o postfață netradusă în versiunea română) spune că ne „ajută” să rămânem alături de un asemenea personaj, știind cum va sfârși.
E atât de straniu și de înfricoșător cât de tare se aseamănă discursul partidului fondat de personajul neonazist, Gunnar, cu retoricile pe care le auzim acum: despre invazia din „vest” cu ideile sale, despre naționalism și frica de a fi călcat în picioare ca țară, despre primejdia NATO și a bazelor americane (identificat ca motiv important de a crește mișcarea suverană), apărarea vechilor „eroi” fasciști și inclusiv alăturarea comunismului și a capitalismului ca două ideologii la fel de rele. Cumva, discursurile astea continuă să capete putere, în tot mai multe părți ale lumii.
March 11, 2020
Vet inte riktigt om jag förstår poängen. Syftet, meningen. Gick inte in i djupet på personen, för att ge ett vidare perspektiv och förståelse för hans nazism, sa inte heller något om eller emot nazismen. Eller har jag missat något? Tyckte nog mest den var lite tråkig, hackig och för kort, uppenbarligen, eftersom det blev för lite berättat, såsom jag kände det. Säg gärna emot mig, så kanske min läsning kan vidgas! Hade hoppats få lite svar på Littfest, men fick just reda på att den ställs in. 😭
March 30, 2021
Sjón made a study of a Nazi leader after WWII was done 10 years after the War. He takes his own people, who were Nazi's and immigrated to Iceland after serving prison sentences. His Main character is Gunnar Kampen, who is a relatively a normal person except he dies at a young age on a train going to a meeting. He is a Nazi because he is a hater of blacks and Jews and he writes to people who believe in the same things. It is a short narrative of this person Gunnar.
November 20, 2021
Svag 3:a. Författaren har en förmåga att säga väldigt mycket på få sidor och det blir en väldigt omfattande berättelse.
Också kul att för min del för första gången läsa något isländskt.
Men trots detta var boken inte riktigt min tekopp.
Också kul att för min del för första gången läsa något isländskt.
Men trots detta var boken inte riktigt min tekopp.
August 24, 2022
It’s not hard to imagine life as a train ride: you’re making your way along pre-set rails, which often have double slips allowing you to move to another track and pick another direction at will. Every once in a while you’d stop - to let someone in or out, to repair something, or because you’re just temporarily out of whatever fuel it is you’re running on. But it’s the part of people getting on and off that I’m interested in. They always seem to leave and forget something behind and so you go on your way with the traces of different people in you, their “lost and found”.
Sjón’s Red Milk is a novel of snippets that cover the short life of Icelandic Neo-Nazi Gunnar Kampen. Opening with him lying dead in a train in the UK, in just 132 pages it covers his short journey through life from his childhood to his final day aboard said train. And while at first I found the structure a little bit lacking, a little bit incomplete, it started making sense once I finished the novel: the various chapters seemed more like stations in Kampen’s life. The many stations where others got on or off, where he switched tracks and shifted his journey towards a darker and crueller destination. How Savitri Devi Mukherji planted the seed of Neo-Nazism in him and how it found a warm place to grow in Gunnar in the middle of Iceland’s landscape.
People often blame parents for their children’s mistakes or the way they turn out as grownups, which is something I never understood because it takes the weight of responsibility off the shoulders of the perpetrator. Or how people would often say “they were such a polite person, they always said hello”, as if manners are a guarantee for goodness or kindness. And I love that this short little book touches on this too: that monsters are often raised in loving families.
Though I didn’t love Red Milk as much as Sjón’s other works, I’m very glad to have read it. It gives a very interesting perspective to a dark period of history that never really ended. It’s just changed its nature and name and still lurks around stations in our lives and people who enter and leave them, dragging their muddy shoes through our carriages.
Sjón’s Red Milk is a novel of snippets that cover the short life of Icelandic Neo-Nazi Gunnar Kampen. Opening with him lying dead in a train in the UK, in just 132 pages it covers his short journey through life from his childhood to his final day aboard said train. And while at first I found the structure a little bit lacking, a little bit incomplete, it started making sense once I finished the novel: the various chapters seemed more like stations in Kampen’s life. The many stations where others got on or off, where he switched tracks and shifted his journey towards a darker and crueller destination. How Savitri Devi Mukherji planted the seed of Neo-Nazism in him and how it found a warm place to grow in Gunnar in the middle of Iceland’s landscape.
People often blame parents for their children’s mistakes or the way they turn out as grownups, which is something I never understood because it takes the weight of responsibility off the shoulders of the perpetrator. Or how people would often say “they were such a polite person, they always said hello”, as if manners are a guarantee for goodness or kindness. And I love that this short little book touches on this too: that monsters are often raised in loving families.
Though I didn’t love Red Milk as much as Sjón’s other works, I’m very glad to have read it. It gives a very interesting perspective to a dark period of history that never really ended. It’s just changed its nature and name and still lurks around stations in our lives and people who enter and leave them, dragging their muddy shoes through our carriages.
June 20, 2021
This short but compelling novel opens with a dead man being discovered on a train at Cheltenham Spa station in 1962. (The fact that it’s at Cheltenham isn’t particularly relevant but it’s where I live and I couldn’t help wanting to mention it!) He has an Icelandic passport with a small scrap of paper with a swastika on it. So we know right from the start how it’s going to end, but how we get there is told from a variety of different perspectives. The story is based on the life of one of the leaders of a small neo-Nazi group in Iceland in the 1950s. Not much is known about this group but they had links with other far-right movements in Europe and the US. Gunnar Kampen, the ill-fated protagonist of this story, is an ordinary man, who grew up in an anti-fascist household but finds himself drawn to Fascism and far-right ideas. What shapes such a man is explored throughout the novel but no conclusions are drawn and the reader is left to form their own about how this happens. The writing is measured and unemotional and as a result quite chilling. It’s not an attempt to understand Gunnar Kampen but to examine the sociological forces that acted upon him. An intriguing and original read, which I very much enjoyed.
