Cover Image: Miss Iceland

Miss Iceland

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Miss Iceland is a new Icelandic novel from Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir translated into English for a June 16, 2020 release date in the US. The story centers around Hekla, an aspiring female writer struggling to make her mark as an author in the traditionally male dominated field of poets in 1960’s Iceland, where they would much rather focus on her beauty to compete for Miss Iceland versus her intellect to write. What poems, short stories, and a novel she is able to get published is done so under male psuedonyms. She finds solace and escape with her best male friend, Jón John, who is stuck unable to be his true self as well, a gay man with a talent for sewing and fashion and a desire to be able to be open with his sexuality in an unaccepting world. They take care of one another while guarding each other’s dreams allowing them to be themselves with each other. Hekla also has a female best friend, Ísey, who despite a desire to write, travel, and follow a modern woman’s path like Hekla, succumbs to the traditional female roles after becoming a wife with multiple children.

After delving into the background of the author and Iceland, it did help further deepen appreciation of the book that sometimes fell short in its austere starkness and abrupt ending. Iceland has long been known for its love affair with books and literature. They publish more books per capita than anywhere else while ranking 3rd in literate countries, despite being “one of the smallest linguistic communities in the world.” They grow up hearing, learning, and proud of their Icelandic Sagas, The Poetic Edda, and their Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness. Their capital city, Reykjavik, where Audur grew up is a UNESCO City of Literature.
One of their oldest traditions is perhaps one they are most famous for is Jólabókaflód or the “Christmas Book Flood” that begins each year after the Icelandic publishers send every home a Bókatidindi that details all new published books. Because everyone gets at least 1 book as a present to open up on Christmas Eve to curl up and read, there is a frenzy of book buying at the tail-end of the year.
We see this history of ingrained respect and adoration for writers and books throughout Audur’s book Miss Iceland. Poets are name dropped at a considerable extravagance and characters are as well known for the town they are from as the Saga that hails from that same land.

The author celebrates her favorite part of being a creative writer: “The feeling of absolute freedom”, in her main character Hekla who would give up everything to strike out to a new country just to be free to write. Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir says she writes “to give a voice to those who have no voice - those who cannot shout out loud enough to attract the attention of the world...”. She has also written before about the existing fear of women and their education. Indeed we see that these same views and beliefs are evident in this book with her spotlight on gender inequality, particularly in Iceland’s past. However ironically, presently as of 2020, Iceland for the 11th year running, has topped the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for gender equality. They were also the first country to elect a female President democratically and to have the only gay Prime Minister. After many hard fought battles for equal pay and fair employment, including famous mass strikes by women, parliamentary laws were enacted to guarantee as such. In fact, by January 2022, anyone employing more than 25 people will face daily fines if they aren’t independently certified that they are giving equal pay for equal work. This Miss Iceland book acts as a reminder lest we forget how far Iceland has come since the ages of Hekla, Jón John , and Ísey; and as a beacon of hope and example of where the US could aspire to and reach for as well.

Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir has said that after learning various foreign languages it opened up new worlds and their literature for her. She herself has even been published in over 25 languages! Now that her new book has been translated into our native tongue of English, we can take a glimpse into her Nordic world and have an opportunity to understand more deeply about not only Iceland’s heritage, but to find similarities in all of our struggles to be our true authentic real selves past and present.

#MissIceland #NetGalley

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Miss Iceland gives us a look at Iceland in the 1960s. The struggles faced by women, by LGBTQ folks, by women who wanted to be writers, by people just trying to make it in the world. This book was so much more than I had anticipated. Highly recommend.

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We often think of Scandinavian countries as being enlightened and ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to equality of the sexes. But here is a book to prove that even the apparently noblest of all countries needed to move forward and grow into something to be admired and emulated, that it doesn’t come naturally and that even Iceland was a Neanderthal of sorts in its behaviour and beliefs before it became an equal haven for women in late 1975 when the demonstration called Women's Day Off (Icelandic: Kvennafrídagurinn) stopped the country and changed it forever.

