Indjáninn

Jón Gnarr #1

by Jón Gnarr

„Fæðing mín er annað reiðarslag fyrir fjölskylduna. Að vísu er ég ekki þroskaheftur. Það er léttir. En eftir fæðinguna blasir önnur hryllileg staðreynd við: Ég er rauðhærður. Það hefði ekki getað verið meira áfall þótt ég hefði verið svartur.“

Indjáninn er saga um fjörmikinn strák, örverpi aldraðra foreldra. Drengurinn á við ýmis vandamál að stríða sem valda honum erfiðleikum í uppvextinum, svo sem ofvirkni, athyglisbrest, rautt hár og nærsýni. Hann er hugmyndaríkur og margvísleg uppátæki hans, sum stórhættuleg, vekja litla lukku hjá hinum fullorðnu.

Þetta er áhrifamikil uppvaxtarsaga sem sveiflast á milli strákslegrar gleði og nístandi einmanaleika þess sem ekki er alltaf í takt við umhverfið, en jafnframt er hér brugðið upp ljóslifandi mynd af samfélagi áttunda áratugarins frá sjónarhorni barnsins.

Höfundurinn, Jón Gnarr borgarstjóri, kallar Indjánann skáldaða ævisögu og segir í eftirmála sínum: „Margir spyrja sig eflaust hvort þesssi bók sé ævisaga eða skáldsaga. Hún er bæði. Hún er ekki alveg sönn. Það er þó engin bein lygi í henni.“

Genres: Memoir, Autobiography, Nonfiction, Ebooks, Read For School

221 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Jón Gnarr Kristinsson is an Icelandic actor, comedian, and politician who became the Mayor of Iceland's capital city Reykjavík on 15 June 2010, and stepped down on 16 June 2014. Born Jón Gunnar Kristinsson, Jón legally changed his middle name in 2005 to the way his mother pronounced it when he was a boy. He is married to Jóhanna Jóhannsdóttir with whom he has five children. His daughter, Margret, is a fitness model and IFBB competitor.

Jón Gnarr suffered from dyslexia and had learning difficulties as a child. Jón Gnarr recounts these experiences in his book The Indian, an autobiographical account of his childhood. Jón Gnarr has been diagnosed with ADHD and has actively discussed his life with ADHD publicly.

Jón was known as Jónsi Punk as a teenager and played bass in a punk band called Nefrennsli ("Runny Nose"). He attended a number of high schools,but didn't complete the university entrance exam. During the 1980s Jón and his future wife, Jóhanna Jóhannsdóttir, became acquainted with the members of the band the Sugarcubes, including Björk and Einar Örn Benediktsson. Björk remained a close friend to Jóhanna, while Einar would become an important political ally to Jón.

In 1994, Jón teamed up with Sigurjón Kjartansson to form the radio duo Tvíhöfði. In 1997, he joined TV station Stöð 2 where he wrote and starred in several seasons of the Icelandic comedy show Fóstbræður. His best known movies are The Icelandic Dream and A Man like Me. His stand-up comedy show Ég var einu sinni nörd (I Used To Be a Nerd) is autobiographical.

In late 2009 Jón formed the Best Party with a number of others with no background in politics, including Einar. The Best Party, a satirical political party that parodies Icelandic politics and aims to make the life of the citizens more fun, managed a plurality in the 2010 municipal elections in Reykjavík, with the party gaining six out of 15 seats on the City Council. Einar, second on the party's list behind Jón, won a seat on the council.

Jón ended up defeating the Independence Party-led municipal government of Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir. His victory is widely seen as a backlash against establishment politicians in the wake of Iceland's 2008-2011 financial crisis.

Jón's political platform included promises of "free towels in all swimming pools, a polar bear for the Reykjavík zoo, all kinds of things for weaklings, Disneyland in the Vatnsmýri area," etc.

