101 Reykjavík
30° below zero, five hours of daylight, what else can you do but get wrecked
101 Reykjavík is a 1996 novel by Hallgrímur Helgason which found international fame in 2000 when made into a film.
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It's easy to emphasise with adolescent apathy when it's 30 degrees below zero, nightfall at four o'clock in the afternoon, and you're knee-deep in greying snow sludge. But at 28 years old, HYLNUR's a little long in the tooth to be making Nintendo, cyber porn and getting wasted his vocation. In addition to successfully resisting employment, adulthood and even an inkling of responsibility, HYLNUR has managed to stave off any committed commingling with the opposite sex -- with the exception of his mother, that is, under whose authority and dotage he still lives. But its amazing how a boy will snap to when he's aroused. Enter LOLA, a spirited Spanish Flamenco teacher and an old friend of his mother. After LOLA and HYLNUR share a drunken one-night stand, Hylnur is mortified to learn that Lola's been making house calls, only she's bypassed his door in favour of his mother's. and to add insult to injured astonishment, the happy couple are expecting their first child. In this off-the-wall, affectionate comedy about sexual confusion and coming of age, Kormakur shares the same droll wit and ribald energy as Fridik Thor Fridriksson and Aki Kaurismaki. Featuring a wonderful soundtrack by Blur singer Damon Albarn and former Sugarcubes member Einar Orn Benediktsson, this is a prodigious debut: a winning slice-of-life tapestry that gives insight not only into its winning characters but into a unique northern youth culture.
