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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A very ambitious book. It tries to fill some big shoes, but it gets in over its head a little. I applaud the effort, but it wasn't a total success.
I bought Icelander for three reasons: 1)It was cheap, 2) It has a cool cover and 3) the back of the book has two (yes two) comparisons to [a:Vladimir Nabokov|5152|Vladimir Nabokov|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1188830569p2/5152.jpg]. Being a Nabokovite and a lover of pretty covers, I bought it not knowing what I was in for.
Icelander is one of those post-modern type meta-narratives that seem to be more and more popular, and which I often enjoy. Here we have a fictional editor, presenting a manuscript which was possibly (or possibly not) written by one of the characters within the novel. This fictional author is the creator of a series of books based on the Bean-Ymirson family, who during their heyday engaged in a number of outlandish, pulp-style mysteries which have been adapted into a line of best selling books. Now, the daughter of Emily Bean, the chief detective protagonist of these stories, lives in a quiet New England town where she tries unsuccessfully to avoid taking on her mother's mantle when her friend turns up murdered one day.
While the book is clever in its own way, and the humor is certainly to my taste, Long is no Nabokov, although he does attempt at some of Nabokov's wordplay and wit, his unreliable narrator/editor, and even throws in a few Lepidopterology Easter eggs. I don't really feel the comparison is all that warranted, but you can see that Long does derive influence from Nabokov, even if he can't get to his level. In fact, Long derives influence from quite a few things, and in a way that influence might be a little too obvious. The philosophical detectives are almost copy-and-paste reproductions of the I Heart Huckabees characters, and anyone familiar with the show The Venture Bros. can see the obvious parallel, that also being a story concerning the offspring of a pulp-style hero who lives a more mundane life in the shadow of his outrageously accomplished progenitor.
Even so, the humor got to me, and I found the book going back and forth from cutesy to rather clever. The murder mystery aspect didn't have much interest for me though, as I don't care for that sort of thing, not to mention I took long breaks in between passages, something probably at the top of the list of things not to do when reading a murder mystery, especially when your poor memory precludes you from recalling revelatory clues. I wouldn't, however, be adverse to reading something more from the author, and as a debut novel, it is a fun and engaging read which shows lots of promise.
Icelander is one of those post-modern type meta-narratives that seem to be more and more popular, and which I often enjoy. Here we have a fictional editor, presenting a manuscript which was possibly (or possibly not) written by one of the characters within the novel. This fictional author is the creator of a series of books based on the Bean-Ymirson family, who during their heyday engaged in a number of outlandish, pulp-style mysteries which have been adapted into a line of best selling books. Now, the daughter of Emily Bean, the chief detective protagonist of these stories, lives in a quiet New England town where she tries unsuccessfully to avoid taking on her mother's mantle when her friend turns up murdered one day.
While the book is clever in its own way, and the humor is certainly to my taste, Long is no Nabokov, although he does attempt at some of Nabokov's wordplay and wit, his unreliable narrator/editor, and even throws in a few Lepidopterology Easter eggs. I don't really feel the comparison is all that warranted, but you can see that Long does derive influence from Nabokov, even if he can't get to his level. In fact, Long derives influence from quite a few things, and in a way that influence might be a little too obvious. The philosophical detectives are almost copy-and-paste reproductions of the I Heart Huckabees characters, and anyone familiar with the show The Venture Bros. can see the obvious parallel, that also being a story concerning the offspring of a pulp-style hero who lives a more mundane life in the shadow of his outrageously accomplished progenitor.
Even so, the humor got to me, and I found the book going back and forth from cutesy to rather clever. The murder mystery aspect didn't have much interest for me though, as I don't care for that sort of thing, not to mention I took long breaks in between passages, something probably at the top of the list of things not to do when reading a murder mystery, especially when your poor memory precludes you from recalling revelatory clues. I wouldn't, however, be adverse to reading something more from the author, and as a debut novel, it is a fun and engaging read which shows lots of promise.
I didn’t care for the notes at the bottom. I didn’t really enjoy the plot with the constant reference to characters and plots of other books I haven’t read.
Plays around with structure a little, Norse mythology a little, has not just a mystery but a kind of post-modern/meta- mystery to solve.... It fleshes out its world well, and it was a usually fun read once the mystery got started.
I could have given this book a solid 4/4.5 stars id it weren't for the extensive borrowing from the Amelia Peabody books. I thought this story was very interesting and the structure of the narrative was very clever, but I can't understand the author's purpose in using Elizabeth Peters' characters, structure, and premise. Was he trying to make some statement about the books? Trying to imagine where life might have gone for these characters after the existing installments (if that's the case, it's very distressing since Amelia's analog is dead, Emerson's is senile, and Nefret's turns on the Ramses character and goes back to her oasis civilization)? Or maybe he just loved the characters so much that he wanted to use them (which makes this seem like glorified fan-fiction)? Dustin Long mentions in this interview that he wanted Ymirson's name "to have certain resonances," mentioning Radcliffe Emerson specifically, but also that he's "trying to avoid being derivative even in a self-conscious way." I don't see how you can end up with a product that uses so much of another series and pass it off as just one of myriad influences on your text. I also find it a little suspicious that the jacket description openly compares Icelander to several other authors/works (Agatha Christie, Nabokov, The Crying of Lot 49, The Third Policeman, The Da Vinci Code) but avoids any mention of Elizabeth Peters when the similarities are so blatant.
