Two stars, largely due to general confusion throughout. I feel like I have to think more about this one and see if things come to make sense… or if this is just a confusing jumble.

Recommended: not really
Stay away if you want a point to the story, if you want clear reactions and reasons for things, if you want more than rambling conversations. Take it on if you have a group of people to discuss it with, maybe with one who’s from Iceland, or if you want to have a kind of literary puzzle to decipher.

Thoughts:
I went into this with and entirely different expectation of what I would find, which jarred me a bit in the first few pages. Going through this, my overall impression is that the writing itself is beautiful despite being quite sparse, and I felt like it really reflected the mood and reality of Iceland. (I went to Iceland, and specifically Reykjavik, last December, so I was able to link places and issues they were talking about with my experience.) That more than anything is what kept me going through it: it was just somehow lovely in the words themselves. This is getting two stars because I feel that a critical aspect of this is just out of reach from what I read, but perhaps with discussion around it, that remaining piece would fall into place. I could see this being a favorite book for others, particularly perhaps with a book club or buddy reads.

As a story though? I’m totally lost. It was told primarily through conversations, sometimes in lengths of speaking that were so long I forgot who was talking or why. One technical difficulty with that were issues with punctuation that sometimes obscured who was actually speaking or what they were saying versus thinking – hopefully that’s just an ARC issue, but when it interferes with my understanding of the book, I feel the need to call it out.

The characters’ stories all felt unconnected to each other. Hekla was the only constant link, and it felt more like each individual talking about themselves, through the medium of Hekla to the reader. Strange moments were sprinkled in as well, such as when Hekla and Jon John are talking about his difficulties with men and women, and in the middle there’s a rare line of description: “Two dogs start fighting in the alley.” I feel like it should mean something, it should matter that there’s this uncommon moment of description, but I have no idea what it would mean. They were not fighting; they were in agreement. If you figure it out, let me know

This is one of those stories where it’s about the characters and their mindsets, rather than about a particular plot or conflict. In fact, I have a hard time pointing out a conflict. I even have a hard time pointing out the ending, besides that it was the last few pages. Why was that the last few pages – I have no idea. I read between the lines and flipped back to review the scene details, thought if it was referencing something earlier in the story, but I can’t even piece the bare bones of what happened, let alone the significance. I really wish I had someone to discuss this book with, as I feel that would help me coalesce some meaning from it, some significance. I feel like it’s there, but I’m just missing it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn't what I expected.  I chose it because I am not familiar with Iceland and wanted to learn something about it.  I did learn of some famous Icelanic authors, but the story didn't hold my attention.  The tale meanders from Helka's childhood, to her friend who is a young mother, to a gay friend and then to her lover.  It seems aimless as do the characters. Helka is a female writer whose goal is to have a novel published, yet her friend seems more passionate about writing than she does.  I kept hoping that the storylines would come together in some way, but they don't and the story just ends.  I received a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

‘Miss Iceland’ is a novel that reads almost like poetry. The story is, in many ways, fragmented… providing little caveats and side stories that inform the greater narrative. I found this style to be mostly successful in creating fleeting glimpses into the protagonist’s mind and heart. 

Set in Iceland in the early 1960s, 'Miss Iceland' follows Hekla, a burgeoning novelist, who has moved to Reykjavik in order to write and be published. She has to battle sexism and harassment as she tries to work to support herself. Hekla’s childhood friend, Jon John, struggles with finding a place for himself in society as a gay man. As Hekla’s and Jon John’s stories intertwine, the reader gets a window into this specific time and place, and gain insight into what it feels like to not “fit in.”

First off, I found this novel’s descriptions of Icelandic life and culture to be fascinating. I also appreciated Audur Ava Olafsdottir’s rich characters, all who have their own strengths and struggles. Her juxtaposition of Hekla and Jon John as characters who defy the norms of the day is especially poignant and profound. I also found Isey’s story to be another interesting counterpoint to Hekla’s. And, without spoiling any plot points, I found the ending to be as impactful as it was abrupt. It's perhaps not the most satisfying ending, but perhaps is the only ending that makes sense. 

In all, this is a short, yet deeply meditative, read that really makes you think. 

**Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.**

A good read although animal lovers might be upset by one passage. Fascinating to learn about Iceland in the 1960s, newly independent but expecting conformity from its population. 

My full review on my blog:

https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/book-review-audur-ava-olafsdottir-miss-iceland/

Raves for this novel.Set in Iceland in the sixties a group of characters that draw you i to their lives.A novel involving friendship books authors poetry. An excellent read one of this year’s favorites for me hope to read more by this author.#netgalley#groveatlantic

Ólafsdóttir's "Miss Iceland" is an incredibly well-written novel, with both a vibrant writing style and poignant themes; feminism, reading, writing, travel, homosexuality and especially minorities facing a society that is sorely lacking in openness.

