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A review by mediaevalmuse
Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón
4.0
If I hadn’t gone to City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco and perused their staff picks, I would have never known this book existed. I’m glad I did, since I found this to be a beautifully-written story. It’s quite short and won’t take long to work through, and it’s both simple and full of complexity to keep readers interested without being overwhelmed.
Things I Liked
1. Prose: The version I read is in translation, but I don’t think that’s a reason to ignore prose. Victoria Cribb beautifully takes Sjon’s original and renders it into something that reads simple yet poetic in English. I often had the feeling that I was reading something aesthetically understated.
2. Connection to Early Film: Much of Mani’s experience in Iceland is filtered through his love of film. I liked the way Sjon incorporated film history, making it something of an obsession of Mani’s without being overbearing. I liked that the theater was a place that Mani could essentially escape from society, but I also liked how the theater bled into his perception of everyday life as well. Sjon also is careful to add in details, like the fact that early films were accompanied by live orchestras and that the early movie equipment was actually quite loud.
3. Historical Backdrop: This novella takes place in 1918 in Iceland against the backdrop of a volcanic eruption, coal shortage, and an epidemic. The three are woven together quite well - though the epidemic is front and center most of the time, the other things are quietly in the background and work to exasperate the situation. The tie-in to Iceland’s independence was also nice.
4. Ending: Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I enjoyed the ending. I was glad that it didn’t end the way a lot of LGBT+ stories do (especially in pop culture), though it never tries to deny that early-20th century ICeland was homophobic.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Length: I almost wish this novella was longer in order to give the narrative more room to explore more topics in-depth. As it stands, the novella is fine, but I was wishing for Sjon to delve deeper into issues like societal perceptions of queerness, the role of film, etc.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in contemporary Icelandic literature, LGBT+ characters/experiences, film history, early film, silent film, French experimental film, epidemics, disease, and Spanish flu.
Things I Liked
1. Prose: The version I read is in translation, but I don’t think that’s a reason to ignore prose. Victoria Cribb beautifully takes Sjon’s original and renders it into something that reads simple yet poetic in English. I often had the feeling that I was reading something aesthetically understated.
2. Connection to Early Film: Much of Mani’s experience in Iceland is filtered through his love of film. I liked the way Sjon incorporated film history, making it something of an obsession of Mani’s without being overbearing. I liked that the theater was a place that Mani could essentially escape from society, but I also liked how the theater bled into his perception of everyday life as well. Sjon also is careful to add in details, like the fact that early films were accompanied by live orchestras and that the early movie equipment was actually quite loud.
3. Historical Backdrop: This novella takes place in 1918 in Iceland against the backdrop of a volcanic eruption, coal shortage, and an epidemic. The three are woven together quite well - though the epidemic is front and center most of the time, the other things are quietly in the background and work to exasperate the situation. The tie-in to Iceland’s independence was also nice.
4. Ending: Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I enjoyed the ending. I was glad that it didn’t end the way a lot of LGBT+ stories do (especially in pop culture), though it never tries to deny that early-20th century ICeland was homophobic.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Length: I almost wish this novella was longer in order to give the narrative more room to explore more topics in-depth. As it stands, the novella is fine, but I was wishing for Sjon to delve deeper into issues like societal perceptions of queerness, the role of film, etc.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in contemporary Icelandic literature, LGBT+ characters/experiences, film history, early film, silent film, French experimental film, epidemics, disease, and Spanish flu.