Praise for
Icelander.
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To order
Icelander,
click here.
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"Icelander is a giddy sendup of postmodern fiction ... Long obviously knows
what it's like to hover between wanting to read about underground kingdoms
and purloined documents and wanting to read about just plain real people. In
fact, he seems perfectly happy to keep on hovering there, and he knows how
to make his readers happy there, too."
—Laura Miller, Salon
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"Icelander is, dare I say it, a kind of Series of Unfortunate Events for
adults. It's full of foreign cities and volcanic caves and paranoia; glowing
lichen and crescent-shaped knives; bad guys chasing Our Heroine through the
streets of Reykjavik ... It is writing born out of hysterical laughter and
a lingering sense of childhood adventure."
—Newsday
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"And now for something completely different. Icelander, the first novel from
Dustin Long, is unlike any book you've read before. Imagine an Agatha
Christie–style murder mystery (i.e., it'll be impossible to figure out who
the murderer is until some disturbingly clever character informs you), set
in a wintery fictional U.S. state, littered with references to Norse mythology, and peopled with characters from a Wes Anderson film. Next, add several different narrators. It all sounds painfully difficult, but in fact it is just good, albeit slightly absurd, fun."
—Calgary Herald
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"Long's Icelander, by contrast, is a perfect pulp mystery novel, marking a
triumphant debut for this former construction worker."
—Flavorpill NYC
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"A playful riff on the mystery genre ... campy, absurdist action involving
steam tunnels, imaginary mythologies, lost dogs, regrettable drunken
hookups, criminal masterminds, metaphysical detectives, guardians of
underground kingdoms and skaldic karaoke."
—Boston Weekly Dig
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"Icelander is a funny and complicated thriller ... It features a lost world,
literary forgeries, inhuman fox-clad assassins, kidnapping, murder, and heroic ballad karaoke, all of which are irresistible. But it is also an affectionate send-up of anxious, referential po-mo fiction."
—PopMatters
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Related Links.
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An interview with Dustin Long.
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Pettifog.net's ongoing message-board discussion of the book.
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