Upon being elected, Jón announced that he would not enter a coalition government with anyone that had not watched "The Wire", eventually entering a coalition with the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) as its junior partner to govern Reykjavík.

As mayor, Jón has been a source of amusement and shock. He also protested the Chinese government's treatment of human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. He has stated that the importance of the EU is highly over-rated. On October 30, 2013, Jón Gnarr announced that he would not seek a second term in office when his first term expired in June 2014.

Since leaving office, Gnarr has campaigned for Iceland to abandon its laws requiring citizens to have traditional Icelandic names. Gnarr also authored a book entitled Gnarr!: How I Became the Mayor of a Large City in Iceland and Changed the World.

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

If any skeptics require further evidence of the elasticity of time, please give The Indian by Jón Gnarr a try. It's a mere two hundred eighteen pages—many of which are (mercifully) filled with white space—and yet somehow this plainspoken childhood memoir made time feel as if it were being worked over by a taffy pull.

There is a point in the The Wild World of Batwoman episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 at which Tom Servo has become so worn down the interminable badness of the film that he simply yells at it, 'End!!' That's a nice paraphrase of how I felt about this book, which drones on and on, compiling episodes from the narrative's childhood that illustrate his 'dysfunction' (for a lack of a more precise word). This little brat sets fires, jumps off buildings, beats farm animals, and generally makes a sociopathic nuisance of himself wherever he goes. Neither his parents nor the psychiatric profession seems to know what to do with him... and for than matter, neither does the reader. What exactly are we supposed to glean from all these flatly-recounted incidents of the narrator's bad behavior?

In fairness, I should point out that The Indian is the first in a trilogy of autobiographical books by Gnarr, who is not only a comedian but also the former mayor of Reykjavík. Maybe in conjunction with the other two installments, The Indian serves some purpose, but stranded on its own, it definitely feels monotonous and utterly pointless.

I mean... So what? You were a problem child who was misdiagnosed by the psychological establishment and misinterpreted by your peers and parents. (Welcome to the club.) This factoid in and of itself doesn't make for a compelling novel; it's more like a PSA. We need some glimmers of introspection to get anything out of this catalog of adolescent acting-out. Since the novel's events are reported flatly and simplistically, from the perspective of a child who has little understanding of why his behavior is aberrant, there's not much here but a grocery list of dysfunction.

I don't really know anything about Gnarr as a politician or a comedian, but he apparently has his fans. Inside the cover, there's complimentary blurbage from the likes of Lady Gaga (who embarrassingly refers to him as 'the mayor of Iceland') and Noam Chomsky—but if you pick up this book and look it over, pay attention. These are blurbs for Gnarr the PERSON, not his book The Indian, which I doubt either Gaga or Chomsky read.

I'm also not sure of where the original publication of The Indian figures on a timeline in relationship to Karl Ove Knausgård's six-part semi-autobiographical work My Struggle, but I'd be lying if I said this didn't seem like a shallow knockoff of Knausgård's opus. All of the mundane detail that Knausgård shared with (or inflicted upon) the reader generally had some (emotional, psychological) point to it further down the road. The Indian, however, ends as listlessly as it begins and arrives nowhere in particular.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I'd seen a few episodes of Jón Gnarr's comedy series Night Shift / Naeturvaktin, it seemed at first that this wouldn't be enough to maintain my interest in this simply-written autobiography (part 1 of a trilogy). I'd picked up what felt like a celebrity memoir - with a plain style and short chapters to appeal to a wide audience, written as a child- narrator; perhaps also structured this way because of the author's ADHD and his openness about it. Other reviews indicate that the sort of details of childhood related here in unadorned fashion, to the readers who pick up a Deep Vellum book expecting the experimental, might only be interesting when you're a fan or friend of the person doing the telling. This is how I felt for the first 20% or so.