February 2, 2022
oddly non engaging
The author himself said he had purposely made the protagonist as dull as possible. He succeeded remarkably.
Interesting as a view into the soul and Iceland.
The author himself said he had purposely made the protagonist as dull as possible. He succeeded remarkably.
Interesting as a view into the soul and Iceland.
March 5, 2025
An unusual read, although it was informative and the structure was diverse I’m unsure about how we are supposed to reflect on this story or what feelings we should have towards the protagonist. For me it was only dislike. I wouldn’t recommend this to others.
May 1, 2025
Maybe I’m too dumb but I just didn’t really get it?
January 20, 2022
Excellent exploration of the life and social/societal gestation of a Nazi sympathizer. The Afterword is definitely a must-read, as well.
October 15, 2024
I read this book years ago, possibly when it first came out, but long before I was writing reviews on GR and loved it. So that I could write a review now I reread the novel and I loved it just as much but maybe for different reasons then I did the first time round. I think it is a very subtle and deeply thought provoking novel but I can't help seeing it within the context of another novel by Sjon, 'Moonstone: the Boy Who Never was', and that disapearance is as much at the root of 'Red Milk' as
neo-nazism. Gunnar Kampen disappears into death at the beginning of 'Red Moon' like Peter Carlson disappears into myth? the future? eternity? (I honestly don't know) at the end of 'Moonstone'. But while Peter Carlson disappears after finding himself Gunnar Kampen dies/disappears after having lost himself long before when he passed over from being the child and boy we see and like into a aderhent of fanaticism that we loath, but more importantly everyone around him loathes
Why Gunnar Kampen disappears into Neo-Nazisms is no more explained or explicable than Peter Carlson once he returns home. There is an awful lot in Sjon's brief novels and I don't claim to be right or to understand a fraction of its metaphors, references and depths. His novels may be brief but they are deep and rich.
I can't help feeling that Gunnar Kampen is one of the best portraits of an extremist/obsessive that I have ever read. Perhaps my age influences me but over the last fifty years I have listened to many, usually young men, explaining the truth of their political, philosophical and religious ideologies and they are always systems which explain everything and are beyond disproof. From the believers in the Marxist dialectic of youth through the believers in the Illuminati of today they are the same. Gunnar Kampen could be a portrait of any of them, but equally I can't help feeloing that those who concentrate on the Neo-Nazi theme are allowing themselves to become lost the particular. I believe it is the getting lost that matters, not the ideology.
(Can I make explicit that I am in no way trying to avoid or downplay the loathsomeness of Ne-Nazism or the racism underlying it and all similar groups. I just think to imagine that all this has to say is that Nazi racist ideology is bad and Gunnar Kampen is a bad person because he believes is so slight a basis for a novel that even 130 pages the book would be to long. I don't think that is what Sjon is trying to say and, as he doesn't attempt to show why Gunnar Kampen becomes a believer there must be something more here. My proposed connection between the lost/disappeared boy of 'Moonstone' and Gunnar Kampen's loss/disappearance in 'Red Milk' may be rubbish but this novel is more then a denunciation of despised fringe political theory).
neo-nazism. Gunnar Kampen disappears into death at the beginning of 'Red Moon' like Peter Carlson disappears into myth? the future? eternity? (I honestly don't know) at the end of 'Moonstone'. But while Peter Carlson disappears after finding himself Gunnar Kampen dies/disappears after having lost himself long before when he passed over from being the child and boy we see and like into a aderhent of fanaticism that we loath, but more importantly everyone around him loathes
Why Gunnar Kampen disappears into Neo-Nazisms is no more explained or explicable than Peter Carlson once he returns home. There is an awful lot in Sjon's brief novels and I don't claim to be right or to understand a fraction of its metaphors, references and depths. His novels may be brief but they are deep and rich.
I can't help feeling that Gunnar Kampen is one of the best portraits of an extremist/obsessive that I have ever read. Perhaps my age influences me but over the last fifty years I have listened to many, usually young men, explaining the truth of their political, philosophical and religious ideologies and they are always systems which explain everything and are beyond disproof. From the believers in the Marxist dialectic of youth through the believers in the Illuminati of today they are the same. Gunnar Kampen could be a portrait of any of them, but equally I can't help feeloing that those who concentrate on the Neo-Nazi theme are allowing themselves to become lost the particular. I believe it is the getting lost that matters, not the ideology.
(Can I make explicit that I am in no way trying to avoid or downplay the loathsomeness of Ne-Nazism or the racism underlying it and all similar groups. I just think to imagine that all this has to say is that Nazi racist ideology is bad and Gunnar Kampen is a bad person because he believes is so slight a basis for a novel that even 130 pages the book would be to long. I don't think that is what Sjon is trying to say and, as he doesn't attempt to show why Gunnar Kampen becomes a believer there must be something more here. My proposed connection between the lost/disappeared boy of 'Moonstone' and Gunnar Kampen's loss/disappearance in 'Red Milk' may be rubbish but this novel is more then a denunciation of despised fringe political theory).
March 15, 2022
Veeery quick read - feels kind of like a Wikipedia biography. It’s about an Icelandic neo-nazi . Def was a little weirded out by the afterword
Learned about: Iceland, neo-nazis
Learned about: Iceland, neo-nazis
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