This book wasn't really what I expected, but now that I go back and read the summary, I realise that I probably went off the path a bit, imagining things that weren't really there. It's a fast read (I read it in about 2 sittings), and what is most remarkable about it is that it doesn't even really need to be set in the 60s. It's a nice aesthetic, sure, and if it was set in any other time period (such as a more recent one), some of the more quirky details would be lost, but the story itself could be a story happening today. The main character, Hekla, begins her story by leaving her small town for the "big" city, and dreams of becoming a writer in a society and atmosphere that is dominated by men. She begins to room with her gay best friend, Jon John, who only wants to be a designer but is stuck in the life of a sailor, surrounded by gay men who always return home to their wives. Eventually she finds herself a quiet librarian/poet and moves in with him and his other poetry circle peers. They're both writers, and she, unbeknownst to him, is more successful, but struggles knowing that it probably wouldn't be true if she published under her own name instead of a male pseudonym. Hence, why she struggles to publish her novel now, as herself. She works in a hotel cafe where she is forced to wear a skirt and where all the older men tell her that her life is a waste if she doesn't compete for a beauty pageant and run off to Long Island with a creepy chaperone for a life of subjection. Eventually, with the help of a friend who struggles with being a young mother and fears she won't amount to much, Hekla decides to leave her boyfriend, her country and her life and rejoin Jon John in Denmark, who left on sailor's duty from Iceland and escaped that miserable existence by simply not returning to the ship one day. They live and create together in beautiful harmony, finally living the life that they both left Iceland to chase. They get married to cheapen the costs of travelling together and presumably continue to chase the dream of writing and designing and living happily ever after doing what they love. Eventually, Hekla (named after a volcano that her father loves more than her, which is presumably why she wants to make a name for herself instead of literally living under the shadow of a mountain) finishes her novel, essentially based on her life (albeit with a few aesthetic changes) and gets a chance to publish it - also under a pseudonym, but at least this time it's a female one. 

Not really a review as much as an overarching summary to reassure myself that I was actually paying attention when I whizzed through this. You can see how it feels like a timeless story, wanting to leave the small, constricting environment you grew up in, wanting to explore everything there is to see in the world, and finding freedom, but also more restrictions because the things you want are seemingly against what society dictates. Hekla, a talented writer, wants to be recognised for her own work. Jon John just wants to love who he loves, and feel happy about it. Even Isey, young and with two small children, has landed in a life that she neither wanted nor agreed to, but is trying to do the best with the life she is given and take joy in the small happy things. I didn't like the poet (whose name I cannot remember, but mostly because Hekla only really referred to him as "the poet"), who constantly called Jon John "the queer" and became jealous every time Hekla spent any time with him at all - not because he thought they were sleeping together, but because of what others would think and assume of himself. When he and Hekla first meet, it is the fact that she is a writer that attracts him to her, but later when he finds out that she's actually published - and that she is the mystery author of the poetry that his group was obsessed with solving - he and his fragile masculinity and fear of a girl being better than him change their tune and start to inhibit her passions for writing. Then again, perhaps calling him "the poet" instead of his name was a clever way for the author to insinuate that he's not the end of Hekla's story, nor is he really that important to it, in the end. The book didn't really have chapters, instead it had what I am choosing to call little vignettes, which felt more like snippets of a story instead of the whole thing. It made the book feel choppy, and I wasn't particularly a fan. Overall, the writing did feel a bit poetic and artistic, which, for all intents and purposes, does kind of fit with the vibe of the book. I just wish I had the chance to get further into the characters' minds with a complete thought, for once. I simultaneously want to leave this book behind and just be happy I finished it, but I also want to see further into the lives of these characters, and read more deeply into their thoughts and feelings. All I want is for Hekla and Jon John to have a happy life, together or apart. I hope they get what they want most out of it, leaving the restrictions of their childhood home behind and finding what they most want in the world. And I hope that Hekla picks a much smaller book to practise her English than Ulysses.

I sometimes struggle with translated work and this one was another that was difficult to get into for me. However, I did enjoy the plot and characters. I would be curious to read other titles from this author.

This book was somewhat of a difficult read. Translated into English, at times the writing felt clunky and the transition from chapter to chapter (or section to section) felt a bit arbitrary. But hidden in there was a moving story of a young woman trying to be independent and write and her homosexual friend. Both stuck in Iceland in the late 1960s, not an environment friendly to either situation. While Hekla seemed to be able to put off the men trying to entice her in to enter a beauty contest, or alternatively cop a feel while she waited on them, Jon John was mired in his despair, wanting only for a boyfriend and lamenting that he loved men and not women. Their acceptance and support of each other truly made this book what it is!

