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Available
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Publication
[Helsinki] Gummerus 2007
Description
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? opens with the line: "The person you love is 72.8% water, and it hasn?t rained for weeks." From there, Brage Award?winning author and playwright Johan Harstad?s debut?previously published to great success in eleven countries and now making its first English-language appearance?tells the story of Mattias, a thirty-something gardener living in Stavanger, Norway, whose idol is Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon: the man who was willing to stand in Neil Armstrong?s shadow in order to work, diligently and humbly, for the success of the Apollo 11 mission. Following a series of personal and professional disasters, Mattias finds himself lying on a rain-soaked road in the desolate, treeless Faroe Islands, population only a few thousand, a wad of bills in his pocket and no memory of how he had come to be there?that?s when a truck approaches him, driven by a troubled, fantastic man with an offer that will shortly change Mattias?s life. And so, surrounded by a vivid and memorable cast of characters?aspiring pop musicians, Caribbean-obsessed psychologists, death-haunted photographers, girls who dream of anonymous men falling in love with them on bus trips, and even Buzz Aldrin himself?launches Buzz Aldrin, What Happened To You In All The Confusion?, the epic story of Mattias?s pop-saturated odyssey through the world of unconventional psychiatry, souvenir sheep-making, the Cardigans, and space: the space between himself and other people, a journey maybe as remote and personally dangerous as the trip to the moon itself.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member richardderus
Rating: 2.5* of five
The Book Report: A stream-of-consciousness first novel recounting nineteen years in the life of Mattias, the kid who never wanted to be seen or heard. He got his wish all his life long, except that it cost him the love and affection of two women, the fame that could've changed
My Review: Without a doubt, the worst title in the history of English-language publishing. The. Worst.
I'm going to say three things about this book, and then move on. The first thing is, boring characters make for boring books, and boring books are bad for the publisher's image and profits. The second thing is, four hundred seventy-one pages of a boring character's boring thoughts and flat, affectless reports of tragedy and pain are approximately two times too many pages. The third thing is, THIRTY DOLLARS FOR THIS?!?
Moving on.
The Book Report: A stream-of-consciousness first novel recounting nineteen years in the life of Mattias, the kid who never wanted to be seen or heard. He got his wish all his life long, except that it cost him the love and affection of two women, the fame that could've changed
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his life had he pursued his talent for singing, and landed him in the tender clutches of a mental institution in the Faeroe Islands. There is a happy ending.My Review: Without a doubt, the worst title in the history of English-language publishing. The. Worst.
I'm going to say three things about this book, and then move on. The first thing is, boring characters make for boring books, and boring books are bad for the publisher's image and profits. The second thing is, four hundred seventy-one pages of a boring character's boring thoughts and flat, affectless reports of tragedy and pain are approximately two times too many pages. The third thing is, THIRTY DOLLARS FOR THIS?!?
Moving on.
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LibraryThing member bragan
Mattias is a Norwegian gardener who spends his whole life not wanting to be noticed, not wanting to be anybody special. Mostly, he succeeds. Stuff happens to him: his girlfriend leaves him; he gets depressed; he travels to the tiny, windswept Faroe islands; he meets some people, he eats some hot
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dogs and plants some trees and listens to some CDs; he goes back to Norway; he comes back to the Faroes; he talks to people with slightly more interesting stories than him; he meets another girl, who gets no actual character development; he goes somewhere else... Through it all, he tries very hard to convince me that he's an extremely boring person and, unfortunately, he succeeds at that, too. And, man, for a guy who desperately wants not to be noticed, he's awfully zealous about telling me all the incredibly mundane details of his incredibly boring life. All right, I'll admit, he does eventually do some vaguely interesting things. He just mostly manages to make those boring as well. And there might actually be a poignant moment or two in here, maybe an insightful meditation somewhere, but they do kind of get buried under all the layers of I-don't-give-a-crap. I'm also not thrilled with the prose style, which alternates massive run-on sentences with choppy little fragments, but if it were used to do something more interesting, it could have worked okay. Show Less
LibraryThing member eairo
A story about a young man who does not want to the first, the one to be noticed. He prefers to be the second, to remain invisible. He leads his life accordingly, with a couple of exceptions - he is a very good singer, and sometimes ends up singing in public (after a few drinks) - and finally he is
The book is serious but fun, wise (should one say "for one that has been written by such a young writer", I don't know), and well written.