Set in the early ’60s, twenty-one-year-old Hekla is determined and absolutely driven to become a writer, with a small number of pieces of her work having been published, but only under a male pseudonym, never under her own moniker.

“No one is waiting for a novel by Hekla Gottskalkdottir.”

Leaving her remote farming family behind she moves to the biggest city Reykjavik to start life anew and try to forge a way ahead for her career. There are a group of men in the city that are lauded and feted for being writers, with nothing more expected of them than to sit around, drink coffee and talk about deep philosophical ideas all day long, but there is no such place for Hekla. She shares an apartment with Jón John, who is gay and once again we see that Iceland was not so forward-thinking or accepting of people who deviated from what was considered sexually normal. It was a place and time in history that thought gay men were automatically pedophiles. They are both outsiders wanting nothing more than acceptance for who and what they are, which seems an impossible dream. Hekla is hounded by men to partake in the Miss Iceland beauty pageant, with its underlying sexual abuse of the young women caught in the whirlwind of the pageant promises but is never encouraged to write. In this story, Hekla and Jón John battle the unfairness of their situations and try to survive in a time when standing out was not seen as a popular or wise thing to do.

“She also mentioned you. She said that some people were born out of themselves. Like you. She sent her regards to you and said … that there needs to be…. Chaos in the soul to be able to give birth to a dancing star…. Whatever that means…..”

This is a book that is written in such a style that is so different from what one typically finds in English speaking territories, being both choppy and disjointed. Caring for the main characters is kept to a minimum, with little given to make the reader connect with them apart from the obvious unfairness of their situations. It does show the bleakness of the situation for women and gays in the most effective manner, but some of the decisions Hekla makes are cold-hearted and just downright bizarre making it hard to appreciate her struggle to be a writer. Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is in its ability to transport modern-day readers back to a time that was so outrageously unfair and give us an insight into a world view that one can only hope never comes again.

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A delightful, wry glimpse of the creative life of a young woman in Iceland in the 60s. The protagonist is a talented writer who diligently and quietly does the work of writing (not to mention waitressing) while the pretentious male poets in her circle sit around in cafes talking about writing without getting anything done. When her boyfriend discovers that she is a well-published writer herself, he can barely handle the comparison. A comic send-up of a certain brand of artistic ego that many women writers will find familiar.. a great companion piece to Lily King’s Writers and Lovers.

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Iceland in the 1960s was a difficult time to be an aspiring female writer. With a harsh, but beautiful landscape built from fire and ice, it was also isolated and male dominated with few options for women apart from menial, underpaid work or marriage and motherhood. A land of many writers, but only men who were allowed to consider themselves as poets and writers with a sparsity of female authors. For Hekla, named for a volcano, writing is all she lives for but she keeps it a secret from all but her two best friends and publishes her work under a male pseudonym. Earning her living as a hotel waitress, she is told sexual harassment is an accepted part of the job and is constantly propositioned by a man who tells her she should enter the Miss Iceland beauty contest. Her boyfriend, an aspiring but unpublished poet, sees her as a trophy girlfriend to show off to his friends and fails to notice the fires burning within Hekla's soul.

Hekla's two best friends also yearn for more in their lives. Isey, married with a child and another on the way acquires art as a way to see beyond her confined life, whereas Jon John, gay and living in constant fear in a homophobic world, wants only to be a costume designer for the theatre. Instead he is forced to take work on fishing vessels and factory ships where he is openly derided by the other crew.

Beautifully written with gorgeous but sparse prose, this somewhat dark and quirky novel is about sexism, deceit, love and friendship but ultimately about the bond between two people who fail to conform to fit into society's strictures. I was a little disappointed by Hekla's decision at the end of the book which felt like a backward step for her and would be interested to hear what other readers think about it. I also felt that the cover for this version of the book does not fit the literary style of the book as well as the other covers I have seen.