Don't let the cover of this book fool you. It makes it look like this is going to be a cute, quirky chick-lit story instead of a thoughtful commentary on the way society treats women and minorities. This book is so much more than what I thought I signed up for. Because of the juxtaposition of where I thought the book was going and where it actually went, it took me a little bit to get into it. I wasn't sure if I was going to even like it at first. However, I found it to be an interesting peek at Icelandic culture, World War II Iceland, and societal commentary. 

As I said, I thought this book was going to be something else. That said, I am not mad at all with where it went. I thought at some point the main character was actually going to become Miss Iceland and use it as a platform for gender equality or get a book deal. That’s not at all where it went. I thought it might have some cute romantic elements and overall be more fluffy than it actually was. This is a classic case of why you should not judge a book by its cover. It was none of these things. I really enjoyed it after I got over my preconceptions. I originally wanted to read it to learn more about Iceland and it fulfilled that requirement quite nicely.

I found the peek into Icelandic culture absolutely fascinating. I knew that current day Iceland is a book lovers paradise. One in ten Icelanders publish a book in their lifetime, which I find absolutely amazing. I wish the ability to publish the more traditional route was more widely available. In the book, kids skip school to pretend at becoming a poet. They dream of becoming poets and authors. When I was young, kids skipped school for non-literary purposes and did things that I find less appealing than pretending to be an author. Almost all of the characters have some sort of literary aspirations at some point in this book and they heavily reminded me of my friend group in University.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. They reminded me of my own friend group in University because they all have such high literary aspirations or are very supportive of each other. Jón John is everything pure and good in the world. He is by far my favorite character in this novel. He is the right mix of sarcastic, serious, dramatic, and dreamer. I loved all the scenes with him in it and wish there were actually more. I enjoyed Hekla too. She’s determined, knows what she wants, and no man is going to get in her way. The whole cast is quirky, unique, and yet relatable. I can see friends and family members in these characters.

Overall, I would recommend this if you like determined women who are not satisfied with the status quo. Those interested in Icelandic culture and history will probably find this interesting as well. It would be an excellent read for a book club with all of the different layers in the story. If you’re looking for a short chick-lit book, like the cover suggests, you will be disappointed. I don’t subscribe to the idea that a book is chick-lit because it is written by a woman or about a woman. This book has a more serious message at it’s heart and I think readers should sit up and listen. 

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for providing an e-ARC for my reading pleasure. The thoughts and opinions in the review are my own. Also, sorry that this review is a little earlier than the "sweet spot," I just couldn't wait to read it.

The novel opens in Iceland in 1942. Because of his love and Passion for volcanos the protagonist of this novel is named by her father after a volcano. Hekla, is an active volcano in the south west of Iceland and also according to her father a beautiful name for a little baby girl.

Four and a half years after Hekla is born the volcano that shares her name erupts after lying dormant for over a century. Hekla’s (the baby, not the volcano) father is in rapturous ecstasy. He knows that most volcano enthusiasts never get to witness an eruption in their lifetime and although he is not there. his sister tells him over the phone exactly what is happening, and he repeats it excitedly verbatim to his wife, who could not care less.

He simply cannot let this once in a lifetime opportunity go by and he grabs his daughter jumps in his jeep and heads to the volcano like a bat out of hell, or a bat out of a volcano. When he returns the melted soles of his boots tell his wife just how close he got to witnessing his dream.

We than jump to 1963. Hekla’s body may be in a bus close to the city of Budardalur, but her mind is very much ensconced in Dublin as she reads James Joyce’s Ulysses. She pauses in her reading to think of the female poet who succumbed to melancholy and walked out into the river one night only to be found wrapped up in the fishing nets the following day. 

The female poet was the only role model that Hekla had, all the other poets being men. You see Hekla is already a published writer.

At a stop, an annoying unctuous mand slips into the seat beside her and eventually after a lengthy inane one-sided conversation tells Hekla that he sits on the board of the Reykjavik Beauty Society and would she like to become and entrant in their Miss Iceland Beauty Contest. Hekla respectfully declines hoping he will get the message and leave her alone. He leaves her his card in case she has a change of mind.

As she arrives at her friend’s town, she stops on the way to peer through the windows of the Mokka cafe, the café where all the poets hang out, drinking coffee and compiling their latest works of art. She peers through the dark window but cannot make out any faces. Resignedly she trudges on to her friend’s place. 

Both of Hekla’s best friends are severely depressed and feel trapped in lives that they don’t wish to live in. Isey, secretly envies Hekla. Her freedom, her writing. She feels trapped with her baby, contradicting herself, saying motherhood is the best thing that can happen to a woman and in the very next sentence wishing she was not stuck with her baby all day every day. There is a hint of mania in her voice as she tells Hekla that you can never take your eyes of them for even a second.

