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Johan Harstad

Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?: A Novel Paperback – Illustrated, September 18, 2012

by Johan Harstad (Author), Deborah Dawkin (Translator)

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A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Title of 2011

In Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, readers follow a man who wishes not to be followed, a man who, after a series of personal and professional disasters, 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. From there, Brage Award-winning author and playwright Johan Harstad's debut novel--previously published to great success in eleven countries with its first English-language appearance in June 2011--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.

Through Harstad's "delectably light but nonetheless impactful prose . . . [t]he novel's finest moments wrap you up in communion with Mattias, as if you are spending a quiet afternoon with an old friend, chatting but mostly thinking" (Three Percent). 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--"Harstad combines formal play and linguistic ferocity with a searing emotional directness" (Dedi Felman, Words Without Borders) to bring Mattias to the realization that he cannot always blend into the background.

Print length

480 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Seven Stories Press
Publication date

September 18, 2012
Dimensions

6.1 x 1.3 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1609804112
ISBN-13

978-1609804114
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This paradoxical desire to be seen without being heralded sets Harstad's hero apart from other tormented young men of contemporary literature . . . [an] ambitious debut." —Publisher's Weekly

"The austere landscape and people of the Faeroes become players in Harstad’s poetic narrative, half-dramatic and half-comic, which takes on memorable turns with every page as Mattias realizes just how not in control of his destiny he really is. A modern saga of rocketships, ice floes and dreams of the Caribbean, and great fun to read." —Kirkus Reviews

"Like Jonathan Safran Foer, Harstad combines formal play and linguistic ferocity with a searing emotional directness." —Dedi Felman, Words Without Borders

"The fact is that Johan Harstad has a wholly unique voice, simultaneously both concrete and soaring . . . to be able to write in this way, to conjure a situation and construct space and time around it with such linguistic fluency, cannot be learned. You are born with it. Harstad’s fellow countryman Knut Hamsun, who was able to do the same, must be rejoicing in his heaven or wherever he might be." —Jakob Levinsen, Jyllands-Posten review

"It doesn’t always have to be crime novels that come from Scandinavia. What 27 year-old Johan Harstad has written is quite plainly a work of genius. Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? is as poetic as it is alive." —Bucherwelt review

“In a voice and vision that alternately channels Ignatius J. Reilly, Holden Caulfield, Dave Eggers, and the Little Prince, Mattias unwraps his psyche while unwrapping an unknown landscape … Harstad's language is rife with trickery, pop-culture, and formal derring-do. It's as if, with every crafted word and considered detail, Harstad is announcing, pleading: Trust me folks, there is more to this place than Stieg Larsson.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

Born in Stravanger, Norway, in 1979, JOHAN HARSTAD’s acclaimed novels and short stories have been published in more than a eleven countries. His first work to appear in English, Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, was included in Kirkus Reviews’ Best Fiction of 2011, as well as Electric Literature’s Most Beautiful Books of 2011. Harstad’s other work in English includes the young adult novel 172 Hours on the Moon. The winner of the prestigious Brage Award for Norwegian literature, he is also a playwright, drummer, and graphic designer. Harstad lives in Oslo.

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Product details

Publisher : Seven Stories Press; Illustrated edition (September 18, 2012)
Language : English
Paperback : 480 pages
ISBN-10 : 1609804112
ISBN-13 : 978-1609804114
Item Weight : 1.17 pounds
Dimensions : 6.1 x 1.3 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,918,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,930 in Comedic Dramas & Plays
- #5,818 in Biographical Fiction (Books)
- #14,642 in Fiction Satire

Customer Reviews:
42 ratings

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Thomas O Flink

... this book is it's alright to not be first like Buzz Aldrin on the moon

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2015

Verified Purchase

The idea of this book is it's alright to not be first like Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Knowing about Buzz Aldrin and his scientific ability to devise the orbital rendezvous procedures that were used here on earth and around the moon led me to buy the book. The book is about a common man from Norway who is happy being second best. A lot of the action takes place on the Faroe islands between Norway and Iceland. When the author talked about traveling to different places on the islands, I could go to Google maps and see the exact place. My daughter liked my book so much that she won't give it back.

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jdmcox

A beautiful story

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2012

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Johan Harstad is a great storyteller. And an excellent writer as well. This combination is rare. The writing flows beautifully and is always interesting. The translator should also be praised. I can't imagine the book being any better in Norwegian. I was sorry when I got to the end of the book. Hopefully, there will be more from Johan Harstad.