Miss Iceland is the story of a young female writer in the very male-centric Icelandic society of the 1960s. One day Hekla moves to Reykjavik where her two closest friends live. Isey is a very young stay at home mother and Jon John is their gay fisherman friend. Hekla finds a job working as a serving girl where she fends off the men trying to grab her and pestering her to compete for the Miss Iceland title. Hekla also finds a poet boyfriend but she does not tell him that she is a published writer. Then Jon John leaves Iceland for Denmark and Hekla has to reveal her secret.

This book is very much about breaking out of oppressive cultures. With Hekla you have an amazing writer who has to hide her gender from publishers and her writing from the local poets. Isey who begins to write stories in her journals about the new neighbor and death because this world in which she spends all day every day with her baby is driving her crazy. Finally Jon John spends his time staying away from the cops on land and protecting himself on the fishing boat.

I spent so much of this book just wanting to yell at about every other character in it because just the way gender roles are assumed to be was driving me crazy and it makes me happy that I did not live in 1960s Iceland. But it was a book of hope and finding what makes you sing while being generous at the same time. I am very interested to read her other books.

I enjoyed this book by Audor Ava Olafsdottir.  This story follows Hekla who is a young women in 1940's Iceland.  She is trying to become a writer and finds that in this time period that is a very difficult task.  Iceland is heralded for its male poets, but the idea that a women could be among them is foreign.  Hekla is seen as a much better candidate for a beauty pageant than for entering the world of writers and poets.  In addition to Hekla's struggles we also are introduced to her newly married friend Isey and her gay friend Jon John.  Each of these characters is struggling to be themselves and find a place in society.  Misfits to some degree, but hoping for more.  It's definitely a story about the struggle to be yourself in a society that isn't quite ready for you yet.

In addition to the characters, the country of Iceland is described in lush detail.  You can feel that cold winds and the nights that never get dark.  Hekla is named after a volcano after all and the country itself seems to be as important part of the story as the characters.

This was ultimately a desperately sad portrayal of three young people all wanting to be more than they were allowed to be back in the 1960s in Iceland.  Hekla, named after a volcano and a talented writer, is determined to rise above prejudice and stereotype to succeed as a novelist, despite being female. Jon John is gay and searching for meaning and his place in the world. Isey, Hekla’s friend, is struggling with life as a young wife and mother. I really enjoyed the Icelandic setting, the subtle irony suggested by the title of the novel (Miss Iceland was certainly something Hekla did NOT aspire to) and the lyricism of some of the writing. I found it a little disjointed in parts though - possibly because of the translation? – so that the story didn’t flow for me as well as it could have. I found the ending horribly depressing, but it perfectly summed up the themes of this book.

I enjoyed reading this book set in Iceland, the talk of the country and the foreign phrases and names were very entertaining . The name is a bit strange but Insure appreciates her attempts to follow her passions.

I enjoyed this story that followed mainly Hekla, but also two of her friends in their effort to find solid footing in the world as outsiders for varying reasons. I missed that my familiarity with the Icelandic alphabet has disintegrated such that I don’t think I pronounce place names correctly anymore.

I so wanted this book to work for me. And I so wanted to like this book. But sadly, that is not the case. There is no background detail about beauty pageants. The character development is not good and the mostly I can't get connect to the book. This book had so much potential but alas didn't work for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this book.

I absolutely hate when a book's description ends up being nothing like the book is actually about and Miss Iceland is one of the worst offenders of this I've ever seen.   There is actually very little about a beauty pageant, but we're lead to believe it's a big part of the story.

Not a lot of information is given on the characters and that makes it extremely hard to form connections with them.  At no point to we know what the main character is thinking so it makes her actions seem so disjointed.  I actually didn't like her much at all.  

The writing on this also seems very choppy.  I understand that this is a translation so I can let that slid a bit, but this was extreme.  I kept waiting for something to happen but ended up disapointed.

Miss Iceland wasn't for me at all. I thought the story was way too melodramatic, and I ended up not caring at all about the main character's life problems. Like, can we get a book set in a Scandinavian country that isn't super depressing?

I also had a major problem with the gay side character. I'm so sick of LGBT characters being miserable all the time - the only thing he did in the novel was mope and put himself down for being a gay man. I'm not trying to disregard the issues gay Europeans experienced in the time that Miss Iceland takes place, of course, but I've just read too many books without happy endings for these characters. I know that there really aren't that many people who identify as LGBT and feel bad about themselves every second of the day because of it like the guy in Miss Iceland does.