I nevertheless admired his courage in placing excerpts from two sets of casenotes (dated 1972 and 1977, from services that he was sent to as a kid due to troublesome behaviour) alongside his own account of his childhood. (Brave also, to have remained in a small community like Iceland and overcome the labels and the reputation in such a big way.) If you've worked in a helping profession, the moments of contrast and similarity between the person and the papers will already be a familiar phenomenon, one which I thought couldn't come alive in the same way without direct contact. But as his descriptions grew more intense, and as more started happening, it nonetheless did. Although what was more interesting and enlightening was the comparison of young Jón's view of his parents and those of the professionals, in particular their mention of his mother's communication difficulties, which made an awful lot fall into place in the main story re. what he would and would not have had the opportunity to learn at home. The most specialised material I'm familiar with in psychology relates to attachment and trauma, and I often gravitate towards literature where these themes loom large: it was really interesting to look at a fairly different set of problems for a change, and also to read a memoir by someone who'd never considered themselves intellectual.

This could also make a great pre-teen / YA book, especially for discussion. Didactically, there's tons of material here comparing how you might feel and think when you're being a bit mischievous and having fun, versus the gravity of trouble your actions might cause for you and for others. He does the kind of stuff that naughty kids in books do (Just William kind of stuff, and some worse) but not being in a fictional world, and living decades later, has a lot of ongoing consequences to deal with, and it's not presented in a fun way. For those kids and teenagers who (as I took a very long time to realise myself) haven't figured that copying fucked-up fictional characters or celebrities won't get you on the right side of anyone, it might even be a wake-up call. Gnarr also relates brilliantly the sense of being a bad kid, of feeling like people think you're inherently rotten, and that therefore you probably are, and how it keeps coming back because "you can't do anything right"; I'd three-quarters forgotten it until I read this, and I think this could cross the divide with many kids who feel that way, even whilst this boy is different from them because they're brighter or look less dorky or something. At one point Jón himself asks the big questions outright: How are you meant to behave? What are these invisible rules that I don't know? What is 'normal'? I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't know. I don't know how to evaluate things.

The book isn't overburdened with cultural material, which makes it approachable, but there's still some interesting stuff here. For instance, Gnarr's dad's Communist politics. In 1960s-70s Iceland, he seems to have been able to pursue this without much fear; it was almost just an eccentric hobby, albeit one that meant he wasn't promoted at work. (Gnarr senior was a fairly eccentric chap himself, but unlike his young son, also had a handy knack for conforming that made sure he faced less abrasion in life, working diligently as a police constable for decades.)
Young Jón is sent to work on farms during summer holidays to try and teach him self-discipline: here he encounters some punitive, and a few kind, characters - reminiscent of evacuee placements in British kids' fiction - and also traditional foods, some revolting. Whilst I don't like excess gore, it's usually the case that if I can bear to hear about something in the first place, I can also eat at the same time. However, here I read about boiled cow's udder at the exact same time I was drinking a glass of milk. It was at least six hours before I could pick up the milk again and finish it.
There is, as you might expect, quite a bit of imported US pop culture (which Jón can access because he reads Danish, the old colonisers' language, as well as Icelandic). The afterword relates some fascinating info that's hidden in translation: e.g. that Gnarr did not read Donald Duck, but Andrés Önd (the name changed to preserve alliteration), and Scrooge McDuck was Onkel Joachim. Near the end of the book Grease is a big hit with the local preteens, Jón tagging along with the craze. And he actually does a thing, the idea of which had always made me be glad to be the age I was, and not old enough to have been a teenager in the punk era - although friends reassured me that actually most people didn't do this: he pierces his ears with sewing needles stolen from home.

The title, The Indian, reflects how Jón enjoyed playing at Indians rather than Cowboys and identified with their outsider status. This echoed an interview I read not long ago with Mads Mikkelsen (a Dane only a couple of years older than Gnarr) in which he said, talking about starring in a Western, that when he was a kid he and his friends all wanted to be the Indians and it was the thing politically then). The translator's afterword sensitively points out that the adult Gnarr is aware of this as an old-fashioned Hollywood concept of 'Indian' which isn't really acceptable now, especially in the US, but the very unacceptability of forefronting the word in the title echoes the behaviour of the antisocial little boy he was.

