Mention Books Conducive To Angels of the Universe
| Original Title: | Englar alheimsins |
| ISBN: | 0312150539 (ISBN13: 9780312150532) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Reykjavik (ReykjavÃk)(Iceland) |
| Literary Awards: | Nordisk Raads Litteraturpris (Nordic Council Literature Prize) (1995) |
Einar Már Guðmundsson
Hardcover | Pages: 176 pages Rating: 4.04 | 1592 Users | 85 Reviews
Interpretation Toward Books Angels of the Universe
Born on the day Iceland joined NATO, this novel's unstable narrator worries this and other incidental phenomena into a highly complex, hilarious, and tragic cosmology. More interested in David Bowie and the Beatles than the Nordic sagas that shape the lives of the working-class peoples of Reykjavik, Paul retreats into his own fantastic, schizophrenic, painful world. His madness springs from bits of reality and brighter strikes of insanity. Out-of-work and aimless, tormented by bouts of drinking and ferocious tantrums, Paul walks Reykjavik's streets scaring his family lusting after women, recounting petty humiliations, and imagining the forces that both guide and haunt him. Paul's behaviors lead him to Klepp, a psychiatric hospital outside Reykjavik where he plays out his days in therapy and frantic conversation with its resident patients. Sparsely inhabited, Klepp tends to a variety of disturbed people creating comedic havoc.
Declare Regarding Books Angels of the Universe
| Title | : | Angels of the Universe |
| Author | : | Einar Már Guðmundsson |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 176 pages |
| Published | : | March 1st 1997 by St Martins Press (first published 1993) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. European Literature. Scandinavian Literature. Drama |
Rating Regarding Books Angels of the Universe
Ratings: 4.04 From 1592 Users | 85 ReviewsAssessment Regarding Books Angels of the Universe
This Icelandic novel is told from the point of the view of the the author's late, schizophrenic brother. It is lyrically written, or lyrically translated at least, though the Icelandic woman who gave it to me said the prose is even more beautiful in the original. It is also funny, with the mad characters in the psychiatric hospital limned with humor and compassion rather than the more common cliched, condescending quirks. Yet the narrator does not shy away from what he calls his "darkness" andMy big criticism was that in a slim novel that can be read in two sittings, there are 200 characters, most of whom make a one page appearance than disappear. I can infer from somewhat understanding the saga literary tradition that this is an Icelandic cultural thing, so I will not include the criticism in my final assessment of the novel.I really enjoyed Gudmundsson's depiction of the mentally ill; he did so by making the psychotic delusions in the book rather poetic, perhaps suggesting that
Ejner Mar Gudmundsson is a rather young auther from Iceland. Though he is not well known in the rest of the world, he is famous in Scandinavia, has recieved the most honourable literature prize in Scandinavia (Nordisk Raads Literaturpris, 1995). His works are translated to many languages in the area, also to German and some other languages, but I couldnt find very many of them in English. One can observ Gudmundssons Reykjavik quite unique, as much as Roshdies Bombay.Read this if you're
No light beach reading, this one. Not that I didn't know it going in, but wow. I thought Finns were depressing, but it appears that Iceland is an even darker, colder, harder environment for poor people to grow up in. Still, the tragic, depressing tone of Angels of the Universe wasn't offputting by any means. It was familiar and somehow homely and comfortable, especially with its dry comical moments. Could be that all of us Northerners are a bit off our heads.I very much enjoyed the characters in
Having just passed through Reykjavik for a day, en route to Sweden, I chose this book to read as an escape from the Kindle interface. The bookstore, near the Fron Hotel (highly recommended), carried a few Icelandic writers, including Halidor Laxness, but I wanted to discover a writer who would be more difficult to find. Angels of the Universe was the perfect traveling companion, reminding me in some ways of Saramago (esp Blindness), with its quirky merging of the trajectories of insanity /
Angels of the Universe is a book about mental illness and our incapacity as a society to really cope with mental patients and actually provide the help that they need. The backdrop of the story is Iceland, but there is little of Icelandic culture in the book. The stories mentioned seem to exist in a vacuum, and the chronology itself is sometimes mingled. The narrator prefers to order his stories so as to round up some internal meaning, instead of laying them out in their natural order. The
Such sad, but important book.
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