by Dustin Long
|
| List Price: | $13.00 |
| Amazon Price: | $11.05 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: | $1.95 (15%) |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $4.78 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description
Icelander is the debut novel from a brilliant new mind, an intricate, giddy romp steeped equally in Nordic lore and pulpy intrigue. When Shirley MacGuffin is found murdered one day prior to the annual town celebration in remembrance of Our Heroine’s mother –– the legendary crime-stopper and evil-thwarter Emily Bean –– everyone expects Our Heroine to follow in her mother’s footsteps and solve the case. She, however, has no interest in inheriting the family business, or being chased through steam-tunnels, or listening to skaldic karaoke, or fleeing the inhuman Refurserkir. But evil has no interest in her lack of interest. A Nabokovian goof on Agatha Christie, a madcap mystery that is part The Third Policeman and part The Da Vinci Code, The Icelander is one thing above all else: a true original.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
An entertaining postmodern romp, 2008-11-06
A fun, whimsical and stylish postmodern journey replete with colorful characters, meta-narrative hi-jinks, and writing that isn't afraid to show its literary influences. Wible & Pacheco, the metaphysical investigating duo, are particularly enjoyable ("Typography cannot convey the essence of our subsequent screams"). At times, however, the homage devolves into tropes too blatantly unoriginal to ignore. To wit: Besides the protagonist, Our Heroine, who mirrors The Crying of Lot 49's Oedipa Maas, the novel directly summons Thomas Pynchon at several points, none more clearly than a floating paragraph on pp. 50-51, where Our Heroine watches the snowflakes and contemplates them as indecipherable hieroglyphics from the sky that escape her understanding. The segment recalls the famous paragraph early in The Crying of Lot 49 where Oedipa Maas looks out over the San Narcisso landscape and sees it as a printed circuit, riddled with hieroglyphics imbued with meaning but "just past the threshold of her understanding." Similarly, Long conjures up Paul Auster's deconstruction of the detective novel, City of Glass, when, among other things, he equates the winding ambles of his characters through the streets in coded symbolic terms when viewed from above. All in all, however, Icelander is an entertaining little romp.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 This book has narrative cuddling , 2008-04-03
An excellent book: a rollicking plot, screwball comedy, imaginative world building, insightful meta-fiction, tenderness, intrigue, love, war, peace, playfulness, seriousness, and endless list of adjectives and descriptors that add up to an astonishing work.
Just read, you wont be able to put it down, but it isn't so long that you'll likely starve to death.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 good first novel from a promising author, 2008-01-06
Got this for my birthday. I had high hopes for it when the jacket blurb compared it to The Third Policeman. I enjoyed it, though with reservations. The prose was good, and rarely a chore to read, though sometimes the "Blaise" and "Wible & Pacheco" sections dragged. Referring to the protagonist as "Our Heroine" throughout the novel was more than a bit too precious, and choosing character names like "Constance Lingus", "Philip Leshio", and "Hubert Jorgen" is just cheesy. Long's device of framing the narrative as a manuscript of unknown authorship discovered among the papers of a character mentioned in the text does not excuse these lapses.
I also didn't understand why what was apparently "New York" was referred to throughout the novel as "New Uruk". I think Long did this to indicate that the novel took place in some sort of alternate universe, but the central conceit of the existence of the underground kingdom of Vanaheim (below Iceland) was enough for this purpose.
So, what did I like? I really enjoyed the details about Vanaheim, its inhabitants, ecology, and mythology. Almost everything written from the point of view of "Our Heroine" was interesting. Naming the character whose death sparks the central mystery of the novel "MacGuffin" was a nice touch. And the character of "Nathan" is an entertaining send-up of an affable, pretentious, and self-absorbed Hollywood star. He's based on Ethan Hawke, as evidenced by his description and also in what looks like an acrostic on page 140. I can't decide if "Nathan" is supposed to be good-natured ribbing of Hawke or a mild skewering.
In the end, I liked Icelander enough that I will definitely look for Long's next novel.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
cute!, 2008-01-02
Yes, this book is cute. Just look at that cover! I bet people buy it solely for that alone. I'll admit, it was one of the selling points for me.
But beyond that was a good book. A very good book. Much like others have said, it's akin to Agatha Christie, which madcap characters and foes, along with faux Icelandic lore. It's humorous and smart and a perfectly quick read for the weekend. I'll be rereading it shortly, just because I found it so fun.
You should really buy this book and enjoy it for yourself!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
GREAT STOCKING STUFFER, 2006-12-04
I love this book so much that I am buying it for various friends and family members as the perfect Christmas present. The cover alone is beautiful and reminds you of winter, and the plot is all about mystery, snow, winter and Icelandic lore. An amazing combination for the holidays! This little book slides easily into a stocking for a refreshingly delightful suprise.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|