A review by juditkovacs
Woman at 1,000 Degrees by Hallgrímur Helgason

2.0

 I visited Iceland in August-September of 2023, and naturally I went to a bookstore to buy some Icelandic books. And at one point a lady approached me asking for this book (thinking I worked at the bookstore). She said that the author’s previous book was very funny, and how she was looking forward to reading this one as well. She snatched up the last copy in the store, so I bought this after coming back home. 

With this setup I was expecting a good time. But did not really get that in the end, unfortunately. Aside from a few dark and slightly ironic remarks the book is not really funny. The setup, with the 80+ year old lady with a kick-ass life behind her sitting in a garage in Reykjavik waiting for death, and keeping a hand grenade from WWII on her bedside table could be considered funny in a dark sense. But that’s about it. The overall story is very dark, and gets darker as you approach the end. 

And while this is not necessarily a problem, the way the story is told made this a disappointment. 

I am not familiar with classic, Icelandic sagas and the way they chose to tell things, but to me this was mostly boring and at times very annoying. Not because the main character is unlikeable, and annoying (which she is). But more in the sense of the way the story is told with unnecessary and boring asides in each chapter. And with ever larger sections taking place between 1944-45 the book becomes more and more sad and dark as it approaches the end. If you are familiar with European history of that time, you can guess what sorts of things happen with a young woman, wandering the continent on her own. Almost none of that is reflected upon, or looked at. 

But perhaps this is a choice. There were multiple mentions of the Icelandic tradition of not speaking about your feelings, or things that happened (like Iceland's role in WWII). And perhaps the way the story is told is meant to reflect that. If this was the actual intent, then the book is a decent performance of that. 

But just like performance art is usually confusing, and unpalatable for most people, if this was the reason why the book was told the way it was, then I am not surprised I didn’t get much from it. 

Just showing how people who went through a traumatic experience wanted to keep up appearances but kept failing at it is not enough. And it is not funny. I did get the impression that these sorts of things were meant to be the dark humor everyone was on about. Like the fact that her father is a Nazi fanboy, and completely accepts their propaganda, and thereby keeps putting his family in danger. Or her falling in love (at first sight) with an SS officer, shortly after being raped. 

I didn’t find these things particularly funny though. 

Overall a mixed bag, with some confusing messages.