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Prix Médicis étranger (Best Foreign Novel) 2019
The cutesy cover doesn't do the book justice: One of the most famous female novelists working in Iceland today, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, has written a book about the patriarchal, conservative Icelandic society of the early 1960's, centering on two women who are writers, but aren't taken seriously as such. Our protagonist and narrator is Hekla (named after the volcano, of course) who hails from the rural West and comes to Reykjavik to get a job, live as an independent woman and write. She finds employment as a waitress but at the job, she is expected to remain silent about the harrassement and discrimination she has to endure while the (male) poets who hang out at the famous Café Mokka don't take her seriously. Hekla finds solace with her childhood friend Ísey, who is also a writer but constrained by what society expects her to be as a young wife and mother, and her gay friend Jón John who is ostracized because of his sexual orientation. All three of them aim to find a place for themselves and try to help each other finding it.

"Ad ganga med bok I maganum", says an Icelandic proverb, "everyone has a book in their stomach". The small country is famous for its many readers and writers, its love for literature, and Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir writes about the fact that for a long time, the right to be taken seriously as an artist was only granted to men: There is Hekla's boyfriend, an aspiring poet, and his male friends who can't wrap their heads around the fact that beautiful Hekla is also a talented equal - they simple don't know how to handle the situation. There is Hekla's father, who ponders life by writing about the impact of the weather on people and the natural world (how Icelandic is that?). There is Jón John, the skilled fashion designer who is forced to work as a sailor, because which "real man" does sew dresses? There is Ísey who is haunted by the stories she cannot write, and of course Hekla who is constantly pestered by a man who wants her to participate in the Miss Iceland contest - but Hekla knows that the citeria they are applying do not do justice to Icelandic women, that conforming is a trap.

This is a melancholic book about three highly relatable characters who are misfits because they refuse to deny themselves. While they are struggling though, erupting lava is creating a new island, thus foreshadowing the new spaces later social movements will open up for women and minorities. Maybe not the most complex novel ever written, but moving and captivating nonetheless.

The German translation will be published by Suhrkamp/Insel in Spring 2021.

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This book was not at all what I expected it to be, nor can I really think of a book that is written in the same style. As it dealt with poets and literary characters, I felt as if the writing reflected a poem itself. It was so lyrical and pleasing to read.

The characters were interesting and complex. I liked Hekla but I enjoyed her friend Ísey the most. Both women were struggling in their own ways but found refuge in their written words and the small things in life. Although we never really delved deep into character personalities, I felt like I understood enough of each character to enjoy their story.

Miss Iceland was a relaxing read that reminded me that dreams are worth working for.

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I enjoyed this simple, straightforward story about a young woman in Iceland who longs to become an author. I am done with my traveling days, content to “travel” through books and stories of other countries, and I’ll always regret never seeing Iceland. This book was like a visit to Iceland in the early 1960’s, and I am glad I read it. The characters as well as the story were appealing, well-written and I will definitely read more from Audur Ava Olafsdottir.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the ebook ARC in exchange for a review.
#MissIceland #NetGalley

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I found myself liking this book much more than I expected to. I didn’t really love the main character, Hekla. I never really felt like I understood her and did not feel connected to her or understand her in any way. I found myself drawn into the story not by the characters but by the writing which I found beautiful and free feeling. I also loved the depictions of Iceland which is a country I really don’t know anything about.

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This book reminds you how much has changed in the space of 60 years. Hekla moves to Reykjavik to try and make her way as a novelist. She moves in with her queer friend, Jon John. She is faced with the limitations of her sex and he by his sexual preference. “We kept each other’s secrets. We were equals.”
This book tugs at my heartstrings. It’s not just how the men at the dining room treat Hekla, but more importantly how her poet boyfriend treats her like she’s nothing but a pretty face and a muse.
This is a book that’s sparse on plot but lush in wording. The ending left me perplexed. I wasn’t at all sure what to make of it.
My thanks to netgalley and Grove Press for an advance copy of this book.