Better than nice but not perfect. Well worth reading if or when available in language you can read.
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forced to learn that it is not good or even possible to live that way. Unless one is also willing be alone. Which he does not want.The book is serious but fun, wise (should one say "for one that has been written by such a young writer", I don't know), and well written.
Better than nice but not perfect. Well worth reading if or when available in language you can read.
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LibraryThing member sonyagreen
There has to be a crossover with those who liked reading the "what it's like to live in a northern-cold culture" style of books like the ubiquitous Millennium series, plus a dash of mental illness bonding. This wasn't for me, but I did appreciate it for what it was.
LibraryThing member abealy
“Some people just want to be a part of a whole. Useful, if inconsequential. Not everybody needs the whole world. I just want to be in peace.”
Johan Harstad’s novel Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion (an unfortunate title) is the story of Mattias, an anti-hero, or perhaps a
After a series of personal and professional reversals, Mattias wakes up lying on a rain-soaked road alone in the middle of the Faroe Islands, with 15,000 kroner in his pocket and no memory of how he had come to be there. He is picked up by Havstein, a psychiatrist and taken to the Factory where the story and his life begin again.
Harstad writes a steady, high-speed, stream-of-conscience narrative that is impossible to put down. There is nothing visible at the center of his hero Mattias but he churns up the landscape and events around him — makes them pulse with meaning and beauty — so that as the book progresses external events become a part of his inner landscape.
There is an angelic saintliness to Mattias’ persona but it is crooked and uneven — the good he does is tempered by the thoughtless and perhaps cruel — you want to scream and shake him for his persistent lack of drive. He is surrounded by a cast of well written characters that carry the story to it’s ultimate fate.
Johan Harstad’s novel Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion (an unfortunate title) is the story of Mattias, an anti-hero, or perhaps a
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non-hero, a second best, the one who does not take the spotlight but nevertheless whose life is just as filled with longing, angst and the need for fulfillment. Perhaps he is the Buzz Aldrin of Norway, the one who came second, the set-up man and, more important, was quite satisfied in that role. After a series of personal and professional reversals, Mattias wakes up lying on a rain-soaked road alone in the middle of the Faroe Islands, with 15,000 kroner in his pocket and no memory of how he had come to be there. He is picked up by Havstein, a psychiatrist and taken to the Factory where the story and his life begin again.
Harstad writes a steady, high-speed, stream-of-conscience narrative that is impossible to put down. There is nothing visible at the center of his hero Mattias but he churns up the landscape and events around him — makes them pulse with meaning and beauty — so that as the book progresses external events become a part of his inner landscape.
There is an angelic saintliness to Mattias’ persona but it is crooked and uneven — the good he does is tempered by the thoughtless and perhaps cruel — you want to scream and shake him for his persistent lack of drive. He is surrounded by a cast of well written characters that carry the story to it’s ultimate fate.
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LibraryThing member hairball
This book was wildly popular in Norway, apparently, and became a TV series. This is mentioned in the author blurb, along with the fact that a member of the cast of The Wire was in the series--one I didn't recall, and who has no picture on IMDb. I found this weird piece of marketing very amusing:
The cover description doesn't represent the book well, or really make one want to read it, so I was more-than-pleasantly-surprised with how enjoyable I found Buzz Aldrin. Occasionally I was annoyed with the long sentences and found myself sort of skimming through them--I felt a serious longing for punctuation more varied than commas in a very long paragraph. Overall, the novel is rather charming, like a Belle & Sebastian song.
Actually, I think that's a pretty good summation: Buzz is a Belle & Sebastian song in novel form. Some will find it rather twee, others will love it to death, and few will founder in the middle.
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"Hey! We've got an unknown American actor from a critically-acclaimed program!"The cover description doesn't represent the book well, or really make one want to read it, so I was more-than-pleasantly-surprised with how enjoyable I found Buzz Aldrin. Occasionally I was annoyed with the long sentences and found myself sort of skimming through them--I felt a serious longing for punctuation more varied than commas in a very long paragraph. Overall, the novel is rather charming, like a Belle & Sebastian song.
Actually, I think that's a pretty good summation: Buzz is a Belle & Sebastian song in novel form. Some will find it rather twee, others will love it to death, and few will founder in the middle.