Jon John is a different kettle of fish. “Fish” being an intended pun because when we meet him, he has just returned from a fishing ship. A ship which he tells Hekla he is never going back to. Jon John is a gay man in a time when it is not “ok” to be gay, in fact, it is downright dangerous. The police see the queer folk as little better than paedophiles and Jon John, as well as receiving death threats, has been violently beaten more than once. He dreams to leave this city and work in fashion or the theatre.

Jon John is a mess of self-loathing, declaring to Hekla, 

“I wish I weren’t the way I am, but I can’t change that. Men are meant to go with women, I sleep with men.”

“I don’t belong to any group Hekla. I’m a mistake who shouldn’t have been born.” 

He never knew his father, an American soldier who sailed away leaving his mum with a copy of A farewell to Arms with an inscription “With love from John”. He never even knew his surname.

The narrative is very heavily character based, which in this case is a good thing as the characters are wonderfully rich and real. 

In the 1960’s, writing, although there were a few notable exceptions, was still seen very much as a man’s vocation. This passage sums it up beautifully, 

“Men are born poets. By the time of 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.”

The novel is also about deception and subterfuge. Hekla hides her writing from her poet boyfriend and writes under a male pseudonym, which many women writers were forced to do in order to publish their work.

There is a wonderful passage in the book alluding to deception, where Isey is explaining to Hekla about a painting they have on the wall. Isey tells Hekla that the painter told her that if she scraped the top layer of paint off, there is another painting underneath. Beautiful allegorical writing.

Hekla and Jon John are best friends, and both struggle every day to get by in life.

So, this is a story of the beautiful friendship of two square shaped pegs, born in the wrong time, unable and unwilling to fit into life’s round shape holes on the board. 4 Stars.

Where to start on this amazing story.  Ísey, Hekla, Jón John, and Starkadur are four young people living in Iceland during the early sixties all coming to terms with their futures with considerable angst. 
The interaction between the group is the main story only soon you realise there much more at play here with subtle moments concerning the foibles and successes of life woven into the story.  
I love this style where you feel you know and care for the characters leaving one wishing to follow the next stage in their lives
I have given an independent review for NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.

A fantastic novel. Olafsdottir really brings the Icelandic culture and atmosphere to the page. We follow the writer Hekla, who has to navigate her life in Reykjavik as a writer and a waitress, dealing with overt sexism and harassment in her everyday life during the 1940s. It also looks at how literature plays an important part in almost every aspect of her life. Her relationship with her friend, Jon John was one of the most interesting parts of the book. I would definitely read more from this author and I highly recommend this both as a personal read and a book club read.

When it is snowy and cold outside, superspeed readers like me can read 150 - 200+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today. LOL

I received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

Iceland in the 1960s. Hekla is a budding female novelist who was born in the remote district of Dalir. After packing her few belongings, including James Joyce's Ulysses and a Remington typewriter, she heads for Reykjavik with a manuscript buried in her bags. There, she intends to become a writer. Sharing an apartment with her childhood and queer friend Jon John, Hekla comes to learn that she will have to stand alone in a small male-dominated community that would rather see her win a pageant than be a professional artist. As the two friends find themselves increasingly on the outside, their bond shapes and strengthen them artistically in the most moving of ways.

Am I the only person who wants to move to Iceland? (I have wanted to live there or visit there for 35+ years despite what issues I am sure I would have with the language!)  Although this is not exactly and edda, it is still an enjoyable semi-historical read. Covering everything from identifying as LGBTQIA in a time when that could get you killed in such a male-dominated society to feminism to a desire to be an artist, there is just about something for everyone in this book! 

A great book club pick, I can see discussing which cover you like the most (My Facebook review shows all I could find - I am partial to Froken Island) as well as how things have changed and have not changed in the past 50+ years.  

As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I love emojis (outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials" on Instagram and Twitter..get a real job, people!) so let's give it 🏔 🏔 🏔 🏔 🏔

This book is very noir in that Hekla who is very beautiful, ends up married to her gay best friend Jón John. But I haven't said that they got married so that she could write and he could be left alone to meet men. And he would support her so she could write her friends and father besides books and poetry. This book is spent in Iceland and Denmark plus probably Spain. Hekla moved to Reykjavik and Ísey her best girl friend had a baby girl, her husband Lýdur was never home because of work. They write letters all the time, and Hekla father talks on the phone to her. When she finds a job she is always told that she would make the best Miss Iceland by her customers and one in particular. She meets a male librarian, Starkadur, and moves in with him but she hides that she is a poet and a writer of books. This doesn't prove a problem until he finds out about her gay male friend. Jón John has sailed away to Denmark on a ship. Hekla meets Starkadur's mother in a trip to his home during a vacation period and says she's only a girl friend not a potential wife. Then she gets a ticket from Jón John to come to Denmark. Things get involved and they end up getting married and leaving for the south. Hekla ends up sending a book to Starkadur for him to put it in his name on it. This is the story as Hekla tells it and it has many, many more parts to it. It's not a crime book at all but it is a good read I would recommend it to my people.