Helpful

AI Garcia

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is hands down one of the best books I've read. Period.

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Kelsey Hontz

Meandering and beautiful

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2017

This is not the type of book that you'll pick up one morning and finish by that afternoon. It does suck you in, but slowly and carefully, as you come to know Mattias and those in his reluctantly formed inner circle. I had bookmarks sticking out of at least 8 pages to mark lines that I thought were absolutely beautiful and wanted to remember always. Take your time with this book and try to imagine yourself as a person like Mattias, content to be just a cog in this great machine of life. It's not always about being the famous dashing hero or being a thrill ride of a book. Sometimes things take more time.

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Roger Brunyate

Very Slowly Surfacing

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2011

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

At the exact time of the first moon landing in 1969, a baby boy named Mattias was being born in a hospital in Stavanger, Norway. But it is not Neil Armstrong that Mattias identifies with, but Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, the pilot of the lunar command module, the team member whose preparation and efficiency made everything else possible but who was content to stay out of the limelight. "Some people," Mattias says, "want to watch movies, not perform in them. Some people want to be cogs." About to turn 30 when the story opens in 1999, Mattias is quite content in his job as a gardener, with his live-in girlfriend Helle, in distant orbit around his school friend Jørn who runs a rock band. Then his life falls apart -- not dramatically, just slipping slowly down the drain -- until he reaches personal bottom lying bruised and rain-sodden on a lonely road in the Faroe Islands, not remembering how he got there. All this takes 133 pages of a very slow-moving book, though Mattias' voice is witty and engaging throughout.

Mattias' journey back to the surface is equally slow, but the book really opens out in its middle section. Literally so, because the bleak landscape of the Faroe Islands, wonderfully recreated, has a purity of rock, wind, and wave that pushes mundane concerns far aside. By chance, Mattias is picked up by a passing driver named Havstein, who runs a psychiatric halfway house in the tiny village of Gjógv (54 inhabitants) at the extreme north of the central island. He is accepted by the other residents, Palli, Anna, and Ennen, and slowly begins a new life, making wooden sheep for the tourists and later hiring himself out again as a gardener in this inhospitable terrain. Time seems to dissolve, but anybody with experience (first-hand or through a loved one) of the slow ascent from depression and its many false victories and setbacks will recognize the authenticity here. But time is of the essence, and though the 200 pages of this middle section had me reading almost in a trance, I think they are a necessary part of the cure.

With the last section, however, things began to speed up. Some of this is very effective: Mattias makes forays into the real world, he discovers things about his past, he finds out more about the real Buzz Aldrin and the personal struggles that he went through after his return. But I sometimes found the pace too quick to be believable, and the final section when Mattias and his friends finally leave the Faroes belonged more to fantasy. All the same, this is an author of considerable powers writing about experiences that have the ring of personal truth, in a voice that is as fresh and funny as it is expansive.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

A New Favorite

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2011

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

One of the best novels I've read in a long time. If you're a fan of writers like Milan Kundera and yes, Jonathan Safran Foer, you'll likely enjoy Johan Harstad's Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? When I first picked this book up, I had no idea what it was about.... and sometimes that's my favorite way to start a book. I'm glad I didn't know the plot because, while the plot was good, it was Harstad's writing style that I was most attracted to.

In my mind, one of the signs of a good book is when I find myself frequently folding back the pages I want to go back to, while saying, "Yes, yes! I feel that way, too! But you're saying it so much better than I've ever been able to put into words." And that's exactly how I felt about this book. I've already read several of the passages over and over again and actually became emotional over some of them. Harstad writes that well (OK and Deborah Dawkin translates really well, too!).

If you read the plot summary and this doesn't sound like the book for you, consider it still. You'll likely be able to relate to Mattias in at least some way (even if you find yourself simultaneously yelling at him to pull himself together and make something of himself!). Even those of us who love being in the limelight, understand the need to want to blend in sometimes and to avoid having our actions make such an impact on the rest of the world. While many of us dream of being like Neil Armstrong, sometimes life is just easier as Buzz Aldrin. Or is it?

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

S. B. Kelly

Something different, something fine

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Those of us who are old enough remember when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon's surface and we remember that the oddly named Buzz Aldrin went down to the surface with him. If I'd been looking for a forgotten member of the crew, I'd have gone for Michael Collins who stayed on Apollo 11 while the others had all the fun, but I suppose his name is too common to resonate. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to do something stunning and amazing, is a hero for the narrator Mattias. We see very little Norwegian literature in this country and this is poles apart from Jo Nesbo and his alcoholic policeman.

