Falleinkunn Sendiherrans hjá Iceland Review

Gagnrýnandi vefmiðilsins Iceland Review, Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, er lítt hrifin af Sendiherranum í dómi sínum sem birtist á vefnum 10. janúar en bókin kom út í enskri þýðingu síðla árs 2010. Hún gefur henni falleinkunn eða 2 stjörnur af 5 mögulegum. Heldur þykir henni söguþráðurinn óspennandi og ekki síður aðalsöguhetjan Sturla Jónsson. Í dómnum segir m.a.:

“The main character of The Ambassador, poet Sturla Jón Jónsson, is not only unsympathetic but also uninteresting. His actions, his thoughts, the conversation he leads and the characters surrounding him did nothing but make me sleepy and had it not been for this column I would have given up on the book somewhere in the first chapters.”

Lesa má dóminn í heild sinni á vef Iceland Review.

Annar tónn hjá gagnrýnanda Grapevine

Í desember 2010 birtist einnig dómur um The Ambassador í Grapevine. Þar kveður við annan tón í ítarlegum dómi, sem er ritaður af Öldu Kravec.  Gagnrýnandinn hrífst af Sturlu og öðrum karakterum í bókinni. Þar segir m.a.:

“In some way, ‘The Ambassador’ reads like a narrative re-working of Dostoevsky’s famous quote regarding his literary contemporaries and their predecessor Nikolai Gogol: “We all come out from Gogol’s ‘Overcoat’”. Sturla is himself an admirer of Gogol.

Despite these various allusions, ‘The Ambassador’ remains accessible and funny. It is not necessary to understand every reference in order to appreciate the humour of the novel. Indeed, a large part of the humour lies in poking fun of the idiosyncrasies of the artist figure, a paradox given the commonplaceness of such a figure in Icelandic society. Throughout the novel, Sturla continually encounters dubious characters who claim to be poets and artists—a salesperson in a men’s clothing store, a dim-witted neighbour, a fat Russian at a strip club, a taxi driver in Druskininkai. Thus the artist figure is humorously demystified: if everyone’s an artist, then nobody is.”

Lesa má dóminn í heild sinni á vef Grapevine.

Leave a Reply