Hallgrímur Helgason: “No One Is Afraid Of Laxness Anymore”

Hallgrímur Helgason is Iceland’s best known Icelandic authors—well, after Halldór Laxness. His books have been translated to dozen of other languages and his novel ‘101 Reykjavík’ became a hit movie directed by Baltasar Kormákur, who also directed ‘Everest’ and many other films.

Hallgrímur will be one of the guests of the Reykjavík International Literature Festivalthat will be held in Reykjavík 24th-27th of April. Grapevine journalist Valur Gunnarsson sat down with Hallgrímur and asked him the worst question of them all: How afraid of Halldór Laxness are we?

Your novel 101 Reykjavik is in many ways the definitive text of the Icelandic 90s, when the country was in some regard opening up to the outside world. In what way do you think things have changed and how are they the same? What might Hlynur be doing today?

I think he would still be in trouble with his life, living alone and with his mother as his only friend, fighting his demons and depression but he would be on medication by now. His humour would be the only thing that brings him joy. I should maybe write that sequel, a fun book about depression… Of course, Reykjavík and Iceland are totally different from what they were back in 1996. The difference is like having a wi-fi connection as opposed to not having one.

In the same manner, 2005’s Stormland  captures something about the insanity of the boom years in Iceland. The film version, which came out six years later, had the economic collapse as a backdrop. You yourself were quite vocal during the protests. Do you think this is a subject you may return to, or have you said all you have to say about it?

I think we will always write about the crash, in one way or another. Iceland is not the same after it. But it’s true, I have not written a contemporary novel since 2008, and sometimes I feel a strong urge to do so. So much has happened since then. But I will now stick with the historical stuff for some years, as I am about to write another book about the characters in my latest, Sixty Kilos of Sunshine. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be writing about the boom and crash of Iceland, since we have a historical tradition of those things happening every three years in the beginning of the 20th century, in the herring era, which is my subject in Sixty Kilos. We have for a long time been a rollercoaster nation.

The novel Author of Iceland, based on the life and works of Halldór Laxness, caused something of a scandal for daring to engage with the old man’s works in a playful manner. Are we too reverential of our sole Nobel prize winner? Is it time for Icelandic writing to step out of his shadow and into the sunshine?

I think we have. Nobody is afraid of Laxness anymore, at least not in the sense as we were before, when I was growing up. And I think it’s a lot healthier situation for him to be in as well. But we need to do more for his legacy, we need to make new translations of his best books and keep pushing them to foreign publishers. In many countries he’s totally forgotten, or only available in bad translations as is the case in France for example. He truly was one of a kind, the best thing ever to come out of Iceland, apart from… No, apart from nothing. The best thing ever. Period!

This is an excerpt of a feature published by The Reykjavík Grapevine. You can read the whole feature here.

The Reykjavík Grapevine is Iceland´s biggest and most widely read tourist publication. Get your latest on life, travel and entertainment in Iceland on grapevine.is.