Mattias would never have been the first man to step onto the moon: he likes to keep a low profile, to move unnoticed among his fellow men and women. Sadly, his girlfriend doesn't share his view of the world and her desertion sends him spiralling into a breakdown which leads him to a halfway house on the Faro islands.

The title both attracted and unnerved me. It's instantly noticeably, completely different, but is it going to be the sort of self-conscious quirkiness which soon palls? For some reason, I put off reading it for ages but I needn't have worried. It draws you in to Mattias's strange world. It's beautifully written, even allowing for the fact that it's been translated from the Norwegian.

It has stayed with me since I finished it.

3 people found this helpful

The Fat Monk

What a curiously engaging tale. Somehow rivetting..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Mattias doesn't want to be noticed. He wants to be the guy in the 37th car you pass on your way to work. He want to be a cog in the system

He could just as easily be the guy you see every day on the train, minding his own business reading his book or paper or whatever. You don't know him. You don't know anything about him except what you can see in front of you. You don't know where he's been, what he's done, why, who he's loved, who's loved him, what he's good at.

Mattias is good at gardening. He can also sing - better than anyone you've heard probably - but he doesn't want to do that because then he'll be noticed. Just like when he was at school... and look how that turned out.

I noticed his book because of it's curious title. I bought the book because the introduction intrigued me. 'A guy wakes up lying in the rain on a road in the Faroe Islands. He doesn't know how he got there'. OK, so how, why etc etc.

Because I did't read the introduction on Amazon thoroughly (I like the story to unfold without me having any preconcpetions of where it is going - you won't find spoilers here!) the story did not go where I was expecting at all. But I was absolutely drawn in.

Many have said that the first few pages were tough going. I actually loved the first part (as with all other parts of the book, named after a Cardigans album). The story of Mattias ends up in the Faroes is the first place is wonderful portrait of the everyman, the nowhere-man, the nobody. I'd say that almost anyone will be able to relate to Mattias in some way, you either empathise with him through shared experiences or you knew someone like him. He was a nice guy - not perfect, not always nice, but nice - quiet but nice. The story of his life up to this point is brilliant in it's normality - the picture painted beautifully and you geniunely feel for Mattias.

I was concerned, however, when the story got to he Faroes. I was not expecting the direction in which the story was taken, but the characters are painted so vividly you are drawn into their world and everything seems so normal - almost. Mattias may be the lead in the story, but best supporting role must go to the Faroes themselves. I found myself looking up the places on Google Earth and Wikipedia because I wanted to see these places for real that I was being drawn to imagine. They are what I saw in my mind - Harstad had transported me right there.

I should not have been concerned. What unfolds is a beautiful story. Every so often you feel that the author could have taken an easy turn and the plot would have become predictable, but it never goes that way. The pace remains slow adding to the realism, fitting the impression of Faroese life perfectly.

It's an oridinary life in which some slightly less than ordinary things happen. And it's beautifully written (and translated - the comments about it having been translated in American rather than English may be down to this being published by an American publisher... personally I didn't even notice, I was somewhere between Norway, Iceland and Shetland at the time!).

It's not a book for everyone. You won't find crime and murder and car chases and espionage... But I found myself genuinely looking forward to sitting down with Mattias to find out what was happening in his life - that oridinary life of the man who didn't want you to notice him. The man who wanted to be good at what he did, but to do something that wouldn't attract attention. The man who would let you pass and would be quite happy to be second man on the moon.

2 people found this helpful

Annabel Gaskell

Man, lost, needs space.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2011

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Written in 2005 in Norwegian and newly available in translation, this novel had an irresistible title for me being a bit of fan of all things space related. However, it's not really about the Apollo space program, it concerns one man's view on what happened next to the second man to walk on the moon. It is well documented in Aldrin's autobiography Magnificent Desolation , that he suffered terribly in two directions - always being in Armstrong's shadow, but also wanting to melt into the background and not being allowed to. This led to a battle with the bottle and some bad years for him.

