Scan barcode
A review by danni_faith
Narrator by Bragi Ólafsson
5.0
This is the first book I've read from Open Letter Press, and it certainly will not be the last. I fully intend to check out a few of the other books they've put out.
Ólafsson has written a modernist novel that reminded me of Paul Auster's [b:Ghosts|434|Ghosts (The New York Trilogy, #2)|Paul Auster|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529501564s/434.jpg|121654]. Both feature a man stalking another man while he performs everyday tasks. G. is both the main character and the narrator, not meaning that the novel is told from his perspective as an intradiegetic character but rather that the novel is told in both first person POV and third person POV, both using G. as the narrator. Ólafsson treats us to an unflinching look at a man who is deeply dissatisfied with this life and mentally unbalanced. His parents were middle-aged when they had him, he lives in his parents' basement, he is working on a manuscript and has yet to find the courage to submit, and a woman he once loved did not reciprocate those feelings.
This book challenged me and required that I come to with a sharp mind. Ólafsson did one of my favorite literary tricks: misdirection. On the surface, this novel is about G. who is stalking a man, the source of his hatred, because of an affair that the man had with the woman he loved over a decade ago. We experience Aron Cesar, the stalkee, through G. playing omniscient narrator and giving us insight into the background and inner thoughts of Aron. However, because this is all filtered through G. we quickly see that G. is a man plagued by inner turmoil and loneliness. He relays the events of the novel through a more distanced and objective vantage point because he, like one of the characters in a movie both men sit through, suppresses his emotions. We see how his upbringing was one marked by repression, a repression that has carried over to his adult life.
While reading this novel, I struggled to believe that Aron even existed. Could it not be that this whole novel was in the mind of G. who was using his writing as a way to confess and deal with his emotional trauma that stems from his childhood? In any case, I will not soon forget the remarkable wit and talent it took to write such a short, complicated, and compelling novel.
Ólafsson has written a modernist novel that reminded me of Paul Auster's [b:Ghosts|434|Ghosts (The New York Trilogy, #2)|Paul Auster|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529501564s/434.jpg|121654]. Both feature a man stalking another man while he performs everyday tasks. G. is both the main character and the narrator, not meaning that the novel is told from his perspective as an intradiegetic character but rather that the novel is told in both first person POV and third person POV, both using G. as the narrator. Ólafsson treats us to an unflinching look at a man who is deeply dissatisfied with this life and mentally unbalanced. His parents were middle-aged when they had him, he lives in his parents' basement, he is working on a manuscript and has yet to find the courage to submit, and a woman he once loved did not reciprocate those feelings.
This book challenged me and required that I come to with a sharp mind. Ólafsson did one of my favorite literary tricks: misdirection. On the surface, this novel is about G. who is stalking a man, the source of his hatred, because of an affair that the man had with the woman he loved over a decade ago. We experience Aron Cesar, the stalkee, through G. playing omniscient narrator and giving us insight into the background and inner thoughts of Aron. However, because this is all filtered through G. we quickly see that G. is a man plagued by inner turmoil and loneliness. He relays the events of the novel through a more distanced and objective vantage point because he, like one of the characters in a movie both men sit through, suppresses his emotions. We see how his upbringing was one marked by repression, a repression that has carried over to his adult life.
While reading this novel, I struggled to believe that Aron even existed. Could it not be that this whole novel was in the mind of G. who was using his writing as a way to confess and deal with his emotional trauma that stems from his childhood? In any case, I will not soon forget the remarkable wit and talent it took to write such a short, complicated, and compelling novel.