While the mediocre gay character was my main reason for disliking this novel, I also just thought it was too angsty in general.

This is a moody story with a fantastic mail character.  Her journey is incredibly engaging and she stays with you for a long time.

‘Compared to you Hekla, who are the daughter of volcano and the Arctic sea, I am the daughter of hillock and heath‘.

All I know about Iceland, really, can be summed up in a few words: Bjork, Olympic Games and cold… Thus, I literary jumped at the opportunity to read a book by Icelanding author set in Iceland and about Iceland life. Thanks to Netgalley for this opportunity.

Miss Iceland is a Pandora Box. The quiky cover and beauty pageant reminicent title are icy and whindy misleading. They are completely misleading. There is nothing even remotely cheesy and sugarflossy about this book… except may be the deserts the heroine brings from work for her friend and canned peaches (the epitome of fruit-eating) they seem to be eating at any opportunity.

This book is about writing. It is about a gril named after volcano (instead of being named after eagle as her mother wanted) wanting to write against all ods, wanting to become a full-fledge author in the country ruled by men, where any writing can only come from under manhandled quill.

‘Men are born poets. By the time their confirmation, they’ve taken on the inescapable role of being geniuses. It doesn’t matter whether they write books or not. Women, on the other hand, grapple with puberty and have babies, which prevents them from being able to write’.

Helka, the main heroine, moves from her small village to Reykjavik looking for better opportunity anf for more space literal and surreal to write. She is not alone. She has two best friends with her: male and female. They are as differnt as chalk and cheese but they love Hekla and want the best for her.

Her girlfriend dabbles in writing herself. She writes diary to escape the mudane routine of: babies, boiled potatos and curtains.

‘It can take as much as six, seven pages for the light to come up in here (sun).’

‘I decided to stop writing in the diary. I’ve packed away my wings’.

Her other friend is a gay man who struggles to fit in and to find himself in the male-dominated homophobic world of lies and deceptions.

‘Then I tell him. That I write… At that moment I’m holding the baton and tell the world it can be born. In return the most handsome boy in Dalir told me that he loved boys… We kept each other’s secrets. We were equal‘.

‘We’re two of a kind, Hekla. Neither of us is at home anywhere’.

But Hekla writes. She defies society’s norms. When she moves in with her boyfriend (poet) she hides her writing from her man. Eventually poet can’t write as he has nothing to say but Hekla gives birth to one story after another.

Hekla and Jon John (gay friend) escape the capital, the cold and long nights looking for ways to be themselves only to… well, you have to read the book to find out.

‘In my dream world the most important things would be: a sheet of paper, fountain pen and a male body. When we’ve finished making love, he’s welcome to ask if he can refill the fountain pen with ink for me’.

I loved the book. I loved the poetic voice and numerous passages that spoke to me directly. Thus, so many quotes in this review. I could identify with Hekla on many levels. I could see what she saw and feel what she felt.

I enjoyed her journey of self-discovery. However, it was cut short with and left reader with an open ending.

Translator did a great job bringing Icelandic Language novel to English Language readers.

Five stars from me.

Please do not judge this novel by the pinkish cute cover. The title and the cover are all meant as an irony to the women’s condition in the 1960’ Iceland, where they were expected only to look good and respond positively to the advances of men.

Hotel Silence was the first novel that I’ve read by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and it was very different (review here). There, the narrator was a man impoverished by loss who tries to escape life in a country torn by war while here, the main character is an independent woman trying to find her way in the capital of Iceland.

Hekla, a young woman aptly named after a volcano, leaves Dalir, a remote part of Iceland to become a writer in Reykjavik. Armed with wit, talent, a manuscript and a typewriter, she has to face a world ruled by straight men who mock her dreams. She is constantly harassed by men for her good looks and invited to participate in a beauty pageant and finds no support from other writers, not even from her boyfriend, also an aspiring poet. She moves together with her best friend Jón John, a gay man who also struggles to find his place in the world and is rejected by society. The trio of misfits is completed by Isey, a married young woman, also a writer, who finds life as a dutiful wife and mother very hard to bear. Living in a basement with no light gives Isey no hope for the future as she sinks deeper in despair and fear of having too many children.

The writing is not too complex, I admit, but it was moving and engaging, I did not feel the time passing while reading.