But back to this book... Mattias is thirty and works in a garden centre - a nice quiet job where he can quietly do what he's good at, and have a nice quiet life, always managing to keep out of the spotlight. He does have a long-term girlfriend though but their relationship is getting very rickety. Helle's career is developing, and she feels held back by Mattias's passivity. Mattias needs bringing out of his shell. Helle decides she's not the girl to do it, and dumps him. His job goes down the spout too due to the recession, so Mattias agrees to go to the Faroe Islands as the sound engineer to his friend Jørn's band who have a gig there. Jørn had at one time hoped to recruit Mattias as lead singer - he has a wonderful voice, but only sings in private (or when drunk), he's that shy.

The next thing we know, Mattias wakes up soaked through in a bus shelter well outside the island's main town and he's in some mental distress. A driver stops, and that is Mattias's lucky day, for Havstein is a psychiatrist who runs a halfway house for patients who aren't quite ready to make a go of it on their own in the world yet after institutionalisation. The house is a converted factory in Gjógv, a small and increasingly isolated hamlet over an hour's drive from the Faroese capital Tórshavn. Havstein makes him welcome and Mattias feels strangely at home at the factory. He is given time to sleep and calm down before meeting the others - Palli, Anna and Ennen. Mattias is delighted to see himself fitting in, becoming a valued member of the group, the isolated position of the little community suits him just fine. Havstein is outwardly so laid back he's practically horizontal, but behind the scenes he works hard to make everything tick. Mattias will bond with his new friends for life and go through many experiences with them, especially Ennen whom he becomes very close to. Ennen is obsessed by the Swedish band The Cardigans, and their songs pervade the pages once Mattias is in the Faroes; their album also form the section titles of the book. In fact, the whole book is infused with the spirit of grown-up rock - these are all guys and girls who like their music.

An awful lot more happens in this book than I've described - surprises and adventures, tragedy too; but at its core it's about Mattias's unconventional voyage back to full health from his crisis, and coming to terms with his life. All the characters came to life well - from Mattias's parents who were full of middle-aged restraint, to his co-patients full of little insecurities; only Havstein remains a real enigma, but eventually his layers get peeled away too.

It's thoughtful and laid back in that cool Scandinavian way, but I always wanted to read more despite it being a bit long. Rather good!

One person found this helpful

Glasgow Dreamer

Reasonably entertaining, but hard work!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I found this a rather daunting novel to read. From the outset the narrative is dense, complicated and often over-wordy. In addition, it has been translated from Norwegian into English, and the prose does give that away in places - much of it does not flow naturally; it could have done with some better editing, I believe. It's not a short piece of work either, at almost 500 pages long, and it did cross my mind to give up on more than one occasion.

The principal character, Mattias, is a guy who would be euphemistically described as "having issues." It is therefore an exceptionally fortunate coincidence (without which there would be no book) that when he finds himself alone and confused in the Faroese countryside, the driver who stops to offer him assistance just happens to be a psychiatrist who runs a centre for people unable or unready to cope in the real world. Basically the rest of the book chronicles Mattias's recovery from this lowpoint.

As I mentioned earlier, it's a little wordy, and it also seemed to me to be more than a little pretentious, aspiring more towards the "art" end of literature than to the "entertainment" end. Unfortunately this, together with the length of the book and the density of the prose, rather detracted from my enjoyment of the book, and I honestly couldn't recommend it to anyone else, unless they really fancy a challenge!

One person found this helpful

Sid Nuncius

An insightful and absorbing book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2011

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With a quirky title like this, I thought this book would be either excellent or dreadful. It turned out to be excellent. It certainly won't be for everyone: it is slow and meditative, and the serial killers and action which abound in a lot of other Scandinavian fiction are wholly absent. It has very little plot, other than a strange, isolated young man eventually washing up in a tiny institution on the Faroe Islands for recovering psychiatric patients. What the book does have are thoroughly believable, flawed and sympathetic characters treated with genuine compassion, and real insight into the human condition.

Although it has a very different feel, there are shades of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident..." in that the book is narrated by Mattias, a man with a very unusual view of the world. We see things through his eyes and with his perceptions so that his view seems wholly understandable, and the empathy of the author with his damaged protagonist is remarkable. Enough happened to make me keep reading and wanting to get back to the book, and I found myself completely taken up in Mattias's world. The writing and translation are excellent - unfussy, direct and beautifully structured - and this makes the book something really special, I thought.

I still cherish Mattias's company after finishing the book and feel I've been on a very rewarding adventure with him. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a thoughtful, character-driven read. It's a great experience and one you won't forget in a hurry.

One person found this helpful

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