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Hekla is a budding female novelist in Iceland in the 1960s. She heads from her remote hometown to Reykjavik where she intends to become a writer. Sharing an apartment with her childhood and queer friend Jón John, Hekla learns that she will have to stand alone in a male-dominated community that would rather see her win a pageant than become a professional artist.
"Miss Iceland" is a short but unique book. I kept rooting for Hekla and her female friend Isley and Jon John to pursue their dreams, talents and interests. But each of these characters gave away so much of their identity and rights simply because they are different and not traditional men.
The writing style is choppy, but the message touched me long after I finished the book. I appreciated the insights into gender equality and gender roles. "Miss Iceland" offers an interesting look at life in the 1960s and even today, unfortunately.
Note: some sexual content

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I was excited to begin reading this book. I have traveled quite a bit and had an exciting journey to Iceland a couple of years ago. It’s a beautiful but strange landscape and there is no other place like it on Earth. The black lava fields for miles, geothermal energy erupting from the ground, black sand beaches and lots and lots of books. I didn’t know that the people of Iceland’s favorite pastime is reading, that Christmas gifts are always books, that no books can be published in Iceland unless they are written in the ancient Icelandic language.and that are books are left everywhere so anyone may take one to read. I was ready to learn even more through Miss Iceland. However, perhaps because the book has been translated to English something gets lost. Somewhere the link is broken and I realized very quickly that the characters were poorly developed and I seemed to have difficulty finding the plot line. I would not recommend this books to others as I think it could be beautifully written but simply was not.

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While I did finish this book, I didn't connect with it or finding it as engaging as I had hoped. While I certainly understood the themes of growth and change and thought it would be interesting to see how a more remote country like Iceland experienced the 1960s, Hekla didn't particularly come to life for me. I was more interested in Jon and would have enjoyed following his story more closely.

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A lovely book about a young woman who wants to find her own way in the world as a writer at a time when women are held back by societal expectations. This is one of those books that doesn't really have much of a plot but does a great job of getting inside the characters and creating an atmosphere, thus allowing the reader to "try on" the characters' lives. I really enjoyed it and would read more from this author.

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i found this to be boring.
and i really couldn't figure out the point of the story. While it was about Hekla & her growth. i thought it was also about Jon John & his being a gay man during a time when that was illegal & unaccepted in the Scandinavian region. i didn't connect w/the characters.
and i'm sure it was also a statement on Iceland's society/culture during the 60's.

positive: i liked how they showed the reactions of people in a foreign country to events happening in the U.S. (ie. their mentions of Dr. King & the civil rights movement in the states, a Beatles concert in Denmark, etc.) it was interesting to see how those things were perceived.

i really didn't like the ending. it seemed a bit of a cop-out for the character.

i think people who are more familiar w/the history & culture of Iceland would enjoy this more.


thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
unfortunately, i didn't like this but i look forward to receiving lots of other selections that i will enjoy.

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Thank you to the author, Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book uses a style and rhythm that took some getting used to - and that ended up putting me under its spell. Set in the early 1960s in Iceland (not a time or place especially well-known to me, or probably many other readers), it takes us deep into the heart of a friendship between two people who are both on the fringes of society. Or rather, outcasts trying to get by in the society they're a part of. The narrative doesn't flow particularly well, but is more a series of glimpses into time, place and events. Besides the two main characters, there are several others that provide a counterpoint and contrast. Not light reading by any means, but it really captured my heart.

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I really hate to give this book a one star review but I really didn’t get it. This felt like a memoir trying to be a novel. There was no growth for the character. Nothing happened. She got a job she met a guy she left the guy and traveled but didn’t grow. She staid stagnant the whole story. I felt like there was more growth from other characters.

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I tried to read this book twice, both times failed for me. Indeed the topics of this book are important for society and especially seeing how it's been previously. But I couldn't engage myself in the story nor with the characters.

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Miss Iceland
by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
translated by Brian Fitzgibbon

What begins as a bleak, brooding coming of age story soon morphs into a caring, spot-on tale of the power of friendship and passion for one's dreams. The author's hand is so subtle that one barely realizes how invested we have become in our main characters, in their dreams, their struggles and their small successes until we sit in shock and surprise at the novel's conclusion.

