Dog Days (2015)

Yet again Einar Mar Gudmundsson demonstrates his outstanding eloquence and joy in narration … While there is grandeur in Gudmundsson’s style, humour always has a secure place too.

... the narrator provides us with fantastically good entertainment; his skill with words and mode of thought seeming to spring directly out of his homeland’s majestic storytelling tradition.

Einar Mar Gudmundsson’s novel is wonderful, frequently a hugely entertaining mixture of wonders and oddities, tall stories, witty digressions, and zany details.

... the story slots together into a coherent whole—a thoroughly refreshing, spicy and entertaining whole. Gudmundsson is in his element here … I have to say, actually, that this is his best book since he completed Englar Alheimsins (Angels of the Universe).

Here you find Gudmundsson on a great storytelling roll, and the payoff is extremely entertaining … a vivid, colourful and entertaining account of hugely interesting people.

.... I’ve never before perceived as clearly as in this book by Gudmundsson what an incredible character [Jörundur the Dog-Days King] was … Gudmundsson communicates this material with immense joy in storytelling, travelling far and wide, and with highly entertaining digressions.

Remarkably well written and very entertaining. A joy to read. The characters are treated with notable warmth. Nearly every single sidekick could be a leading character in a book. Gudmundsson’s creativity is hugely enjoyable. He finds the most unexpected connections between different characters and times … you never know where he is heading … He manages to create interest in all these people …. This is Gudmundsson in full action!

Enormous joy in storytelling.

Deep joy of storytelling Gudmundsson’s book is part history, part novel, and in that respect is procedurally similar to the Frenchman Laurent Binet’s book HHhH about Reinhardt Heydrich, which was published in an Icelandic version last year. Gudmundsson has correctly judged Jörgensen to be one of the few characters from Iceland’s history who is not only adequately documented but also enough of an enigma to be able to withstand such examination. In short, the methodology consists of combining the historian’s strict reliance on sources with the novelist’s joy of storytelling. And so deep is Gudmundsson’s joy of narration that before you know it the weekend is gone and the book finished. He uses Jörgensen’s story as an opportunity not only to examine world history of the period, from discoveries in the Pacific Ocean to the Napoleonic wars, but also to revitalise the history of Iceland. ... An incredible life story ... Wandering the world in the wake of the Napoleonic wars, Jörgensen gets a golden opportunity to capture happiness, but then loses everything again (perhaps he was a true Icelander after all). Time and again the characters bump into one another just as they do in the novels of the period, reminding us that while the world may have been a bigger place as far as distances go, there were far fewer people about and the opportunities for coincidence therefore greater ... Here we have a very entertaining History of Iceland.

Gudmundsson’s Hundadagar is a brilliantly entertaining read. I’m confident that this is a book you will often dig out from the bookshelves when alone at home and there is nothing worth watching on the TV—if only to meet up with a few very interesting guys. Learn about ambitions and then, on the next page, troubles. People who are filthy rich one day and stony-broke the next, presented in all their weaknesses, and blinded by passion. Gudmundsson communicates all this material with a massive amount of narrative joy and humour.

It’s safe to recommend this book in the strongest possible terms ... deserves top marks ...