The translated literary fiction shelves may not be the most natural home for this simply-written book, but it could be of interest to people with a background in psychology, and those who knew for themselves that feeling of being a 'bad kid', as well as school librarians, teachers and others working with children and teenagers.

[Crekerdres · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Psychiatrist I found this book to be amazing. I loved the juxtaposition between his experience and the excerpts before each chapter from various Psychiatrists. This is the best first-person account of the real neuro-biological differences that children with serious learning differences have. This is a bittersweet story but Gnarr's genius is in how he keeps the tone victorious. I loved this book.

[Kári Kárason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mjög skemmtileg, fyndinn, en líka sorgleg.
Ungur Gnarr í mikilli ringulreið, einmannaleika og óvissu um sjálfan sig og heiminn.
Stundum pirrandi óvissan með hvað er satt og hvað ekki, en það skiptir samt ekki öllu kannski, þetta er allt samt sem áður lýsandi fyrir höfund.
Ekki eins skemmtilegt tímabil og í Útlaganum, en samt sem áður margt mjög gott hérna. Sérstaklega ef maður er aðdándi Jóns.

[Книжни Криле · Rating 4 out of 5]

Чели ли сте книги за уж умствено изостанали индианци-кметове от Рейкявик? Не, не сте. И аз до скоро не бях. А чели ли сте книги, написани от деца с проблемно развитие? Дори и да сте, едва ли ви се случва често. Дислекцията, дефицита на внимание и хиперактивността обикновено са сериозна пречка по писателската пътека. А ако с възрастта пък вземеш, че успееш да се пребориш с всичко това, то далеч по-лесно е да оставиш болезненото детство зад гърба си, от колкото да се ровиш из мрачните спомени и да ги изливаш на белия лист. Именно това обаче е направил исландецът Йон Гнар в своя изпълнен с леко нагарчащ хумор мемоар „Индианецът” (ик. „Калиграф”)! Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле":

https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/201...

[إيمان الشريف]

مقالي عن الكتاب في موقع إضاءات
https://www.ida2at.com/john-janar-fro...

[Hertha Kristín · Rating 5 out of 5]

mjög fyndin en samt vond í hjartað líka 💔

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second read of my four-book Deep Vellum haul from AWP and my first ever read from Gnarr (or any Icelander, for that matter). I was really entertained by this one. It's a really engaging, dynamic, vaguely Faulkner-esque narrative (in the vein of The Sound an the Fury, kinda-sorta a little bit). Gnarr blends humor with youthful tragedy beautifully in this piece and the juxtaposition of depth and simplicity in the narration will surprise you. It's an excellently written piece that I highly recommend.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes. Jón Gnarr is widely appreciated in Iceland and is apparently a warm, entertaining character, but I found his memoir too dull to finish. The Indian seems to be his answer to Knausgaard (it's the first of a trilogy), detailing his troubled childhood as a boy with ADHD and other learning impediments. His short chapters are interspersed with notes and dim diagnoses from various psychiatric institutions, but even this narrative novelty doesn't dispel the tedium.

[Árdís Björk Jónsdóttir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hló upphátt og fann til með skömminni litlu og stundum foreldrunum. Það er eh svo fallegt að viðurkenna tilfinningar sem eru ekki samkvæmt reglunum en svo sannar og allir kannast við. Fæstir vilja bara viðurkenna þær ❤️

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Lytton Smith's first draft of the translation to this on the flight back from Europe yesterday, and I cannot wait to publish it in Spring 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sherif Ismail · Rating 1 out of 5]

