Hamingjan Hjalpi Mer I Og II

by Kristín Ómarsdóttir

An Icelandic author who has yet to be translated into English. The book is about two families and, according to the back cover, promises that this cynical, absurd and funny book shows that "the family" is dead.

Ni som trodde att alla tabun var brutna! Brutalt, överraskande och humoristiskt berättar prisbelönta K Ó två familjehistorier ni aldrig kommer att glömma.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Kristín grew up in Hafnarfjörður. She studied Literature and Spanish at the University of Iceland, then pursued Spanish at the Universities of Barcelona and Copenhagen. She has published poetry, novels, short stories and plays.
Her first publication was the poetry book Í húsinu okkar er þoka (There is Fog in Our House) in 1987, and her first novel, Svartir brúðarkjólar (Black Wedding Dresses) came out in 1992.
Kristín has won many awards for her work, including the DV Cultural Prize for Literature for her 1998 novel Elskan mín ég dey (I Will Die, my Love).
Kristín has worked with other artists, such as the photographer Nanna Bisp Büchert, with whom she produced the book Sérstakur dagur (Special Day), in which poetry and photographs work together. She has also collaborated with Haraldur Jónsson on the film The Secret Lives of Icelanders.

Reviews

[Sölvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skemmtileg bók en líka leiðinleg, fyndin en líka ógeðsleg, kannski mín uppáhaldsbók, hugsa ég meðan ég fletti í gegnum hana að lestri loknum

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oy...where to start?
It was a little...a lot, actually, like the first ever alternative dance performance that I attended. I was 8 or so and had been doing ballet (more like - "ballet") for a couple of years. My aesthetic requirements for dance had until then included tutus, pink and music with a discernible rythm.

I was not prepared for the harshly painted faces, the dancers wrapped in foil and the cacaphonic music. I could not see the beauty or even the point with that performance. On the positive side, I have never forgotten it (And have snice been to some amazing modern dance performances, all without foil.)

Icelandic literature is fairly unknown, even here in Sweden, so I was anxious to give this book a try. There were so many things that I did not enjoy about this book that I amn not even going to try to review it. However, like cacaphonic foil-wrapped performances, I am (almost) sure that someone else might disagree with my review.