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LibraryThing member orangewords
I expected to enjoy this book a lot, but after that memorable and quotable first line, it was all downhill for me. I found this novel to be quite dry, with unsympathetic characters and an unengaging plot. Not really my kind of story.
LibraryThing member actonbell
This is the story of how Mattias, from Stavanger, Norway, navigates his life through some very rough years of severe mental anguish.
"I was the kid in your class in elementary school, in high school, at college, whose name you can't remember when you take out the class photo ten years later, to show
...and that was the way Mattias liked it. He didn't like attention, he just wanted to be left alone, in peace and quiet. He did want to be useful, to have a purpose, and so he envisioned himself as just one cog in a great machine, doing useful, meaningful work--but invisible.
Mattias idolizes Buzz Aldrin, and the idea of his being the second man on the moon. Aldrin performed all this vital research, then slipped back into anonymity. And Mattias just happened to be born on July 20, 1969, while most of the other people in the hospital were watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon.
With the comparatively obscure Buzz Aldrin as his prototype, Mattias tries to quietly pad his way through school until he develops a strong crush on Helle, a girl at school he tortures himself watching, until at their class Halloween party, Mattias works up the nerve to stand up in front of a band and--sing. Yep, he lifted up that visor on his astronaut costume, and sang very well. Ironically, Mattias has taken signing lessons, but neither of his friends know this, until this moment. The attention Mattias gets afterward is very irksome to him, but--he does get the girl, and that's important to the rest of the story.
It will be years before Mattias sings in public again. On the contrary, he becomes a gardener, since it's such a peaceful job and plants are so easy to talk to. And he's living with Helle, and for a while, he thinks things are going fine, for about thirteen years. Unfortunately, the nursery he's been working for is struggling so badly that the owner must close. While Mattias is processing this change, Helle confesses that she's in love with someone else, and she's leaving him. That's a bad week for anyone.
So, when Mattias's longtime, childhood pal and band member Jorn wants him to go on a trip to the Faroe Islands with him and a couple other bands, he doesn't say no. However, something happens to Mattias that first night that he will never be able to remember, but will result in his waking up all alone, outside in the freezing rain, with absolutely no idea where he is. As Mattias lies curled up on a bus stop bench, about to freeze to death, a car comes along.
I'm going to stop telling the story right there. In the days, weeks, and months that follow, Mattias becomes very attached to a few other people and plays an important part in the life they have together. It is the opposite of disappearing. And, as Mattias notes, no one can be invisible on The Faroes because there are so few regular inhabitants that every one of them will surely notice everyone else. The main characters populating Mattias's experience are wonderfully written and I liked all of them. Also, the description of The Faroe Islands is appealing and intriguing enough to make me want to go.
Johan Harstad has written so many good passages into this book that the pages seemed to melt away, and four hundred and seventy pages didn't seem long. And I really must go listen to The Cardigans, too....
Thank you, LibraryThing, for this Early Reviewer gem.
"I was the kid in your class in elementary school, in high school, at college, whose name you can't remember when you take out the class photo ten years later, to show
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your boyfriend or girlfriend how you looked back then. I was the boy that sat almost a the center of the class, one desk from the wall, the guy who never forgot his gym clothes, who was always ready for the test, who was never rowdy in class, but answered when he was asked, who never insisted on performing long skits in the school show, who never put himself forward as Student or Class Rep. I was the one you'd been in class with for almost six month before you knew his name. I was the one you didn't miss when I left your class and started at another school...."...and that was the way Mattias liked it. He didn't like attention, he just wanted to be left alone, in peace and quiet. He did want to be useful, to have a purpose, and so he envisioned himself as just one cog in a great machine, doing useful, meaningful work--but invisible.
Mattias idolizes Buzz Aldrin, and the idea of his being the second man on the moon. Aldrin performed all this vital research, then slipped back into anonymity. And Mattias just happened to be born on July 20, 1969, while most of the other people in the hospital were watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon.
With the comparatively obscure Buzz Aldrin as his prototype, Mattias tries to quietly pad his way through school until he develops a strong crush on Helle, a girl at school he tortures himself watching, until at their class Halloween party, Mattias works up the nerve to stand up in front of a band and--sing. Yep, he lifted up that visor on his astronaut costume, and sang very well. Ironically, Mattias has taken signing lessons, but neither of his friends know this, until this moment. The attention Mattias gets afterward is very irksome to him, but--he does get the girl, and that's important to the rest of the story.