بصراحه كل تجاربي مع الادب الايسلندي كانت جميله جدا.... الا دي

[Dilyana Deneva · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Индианецът“ искаше само да бъде обичан: http://azcheta.com/indianetsat-ion-gnar/

Кой твърди, че само художествените сюжети са способни да вдъхновяват? Какво да кажем тогава за необикновените човешки истории, които понякога надхвърлят и най-смелото въображение? Когато посегнете към „Индианецът“ (изд. „Калиграф“) от Йон Гнар, се пригответе именно за такава приумица на съдбата – дете, израснало под стигмата на умствената изостаналост, минало през отхвърляне и неразбиране, стигнало до успешна кариера на комик и политик и създало семейство с пет деца!

Спокойно, това не е разказ за чудодейно изцеление. Не понасям напудрени развръзки, които издигат в култ стремежа към „нормалност“, а на финала всичко се подрежда както трябва да бъде. На какво ни учат подобни „приказки“? Че различното е страшно. А поуката, която би предизвикала удовлетворение в мен, е приемането и социалното включване в обществото като възможен сценарий.

„Индианецът“ е първа част от автобиографичната трилогия на исландеца Йон Гнар. Книгата проследява първите му години, като започва с появата му на бял свят. Той е непланирано дете, появило се в семейство на възрастни родители, и най-страшното от всички – бебето е рижаво. Още в първите страници Гнар показва завидно чувство за хумор и описва „рижавата несполука“ като знакова за отхвърлянето му. Скоро обаче към този грях (за който едната му баба така и не му прощава) се добавят и други, по-трудни за преглъщане. Йон е палав, учи трудно, не се разбира особено с връстниците си, непохватен е, понякога агресивен. Обича словесните каламбури и в тях вижда ред и логика. Другите обаче ги възприемат като ексцентричност и странят от него. Ето един пример:

"Баба е стара. Над деветдесетгодишна е. Родена е през хиляда седемстотин и кисело зеле."

Днес състоянието на малкия Йон би било обяснено с термини като хиперактивност, дислексия, разстройство с дефицит на внимание. Сами по себе си те не правят сблъсъка с проявленията на тези състояния по-лесен, но в съвремието информацията за тях е значително по-изчерпателна. Изобилстват различни начини за подкрепа на такива деца и те вече не са третирани като по-неспособни. Поне в развитите общества ситуацията е такава… Но Йон е роден през 1967 г. и тогава на него се е гледало като на умствено изостанал. Между петата и седмата си година той е лекуван от психиатър и в книгата са включени цитати от медицинските експертизи. Не става ясно дали това е реална документация, но при всички положения дава представа за нагласата на „специалистите“ към състоянието на Йон.

"Държи се доста дистанцирано; склонността към социален контакт е силно ограничена за възрастта му […] Ако причината за това не е в средата, в която расте, тогава силно подозирам, че мозъкът му е увреден."

Вероятно не са много родителите, които биха пренебрегнали тежката дума на специалиста. Порядките на обществото ни предполагат да не разбираме от всичко и да се доверяваме на по-компетентните от нас в дадена област. В този ред на мисли, не бива да съдим родители, които са приемали звучащите страшно диагнози и радикалното им лечение. Неразбираемо ми беше обаче отношението на майката и бащата на Йон. Трудно мога да нарека средата, в която той израства, изпълнена с обич. Майка му е много консервативна и студена към сина си, ласките и прегръдките не са й привични, нито разговорите с детето й. Бащата на Йон никога не намира време за него, показва явно разочарованието си от факта, че синът му е различен, и често му се подиграва. Болезнено беше за мен да прочета следния коментар от името на едно дете:

"Искам да съм като него, когато порасна. Има куп неща, които бих искал да правим заедно. Жалко, че не иска да прекарва време с мен, защото все му досаждам. Ще ми се да беше другояче."

