Home | Books By Year | Books from 2018
Nrbuxnaverksmijan
Buy Nrbuxnaverksmijan now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Nrbuxnaverksmijan' ('The Underpants Factory') is a children's novel by Arnds rarinsdttir, published in Reykjavk in 2018 by Ml og menning..
Form
The novel is a short prose narrative in ten chapters, each of which includes a full-page monochrome illustration by Sigmundur Breifjr orgeirsson and a number of smaller illustrations of different, sometimes outlandish, kinds of underpants. Chapters begin with a subheading often including pants-related puns on well known Icelandic proverbs and phrases, such as 'blindur er brkarlaus maur' ('a trouserless person is blind') for 'blindur er bklaus maur' ('a bookless person is blind').
Summary
The protagonists are Gutti, the most diligent child in his school, and lna, the most troublesome.
Near the beginning of the story, Gutti learns that the underpants factory that dominates his neighbourhood has just been closed by the authorities. After school, he goes to the home of his grandmother, who works in the factory, expecting to find her there. She does not return, but lna finds Gutti there and convinces him to investigate the factory.
Climbing in through an open window, the duo explore forgotten sections of the building, discovering a large colony of rabbits in a fabric store, a dysfunctional robot called BlnduRASS 3000, a community of anarchist teenagers revelling in the lack of a mobile phone signal, and a group of partying retirees hiding in the factory to avoid entering retirement homes. These last direct Gutti to his missing grandmother, who turns out secretly to have been running the factory single-handed since most human employees were replaced by machines, and thus to have been sheltering the various misfits inhabiting the factory.
Gutti learns that, no longer able to keep pace with the global underpants market, she has been unable to sustain the business, and that the factory is about to be demolished. He rushes out to reason with the demolition crew, eventually forestalling their activities by slashing the tyres of one of their machines.
The story closes with a retrospective account of how Gutti, his grandmother, and lna succeed in winning official approval to turn the factory into a heritage and cultural centre called Rumpurinn.
Reviews
* Katrn Lilja Jnsdttir, '[https://lestrarklefinn.is/2018/10/24/naerbuxur Nrbuxur!]', 'Lestrarklefinn' (24 October 2018).
* Brynhildur Bjrnsdttir, '[https://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?issId=399443&pageId=7024076&lang=is&q=N%E6rbuxnaverksmi%F0jan Babb Brkarenda]', 'Frttablai', 18.266 (10 November 2018), 55.
* Ingibjrg Fra Helgadttir and Slvi r Jrundsson, '[http://www.ruv.is/spila/ruv-xtra/bokaormarad-krakkaruv-2018-bokaormaspjall-naerbuxnaverksmidjan/20181207 Bkaormaspjall - Nrbuxnaverksmijan]', 'Bkaormar KrakkaRV 2018' (7 December 2018).
Buy Nrbuxnaverksmijan now from Amazon
<-- Return to books from 2018