It will be years before Mattias sings in public again. On the contrary, he becomes a gardener, since it's such a peaceful job and plants are so easy to talk to. And he's living with Helle, and for a while, he thinks things are going fine, for about thirteen years. Unfortunately, the nursery he's been working for is struggling so badly that the owner must close. While Mattias is processing this change, Helle confesses that she's in love with someone else, and she's leaving him. That's a bad week for anyone.
So, when Mattias's longtime, childhood pal and band member Jorn wants him to go on a trip to the Faroe Islands with him and a couple other bands, he doesn't say no. However, something happens to Mattias that first night that he will never be able to remember, but will result in his waking up all alone, outside in the freezing rain, with absolutely no idea where he is. As Mattias lies curled up on a bus stop bench, about to freeze to death, a car comes along.
I'm going to stop telling the story right there. In the days, weeks, and months that follow, Mattias becomes very attached to a few other people and plays an important part in the life they have together. It is the opposite of disappearing. And, as Mattias notes, no one can be invisible on The Faroes because there are so few regular inhabitants that every one of them will surely notice everyone else. The main characters populating Mattias's experience are wonderfully written and I liked all of them. Also, the description of The Faroe Islands is appealing and intriguing enough to make me want to go.
Johan Harstad has written so many good passages into this book that the pages seemed to melt away, and four hundred and seventy pages didn't seem long. And I really must go listen to The Cardigans, too....
Thank you, LibraryThing, for this Early Reviewer gem.
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LibraryThing member werdfert
at first i liked Buzz Aldrin. the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first page seemed to indicate i might really enjoy the rest of the book. but the more i read, the worse it got, and since it was 400+ pages, it had plenty of time to ruin itself completely.
Harstad didn't have much to say,
i'm fine with books that have no action. i'm actually pretty interested in ones that manage to pull it off. i feel like the ideas, if they were concentrated more, more crystallized, could have been much better. it just seemed to float around on tangents and insecurity.
i made a sign once that said: "Don't look at me!" in big block letters. and this book was kind of like that. it wanted to do the same things the main character wanted to do. simultaneously proclaim its own worth and slip into obscurity. and these are two drives i get. but they totally don't work.
Harstad didn't have much to say,
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most of it was about the main character's flawed attempt at trying to disappear but being loved too much, aw. i'm fine with books that have no action. i'm actually pretty interested in ones that manage to pull it off. i feel like the ideas, if they were concentrated more, more crystallized, could have been much better. it just seemed to float around on tangents and insecurity.
i made a sign once that said: "Don't look at me!" in big block letters. and this book was kind of like that. it wanted to do the same things the main character wanted to do. simultaneously proclaim its own worth and slip into obscurity. and these are two drives i get. but they totally don't work.
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LibraryThing member camnini
I enjoyed this novel, although there were times when I was irritated by it. Mattias, the protagonist, ends up in the Faroe Islands after losing his long-time girlfriend and job. He ends up living with a small, off-beat group of generally sweet people with psychiatric histories, and their
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psychiatrist in a tiny village. The writing was often funny and engaging, but whew- there's a lot of northern depression in there. Things do happen and overall, I was happy with the conclusion. I got the book the earlyreviewers and I would recommend it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Magus_Manders
This book is one of those that, I feel, needs another read. I should also say that I think it found me at a certain point in my life where it is most significant. it's a bit of a meandering novel, slinking through time and mental illness with an almost unfelt touch. Pages disappeared with the same
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inconspicuous slide as the character's days. I think I liked it. I think it was a great book. It's beautiful at the very least. I need to look at it again someday. Show Less
LibraryThing member ketchupman36
A young man struggles to find his place in the world as everything he's come to know falls apart---a story that many people can identify with. A touching story that did a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life.
LibraryThing member memccauley6
I'm sure there is a fine novel buried in here somewhere - but unfortunately, I couldn't muster up the energy to find it. A down-on-his-luck Norwegian gardener has a mid-life crisis and decides to pursue his thwarted potential as a rock singer. Will he change his mind about being someone, instead of
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just a cog? Will he get the girl? Perhaps someday I will struggle through the remainder of this book and find out. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Best Translated Book Award (Longlist — 2012)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Debut Fiction — 2011)
Language
Original language
Norwegian
Physical description
509 p.; 21.8 cm
ISBN
9789512075591