Miss Iceland

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Isey, Hekla’s friend from childhood, shared her literary aspirations growing up but wound up meeting a man, marrying, and having children. For those who haven’t, what are some other novels that successfully depict ‘outsiders’ trying to find their place in an unwelcoming world? It's one of those books where you think "I'm glad I don't live in he 60s" but makes you wonder whether we've actually moved on all that much?

The reviews are also posted on LibraryThing, and 267 people have indicated their appreciation of those reviews. I love Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, based on a real and tragic historical event, and all of Ragnar Jonasson's detective novels. It's a powerful portrayal of a woman's struggle for freedom in the 1960s, but its true lesson is for the present, as a gorgeously crafted reminder of the tenacious nature of discrimination and hate, and the determination and commitment that is often required to overcome it. She struggles to stay sane by keeping a clandestine diary in which, since so little happens, she records what doesn't happen. And so he hits the road again – constantly seeking escape from the small-minded bigotry which then, like now, is the greatest barrier to the happiness of good people.Rafn Rafnsson, the new chief executive of the Miss Iceland contest, "in hopes of diversifying the field of contestants beyond the statuesque blonde with striking blue eyes that has become the Icelandic stereotype", said "There is no Miss Iceland stereotype. Olafsdottir’s writing is at once profoundly Icelandic—focusing the reader on all the particularity of life on that isolated island—and universal… Her authorial voice is immediate and intimate, yet it feels remote from the Anglophone world.

The gentle melancholy of the book had a arthouse cinema film-like quality to it and visually the words created a tableaux of images and interactions. The male poets who gather nightly in the cafes and bars to pose and posture seem little different from 21st century hipster bros.

It may seem trite to forever be comparing modern Icelandic literature to Viking sagas, but there is an epic saga-like quality to the prose. Miss Iceland gets a crown and sceptre, a blue Icelandic festival costume with a golden belt for the competition on Long Island, two gowns and a coat with a fur collar. Hekla's closest friend and confidant is a gay man who is persecuted and beaten, by the police among others.