Като всяко човешко същество, Йон копнее да бъде обичан, но внимание и разбиране получава единствено от баба си (не тази, която му е сърдита, задето е рижав). Родителите му дори ходят на почивка без него…

В такава среда и с нуждата от по-специфична подкрепа е трудно да си представим едно дете да премине безметежно през първите си години. Според мен е необходима изключителна устойчивост и вродена интелигентност, за да оцелееш и да останеш резистентен на несгодите, пред които животът постоянно те поставя. Според мен книгата е ценна, защото може да послужи за пример на хора с подобни трудности, както и на близките им. Стилът е изчистен и дълбоко въздействащ с кратките си изречения, пропити с горчив хумор. Може би есенцията на историята се усеща от следния цитат към края на книгата:

"„Нормалното“ за тях беше мистерия за мен. Трябваше някой да ми покаже, за да разбера."

Очаквам с нетърпение следващите части на трилогията да осветят пътя, по който едно отхвърлено от близките си и обществото дете преминава, за да спечели обичта на хората в ролята си на актьор, а след това и на кмет на Рейкявик по време на най-тежката икономическа криза в страната. Поздравления за избора на издателите да поднесат на българския читател тази ценна история. Дано се поучим от нея.

[Katrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много приятна книга.
Нямам търпение да излязат на български
и другите от трилогията!

[Ingvar Bjarnason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bæði hló og táraðist við lesturinn. Bernskuminningar ungs drengs sem glímir við ýmsar áskoranir bæði andlega og líkamlega. Speglaði margt úr eigin æsku og þó bókin sé skrifuð frá sjónarhóli barnsins og bjóði sem slík ekki upp á neinar lærðar útskýringar, lærdóm eða lausnir þá er það öllum hollt, bæði kennurum, foreldrum og fullorðnum almennt að fá innsýn í hugarheim barns sem upplifir sig utanveltu og á erfitt með að falla í hópinn. Mæli með lestri.

[Lucie Meisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doslova som zhltla úprimný a veľmi otvorený príbeh môjho obľúbeného Islanďana. Niekedy sa mi zdalo, že čo je veľa, to je príliš, ale koniec dobrý, všetko dobré. Bavila som sa na indiánskych historkách aj chlapčenských bitkách. Najlepší je príbeh s požiarom. Budem si asi musieť zohnať aj pokračovanie.

[Inga Hrund Gunnarsdóttir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for all teachers!

Mér finnst þetta vera skyldulesning fyrir alla kennara og kennaranema. Ég er mjög forvitin að vita hvað varð um Gúmmítarsan og aðra skólafélaga Jóns. Ég hló nokkrum sinnum en oft varð ég mjög sorgmædd og vorkenndi þessum dreng sem leið svo illa og kunni ekki á tilfinningar sínar.
Nú þarf ég að finna hinar bækurnar og lesa þær.

[kraefty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting tale, and I feel for Jón. There's two more books detailing more of his life as he grows up. I'm not averse to reading them some time.
But it got a bit dreary of reading page after page of pranks and mischievousness, and how stupid the narrator thinks he is.

[Óskar Atli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting life story of a boy who was perceived as weird and by professionals as borderline crazy. The story is rather straightforward and accurate since the main character is the author himself, but of course it is neither made up or truthful.

[Sandy Reenders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept reading to see if something interesting would happen, the writing is quite bland but still I read it all

[Ray Hubley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gnarr's memoir is almost unnervingly engaging. The language even in translation sings out with joy, pain, and deep sincerity. What a pleasure to be so vividly reminded of literature's universality.

[Рени Банкова · Rating 5 out of 5]

Книгата разказва от първо лице за живота на едно "различно" дете през призмата на неговия поглед.

[Jeff Buddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compulsively readable. The first volume of the autobiographical trilogy by Reykjavík's former mayor (actor and stand-up comic) Jon Gnarr is a deeply sensitive portrayal of what it's like to grow up an perpetual outsider. Gnarr's account of undiagnosed ADHD is written in short clipped sentences that depict how bewildering the world can be for a kid with a severe learning disorder. We see how Gnarr's longing just to fit in with his peers is frustrated by his inability to understand how to fit in.

