Fiction is full of tales of redemption featuring characters who are pulled back from the brink and given either a second chance or a transformed outlook ... Ólafsdóttir’s novel stems from this mould and because of this, may, at first glance, be labelled over-familiar and unoriginal. However, the more we immerse ourselves in it, the more we encounter fresh slants and innovative touches. Jónas’s story is no straightforward arc of rock-bottom despair to renewed lease of life. It is a bumpy ride with many twists and turns – culminating in a jolt on the last page ... Wry and kooky, serious and sad, Hotel Silence enthralls and entertains. Readers yet to discover Ólafsdóttir’s magic should begin here with this, her finest novel to date.
Ólafsdóttir...excels in noticing and describing the travails of everyday lives on the margins of mainstream Icelandic society. We see those details through our narrator’s eyes ... Ólafsdóttir’s writing is at once profoundly Icelandic — focusing the reader on all the particularity of life on that isolated island — and universal ... Skewed is a good word for the rhythm and mood of her writing — her authorial voice is immediate and intimate, yet it feels remote from the Anglophone world.
Icelandic novelist, playwright, and poet Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir offers a bizarrely lighthearted and humorous –– yet nonetheless moving –– portrayal of suicide and post-war life in her latest novel, Hotel Silence ... like [protagonist] Jonas and the inhabitants of this war-ravaged city, much of its original beauty can be restored –– and as Ólafsdóttir shows in her winning novel, it is a task worth attempting.
Within the pages of Hotel Silence, a reader will find little action and certainly no overt emotions. Instead, the writing’s brilliance is in how utterly relatable it is, how softly human ... The writing also creates a sense of moving through a fog, as if life itself has become too dense, simultaneously pushing in and on the reader. Strangely, brief snippets of random prose occasionally trip up the narrative ... trite phrases litter the story. Perhaps these sound poetic in the original Icelandic. In English, they feel like missteps. Nonetheless, this novel is not to be missed. The overall pace may be slow, but it suits the notion that Ólafsdóttir explores so beautifully: that life need not be exciting; it need only be purposeful.
Many readers will find Ólafsdóttir's depictions of emotional pain and trauma engaging. Overall, however, Hotel Silence's portrayal of emotional transformation is unconvincing ... Throughout the novel Ólafsdóttir is able to successfully unpack the nuances of anguish. Yet Jonas' insularity and need of a motley crew to kickstart his reawakening is reiterative. Hotel Silence's strength is its raw depiction of trauma and grief; however, the overall character development and plot are bromidic.
Ólafsdóttir’s prose, eloquently translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon, is just flat enough to give this quiet novel the feel of a fable. In short sentences and minimal dialogue, she tells the story of a man’s rebirth. The book rises above the obvious metaphor (handyman can fix everything but himself) and the clearly signaled ending, moving naturally and powerfully from despair to hope.
Told in surreal, almost Kafkaesque prose, Ólafsdóttir’s (Butterflies in November, 2014, etc.) stunning story is about one man’s unexpected reawakening. An engaging and surprising tale of transformation, told in almost allegorical form, perfect for fans of second chances and evolving perspectives.
Ólafsdóttir (Butterflies in November) captures the aimlessness of survivors and the long shadow of war in spare prose. The story moves at a consistently engaging pace, and Ólafsdóttir’s blend of sly humor and bleak realities makes for a life-affirming tale without any treacle.
