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Heimska
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Wikipedia article
'Heimska' ('stupidity'), published by Ml og menning in 2015, is the fifth novel by the Icelandic author Eirkur rn Nordahl. It was chosen best Scandinavian fiction by the French literary magazine 'Transfuge'.Brynja, 'Heimska valin besti skandinavski skldskapurinn', 'Bjarins besta' (6 January 2017), http://gamli.bb.is/Pages/120/?NewsID=201563 .
Summary
The novel is written in the third person, making some use of free indirect discourse and occasional included texts such as an email, an essay, and a book review. It is divided into ten sections, and ninety-four short chapters.
The action is set in safjrur, implicitly in the near future. In addition to social media prominent at the time of the novel's composition (Facebook, Instagram and Skype are all mentioned, for example), it is usual for people to install webcams throughout their homes, enabling others to watch them at will. Drones also serve as flying eyes. Despite this highly technologised setting, for much of the novel there are irregular, unexpected power-cuts.
The main characters are ki and Lenta Talbot, a narcissistic, sex-obsessed couple around their late thirties, who are also among Iceland's pre-eminent novelists, and whose fractious relationship has for most of their careers generated the artistic inspiration that each needs. Fairly significant appearances are also made by Lenta's twin sister Tilda and Tilda's husband Ragel.
The novel begins by explaining that ki and Lenta have separated. Each had just finished drafting a novel and revealed its content to the other. It turns out that both wrote a novel set in the early twenty-first century about a man called Akme. In each, Akme migrates from a majority-Islamic country to Iceland as a youth. He becomes an Islamic-fundamentalist terrorist, joins ISIS, and fights in the Syrian Civil War, before being found dead in a house on Laugavegur. (Chapter XLVI, apparently a review of the books, partly reproduced on the cover of 'Heimska', provides explicit commentary on the pomposity of two white authors largely ignorant of Islam writing this story.) Although 'Heimska' mentions that the publishers' lawyers conclude that there is no plagiarism case to bring, ki and Lenta are each convinced that the other has stolen their idea, and ki moves out of their shared home into Htel safjrur, establishing an office in a disused seafood factory nearby.
Both enter a period of profound creative block and devote their energies to trying to hurt each other emotionally, principally by sending each other video footage of themselves having sex with other people. This activity comprises a significant part of the book. It includes Lenta recording footage of a drunken ki having sex with a teenager called Mar Steinsdttir, which Lenta posts on an internet pornography site. In revenge, ki posts footage of Lenta having sex with a barman in Tenerife, Bob Bourequat.
Around section 6 of the novel, Iceland experiences an extended power-cut; section 6 itself comprises a series of vignettes portraying different people around safjrur coping with the disappearance of electricity from their lives. The power-cut is followed by an email sent to most of the country's citizens claiming that one Birta Sllilja has cut the power in order to promote calmer lifestyles and a more viable future.
Through a flashback, the novel then explains that the furore over the publications of the videos of ki and Lenta having sex with Mar and Bob leads Mar and Bob themselves to meet and become a couple, while Mar is studying art in Reykjavk. Their friend Drafbjartur r Lie convinces them and another friend, Gurn (Grun) Valsdttir, to help him with his final degree project. He has been inspired to emulate the terrorist plot which Akme is described to plan in ki's novel 'Akme', which involves shutting down Iceland's power through computer hacking and physical destruction. The team successfully applies for a grant to hire the Finnish computer hacker Sirpa Hietala, whose politics are inspired by the controversial deep ecologist Pentti Linkola, and move to safjrur to undertake their artistic project, working in the same disused factory as ki.
Following the power-cut, the police arrest Drafbjartur, Grun, Mar and Bob, and in unspecified circumstances kill Sirpa. However, they also believe that ki is part of the plot, and torture him when he (who has not even noticed Mar's presence at the factory) refuses to confess. He consequently dies in police custody, and the police successfully claim that the internal bleeding that caused his death was the consequence of ki's own dissolute lifestyle.
Translations
* 'Dumhet', trans. by John Swedenmark (Malm : Rmus, 2016) [Swedish]
* 'Heimska : la stupidit', trans. by ric Boury (Paris : ditions Mtaili, 2017) [French]
Reviews
* Anna Kristn Halldrsdttir, '[http://pjatt.is/2016/03/05/baekur-heimska-ogedfelld-framtidarsyn Heimska gefelld framtarsn safiri]', 'Pjatt.is' (5 March 2016)
* Kristjn Gujnsson, '[http://www.pressan.is/Menningarpressan/LesaMenningarfrett/heimska-eirikur-orn-norddahl-skrifar-um-nand-og-firrd-i-synileikathjodfelaginu-i-nyjustu-skaldsogu-sinni Heimska: Eirkur rn Nordahl skrifar um nnd og firr snileikajflaginu njustu skldsgu sinni]', 'Pressan' (7 January 2016)
* Slveig sta Sigurardttir, 'Sjlfhverful framt', 'Tmarit Mls og menningar', 77.1 (2016), 139-143
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