The ending left me a bit deflated and perplexed but maybe it was the only way it could have ended at that time. As a new island was forming due to a volcanic eruption, it made me think that change was coming although not soon enough.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars
In the year 1963, Hekla an aspiring writer leaves her home, in the remote district of Dalir, to start an independent life in Reykjavik. 
The story is following Hekla's journey to becoming a published author, in a conservative society where women had little to no voice, and writing like most other professions, was considered a male-only occupation.

the main reason I've requested this arc was that I'm an Iceland enthusiast (I'm not sure if its a thing), and I was hoping to get some sneak-peeks of the Icelandic lifestyle. many thanks to netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing this electronic copy. I wasn't disappointed.

One thing that bothered me the most about this book: There was a big problem with the formatting of my electronic copy. And I've found myself jumping from one story to another without any clear ending to the chapters. 

The cover on the other hand is really beautiful and fancy and was compatible with the story. 
The storyline is a narration in the first-person from the perspective of Hekla, and written like snippets from a diary. I've struggled at first to get through the book. the descriptions and dialogues are emotionless and can seem lifeless in some parts. I'm not sure if it was intentional or it got something to do with the translation? 
Nevertheless, The plot tackles some strong and dark topics like sexism and homophobia. And even if the characterization wasn't profound enough for my taste, most characters do grow on you. 
Helka and Isey are exceptionally talented at writing, but their faith and beliefs were different. Hekla, who's named after the volcano, was born sure about her vocation and was ready to do everything to make her dream come true. 
she is bold and fearless, and I really liked the way she handled all the obstacles that were thrown at her. I wasn't so sure about some of her final decisions (I don't want to spoil the story), and the way she excluded herself stoically. I guess it's part of the general scheme about her entire persona. 

Jón John is Hekla's friend. He offered to share the room he's renting with her in Reykjavik. He is gay and is very talented with his sewing machine. He aspires to become a costume designer, and dreams about having a boyfriend with whom he can hold hands and walk freely in the city of Reykjavik. But that's not something you can do in 1960. he works as a sailor and his lovers are all closeted married men. his only solace is Hekla's company and his hope that one day he will move somewhere with more tolerant social rules. 

Isey is Hekla's best friend and another character that I've found intriguing. She is newly married and mother of a baby. her existence is reduced to the basement and the little trip she does to get groceries. She is obviously miserable and torn between being a mother and the incessant urge in her soul to write fiction. She struggles to express what she's doing and describes her stories as journaling events that didn't happen. she is guided by her impulses to compose her stories. and I think she is becoming a novelist by accident. 

I'm not familiar with the Icelandic language but I've noticed that the directions were mostly described using the cardinal directions instead of right-left. I wonder if it's the usual way Icelanders describe directions, this sounds really cool!

This book was so evocative and heart wrenching. It made me happy that I am alive now. There used to be so few choices for women and gays. As far as we still have to go I am happy we aren’t back there. This is a translated book and I love the lyrical writing.

Miss Iceland tells of the grey, small world of Iceland in the 1960s when people were beginning to recognize and appreciate their differences.  Gay men, women whose writing opened horizons, mothers who wanted to be more than housewives, all were bursting the bounds of the small communities of Iceland. 

I realized that I was considerably more irate than the book’s narrator, Hekla, about her treatment by the society of Reykjavik.  Despite being a talented (and published) writer, the community decided that she should represent them on the beauty pageant circuit as Miss Iceland.    

Time after time people were pushed into smallish boxes that didn’t allow them to be themselves,  But, of course, ultimately, those people pushed back, or left the confining villages.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Miss Iceland by Audur Ava Olafsdottir is a powerful novel about life for a woman in 1960s Iceland. Simple in concept yet lush in language, Miss Iceland illustrates the challenges our narrator, Hekla, faces as she tries to build her career as a writer. Hekla, named for a volcano (which I adore), is reduced to her appearance time and time again. We also meet two of Hekla's friends who also struggle with achieving what they want. 

Ultimately, this is a lovely, heart-breaking story of ambition, struggle and compromise. Don't let this bright cover art fool you - it will be an emotional, pensive read.

Even if it's quite slow I think it's a fascinating read and it kept me hooked.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Unfortunately this one just didn't do it for me. I stopped at about 20% and maybe I gave up too fast but just about nothing happened. I was too bored to continue and didn't really care about anything that was happening. I thought this would be more of a writer trying to find adventure in Iceland in order to write so that was my fault for having that expectation. I wish I liked this one!