Love Denied

The Sacrament
A Novel By Olaf Olafsson
HarperCollins, 2019

Olaf Olafsson is an Icelandic businessman who was instrumental in the development of the Sony PlayStation as well as serving as an executive at Time-Warner. If that wasn’t enough of a career, he is also a successful novelist—this is his fifth. I've read some of his other ones and found them competent, if somewhat uninspired. This one is a step up although my personal bias (discussed later) may have something to do with my perceptions.

It is the story of Pauline who becomes enamored of an Icelandic woman (Halla) when they are both attending a Catholic college in Paris in the late sixties. Although the affair unconsummated, the Father in charge separates the two. Twenty years later, Pauline, now Sister Johanna Marie, is sent to Reykjavík to investigate alleged mistreatment of students at the Catholic school there. An event occurs when she is there that is revisited again, twenty years later. The resolution of this mystery (as well as a chance of reconciliation with Halla) drives the plot forward. Although it is well-written, the story jumps in time through the three eras, it is a little confusing at times; this is not a book to be idly read.

My personal take on this book is colored by my experiences in Iceland, including numerous references to places I’ve been—the neighborhood of the church is very familiar to me—at one point Sister Johanna even stays in what appears to be the same room I stayed in in 2006! The story of abuse in the Catholic school also mirrors a real-life scandal that broke a few years ago. This novel is fiction, of course, but it is easy to see where Olaf got some of his inspiration.

I was a little put off by this book at first, I thought that the author may have been in over his head with his focus on the lesbian sub-theme, but he did resolve it by the end.

Recommended

One Station Away

A novel by Olaf Olafsson
HarperCollins, 2017

I found this in a Des Moines library sell cart.

I had read other books by Olaf, a Reykjavík-born polymath who has been successful in physics, computer systems and media (he helped develop the Sony Playstation and was a Time-Warner vice-president); his novels tend to be melancholy affairs, this one is no exception. Magnus Conyngham is a neurologist, the son of an English father and an Icelandic mother. He has a difficult relationship with his parents, they were both active in music but he was not, and grew up suspecting that he was the cause of his mother’s failure to succeed as a concert pianist. He had a girlfriend, Malena, and currently works with a woman named Simone in a project with an aim to reach people who are apparently brain dead. One of whom, name unknown, he thinks he can make contact with.

These four women are a source of conflict for Magnus: his girlfriend’s health issues, his mother’s recording comeback, Simone’s failed attempts to establish a more meaningful relationship with Magnus, and the semi-comatose accident victim who is resistant to his attempts to bring her out of her shell.

Things go from bad to worse as the story progresses, Magnus can’t seem to react in a meaningful way to any of it—he is emotionally stunted—one colleague suggests that he take a personality inventory to find out where he is on the autistic spectrum.

Olaf’s writing is fine, he handles the four intertwining stories well, even when they get a little far-fetched.

A qualified recommendation, I think his more recent books are better.

Touch

Touch
A Novel by
Olaf Olafsson
Published by Ecco, 2022

Leaving New Mexico behind, my literary pursuits took me back to Iceland (and then to Japan) in this elegant, bittersweet book. This is also a Covid novel, a genre that I’ve explored my own writing. Touch is a story of love found and lost and found again. Kristófer, a widower, is a successful chef in Reykjavík who has decided to retire after the onset of Covid-19 pandemic destroys his business. At the same time a long-lost lover, Miko, (who had abruptly left him years ago) had gotten in touch with him and seemed interested in reconciling. Kristófer undertakes a trip to Japan to see her just as Covid restrictions are starting to be enforced. On the way he relives his memories of the time they spent together as he tries to come to grips with the meaning of his life and of his personal sense of failure. He had met Miko in London in the late 1960s, where she worked in her father’s restaurant. He began working there in order to see more of her and incidentally found a vocation. A set of circumstances beyond his understanding caused their separation—he had lived more than fifty years not knowing why.

The story is told with a light and tender touch. Olaf’s prose suits the narrative; other work by this author is equally refined and shares a common theme of thwarted desire.

Recommended.

UPDATE: In 2024 it has been made into a movie by Baltasar Kormákur:

Iceland 2025 — Day Three

The morning broke warm and still, with Tjörnin turned into a mirror:

Even the ducks were basking in the unseasonable warmth:

The pool was crowded, with lots of families and kids. I talked with a couple of men: one a native, one an ex-pat from Brooklyn. Theatre, literature and even AI music generation were some of the topics of our conversation. I returned to the apartment and after a brief respite went back on the streets, wandering ‘aimlessly’ just enjoying the sights and sound of the area.

Lost and found wall, Lækjargata:

Entrance to the Punk Rock Museum (formerly a toilet), Bankastræti:

47 Nalsgata:

And a pair of notable architectural details (Laugavegur, Lækjargata):

For the evening’s entertainment, I attended a play, Ibuð 10B, by Olaf Olafsson and directed by Baltazar Kormákur. The set was mostly static, with minimal changes in the background and lighting.

This was a talky play, set in an apartment (Ibuð) where a group of residents gathered to forge a covenant for potential incoming refugees who might be living in their building. What started out as an exchange of pleasantries (and wine tasting) turns sour as everyone gets more drunk. When a mixed-race resident comes in with his spouse unacknowledged feelings of bigotry simmer and boil over. I’ll let an Icelandic reviewer give a deeper explanation:

There are big issues here and some are very hot, and Ólafur Jóhann skillfully weaves them together so that from the first quiet minutes, the tension in the living room grows more and more, the characters reveal themselves better and better until we have a clear understanding of how they are put together, where they come from and where they are going. The conversations are fast-paced and often very funny, you have to keep your eyes peeled when it is at its most intense. This is a dense and substantial text, brilliantly thought out and written. ~ Silja Aðalsteinsdóttir, TMM Forlagið

The near-capacity audience gave the cast multiple ovations at the end.

Icelandic Book Reviews

Links to FITK reviews of books by Icelandic authors:

Alda Sigmundsdóttir

Arnaldur Indriðasson

Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

Bergsveinn Birgisson

Bragí Ólofsson

Guðrún Mínervudóttir

Hallgrímur Helgasson

Halldór Laxness

Hildur Knútsdóttir

Jón Gnarr

Jón Kalman Stefánsson

Kristín Eiríksdóttir

Kristín Omarsdóttir

Maria Alva Roff

Oddný Eir

Olaf Olafsson

Ragnar Jónasson

Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir

Sjón

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Þórbergur Þórðarson