Gnarr balances the tragedy of his young life: remote parents, a system that can't comprehend his problems, physical and emotional abuse with darkly humorous passages. He intersperses the first-person narrative with "transcripts" written by an unnamed doctor who clinically studies, analyzes and diagnosis him. This juxtaposition of clinical/emotional is a successful gimmick. The doctor cannot perceive Gnarr's inner life which, although deeply damaged, is rich with longing, guilt, hatred, and love.

Because this volume is written from the point of view of a child, much of it is devoted to Gnarr's lack of understanding. He's groping for meaning, to understand his limitations. In the novel, this usually results in violence, acting-out, setting fires, getting in fights. In the prose this comes off as chopped sentences that break off just before any kind of real understanding. Instead, Gnarr leaves us in the land of the child, where fantasy and metaphor are more important than reality.

Good stuff. Recommended.

[Matthew Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked out this book on a whim after reading a bit about Jon Gnarr on the internet.

It sort of fell flat for me. I was expecting something at least chuckle worthy, in spite of the subject matter of growing up with his learning differences- he is a comedian, after all- but the language was very flat and did not strike me with even any attempts at humor. Could be the author, could be the translation from the Icelandic, I don't know. A lot of "I did this," "I did that," while it was interesting to get a glimpse into the life of a young Icelandic boy I'm not sure I would have realized he had learning differences without reading the jacket first. Seemed to me like a fairly normal child who was attention starved and lonely sometimes. The chapters were interspersed with doctors' notes about him from his childhood but it didn't seem to add up to anything moving, funny, or particularly strong.

I still want to read more of his books because I feel like I'm missing out on something but this particular one, while an easy and straightforward read, wasn't quite what I thought it would be.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm interested in Iceland and Icelandic literature so I picked up this book, having never heard of the author. Slow going at first but then really interesting and engaging. A boy born in 1967, much older parents (with three much older kids, two of whom no longer live in Iceland), were able to be effective parents with the older kids but don't really know how to deal with this odd (red haired) difficult child. Who gradually comes into his own - and eventually really and truly becomes mayor of Reykjavik!

[Sigfríður Guðjónsdóttir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skálduð ævisaga - ohh hvað ég vona að hún sé meiri skáldskapur en raunveruleiki. Napurleg veröld stráks sem elst upp í "nennuleysi" foreldra. Ofvirkur með athyglisbrest, stimplaður sem geðveikur og jafnvel heilaskaddaður. Stríðni daglegt brauð og utangátta á allan máta. Alveg hægt að brosa af henni á köflum en oftast vorkennir maður sögupersónunni frekar mikið. Skemmtilegt form þar sem sagan er minningarbrot sem fá að flæða en er ekki samfelld saga.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fyrsta bindi í boðaðri trílógíu. Jón eltist við æskuárin, oft nokkuð fyndið en full væmið kannski og full endurtekningarsamt. Mér finnst vanta dýptina sem hefði komið ef Jón hefði litið til baka sem fullorðinn maður á það sem gerðist þegar hann var barn. Ég vona samt innilega að Jón skrifi bráðlega næstu tvær bækur og pakki þessu inn.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reflective narrative of an early childhood. Reads like driving through his minimalist memory lane, with nostalgia at the wheel. Well translated into clear, matter of fact prose interspersed with notes from entries in the author's psychiatric records. A good quick read that left me curious about the follow up books in the trilogy (I believe only the first two are in English so far).

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling blend of tragedy and hilarity. The author, who became the mayor of Reykjavik, guides you into the life and mind of a child (the author himself) who despite best intentions managed to burn nearly every bridge he crossed. The child's-eye view reveals more than most adults might see.

[Bjarney Halldórsdóttir · Rating 4 out of 5]

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