Hekla and JonJon, childhood friends, both outsiders in Iceland's 1960s society, each leave their town of Dalir in search of a wider, more sophisticated population where Hekla can pursue her writing and JonJon hopes to find acceptance as a gay man. They meet up in Reykjavik, join forces and begin their journey. In contrast, their friend Isey, opts for the traditional route of wife and mother. She's lonely, frustrated, envies Hekla's bravery and success and dreads being completely stifled and overtaken by the needs of her family whom she loves.

This is a story of survival, both the day to day economic struggle and the constant fight to combat and assert oneself against the gender politics of the time. Hekla embodies not the destructive force of the volcano for which she is aptly named but its creative force. Her journey with its successes and compromises will resonate with many readers today.

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I will begin by thanking the generous people Grove Atlantic for allowing me an ARC of Miss Iceland in exchange for my honest review. I'm not a professional reviewer or bookseller or anything that may qualify me to write a critique of any book (a fact that will likely become obvious very shortly), but I thank them from the bottom of my book-loving heart.

Whenever I start a new read, I love to find that comfortable rhythm as early as possible. The narrative here does it's best to keep me off balance. This book is more like still-life in words, snap-shots of life given to the reader in the most unemotional way. Ten or so pages in, I gave up that misbegotten hope. The story has a rhythm and a style I'm unaccustomed to reading. Once I let it do its own thing, I'm pleased to say that that elusive rhythm found me.

The protagonist, Hekla, is born to a volcano obsessed father and a mother we don't learn much about, save for the contents of a short letter explaining the circumstances of Hekla's birth and the method of her naming. Her mother wanted her to be called Arnhildur, the female eagle. Her father had already chosen Hekla, the name of an active volcano in Iceland. Arnhildur never stood a chance. The author has quickly established that this is a man's world.

When we pick up her story, Hekla is on the move Reykavic hoping to find a publisher for her manuscript. On the bus ride there, she is propositioned by a man who offers her a chance to enter the Miss Iceland pageant. This is one of several run-ins with some loathsome, misogynist, whom I don't feel need much of an explanation. They add their weight to the story and help Hekla toward her final resolution. Enough said about that.

Hekla has two friends already living in Reykjavik. Isey is her childhood friend, now married. Isey has a husband, a small child, and absolutely no idea how to be happy or even satisfied with life. The conversations between Hekla and Isey are some of my favorite parts of this book. This one describes Isey impeccably - "It's so much work being with a small child, Hekla. We're together all week, all day long and also at night when Lýdur is away doing road work in the east. I didn't know it would be so wonderful to be a mother. Having a baby has been the best experience of my life. I'm so happy. There's nothing missing in my life. Your letters have kept me alive. I'm so lonely. Sometimes I feel like I'm a terrible mother."

The relationship with friend number two is much more complicated. David Jon John Johnsson, JJ for short, is her roommate, her first lover, and her best friend and confidant. And he is gay. An aspiring fashion designer, JJ displays Hekla's inner angst in a way she doesn't. The 1960s and being openly gay go together as well as peanut butter and spam. JJ continually finds himself in shameful meet-ups with closeted gay men after too much alcohol. He laments openly to Hekla that if he could have it another way, he would. I have no idea what Hekla thinks or believes regarding JJ and his life, but, by the end, I think she lets her feelings be known.

There was also a misbegotten relationship with a poet that takes up a good portion of the story, but for me, it was all about the friends. These are the people in her neighborhood. The trappings of the determined life are on full display from start to finish. Isey's musings and JJ's frustration are symptoms of it. Through Heklas eyes, we have a front-row seat where the inability of people to assess their lives and their choices is on full display, like some unstable peacock. Isey bows to the social norms without so much as a single kick or scream. JJ continues to degrade himself in the name of "love" instead of coming to terms with the reality of his life. I'm not saying that any of them have good options to choose, I'm only saying that self-respect should be a part of the equation. Ultimately, Hekla is the only one that has any. I don't like her choice either, btw, but at least her solution partially satisfies her dream, while at the same time shining a spotlight on the beauty that is the pragmatic narrative I missed out on until the end. It was at this point, this subtle, understated endpoint, that I fell for this book.

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