The Hitmans Guide to H...

by
Hallgrímur Helgason

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The Hitmans Guide to Housekeeping

by Hallgrímur Helgason

3.26 of 5 stars 3.26 · rating details · 889 ratings · 171 reviews

Tomislav Bokšić, kallaður Toxic, er leigumorðingi króatísku mafíunnar í New York. Dag einn neyðist hann til að flýja Bandaríkin og fyrir röð tilviljana endar hann í flugvél á leið til Íslands. Við komuna til Keflavíkur lendir mafíósinn í fangi íslenskra trúboðshjóna, sem halda að hann sé amerískur sjónvarpsprestur, kominn til að predika á sjónvarpsstöð þeirra, Amen. Í hönd...more

Published (first published 2008)

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Apr 18, 2013 Bettie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: spring-2013, fraudio, amusing, iceland, washyourmouthout-language, under-1000-ratings, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, sleazy, recreational-homicide, published-2008, mystery-thriller, gangsters, cover-love, noir, croatia, doo-lally

Narrated by Luke Daniels

New-to-me author and the storyline is a bit like Lilyhammer

Pure entertainment that really did have me exploding with laughter. Right book at the right time.

Karen brought my attention to this interview with Helgason: http://youtu.be/Pw1cOfz9bRQ

Fast forward to 3:31 where the questions are still in German but his answers are in English. For those who have met M, doesn't he and HH look similar?

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Mar 13, 2013 Becky Frost rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What do I say about this book? Well, I love the author's flare for language and especially American slang. I find it interesting that he has only this one book in English for I think he commands the language better than even some American authors I have read recently. I confess that I giggled at his recounting of war as I recognized that this is how someone looks back on tragic events - they try to make light of them so that people don't get wrapped up in how dark it all really was at the time....more

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Feb 07, 2013 Katharina Renn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Der Kroate Toxic hat einen ganz speziellen Beruf: er ist Auftragskiller und ein echtes Ass in seinem Metier. Doch auch Koriphäen begehen Fehler und so legt er eines Tages nicht den richtigen Mann um, sondern erwischt einen FBIler. Nun heißt es Abschied nehmen von der heißen Geliebten und abtauchen in der Heimat. Am Flughafen enttarnt er aber einige FBI-Mitglieder. Um weiterhin ungeschoren davonzukommen, tötet er auf dem Klo einen ihm ähnlich sehenden Priester und schlüpft in seine Rolle. Man ist...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Lukasz Pruski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hallgrimur Helgason’s “The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning” is an outstanding book. It is beautifully written and funny; it has an outlandish yet engrossing plot, and an unexpected depth.

Tomislav Boksic, aka Toxic, a Croatian American, is a hitman, a highly successful contract killer. He has flawlessly executed 66 people so far, yet #67 brings trouble, which causes Tomislav to find himself in Iceland. Various adventures in Iceland, including involvement with a fundamentalist Christian sect, cons...more Hallgrimur Helgason’s “The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning” is an outstanding book. It is beautifully written and funny; it has an outlandish yet engrossing plot, and an unexpected depth.

Tomislav Boksic, aka Toxic, a Croatian American, is a hitman, a highly successful contract killer. He has flawlessly executed 66 people so far, yet #67 brings trouble, which causes Tomislav to find himself in Iceland. Various adventures in Iceland, including involvement with a fundamentalist Christian sect, constitute the gist of the book.

There are four layers to the novel. On the top there is the writing layer. Mr. HH, an Icelandic writer, famous for his “Reykjavik 101”, wrote this book in English himself, as I understand. He did a better job with the language than 90% of writers who are native speakers of English. He has fun with the language; the book is full of wonderful puns, plays on words, and language jokes. The writing is so hilarious that I was LOL’ing many, many times.

The second layer is the plot. Of course it is absurd, but then it manages to seem more realistic than the tired, formulaic plots of huge majority of thrillers. There is something almost approaching “magical realism” in the novel. Everything makes sense in this plot, given the absurd universe it resides in. There are no cheap “twists and turns” in the plot.

Sociological and cultural observations constitute the next layer. I love the portrayal of Iceland and Icelanders. It is not particularly sympathetic, but I feel I have learned more about the country than from any other Icelandic book I have read (and several movies I have seen). People of some other nations are caricatured too and quite well (I can vouch for this as I represent one of these nations). The whole plot of the Christian sect is fascinating. Yes, it is exaggerated, but to exactly the right extent.

Finally, when one peels away the writing, the humor, the plot, and the observations, there is a deeply human core to the novel. It is about how ethnic hatred, which is one of the most characteristic features of our deeply flawed species, destroys nations and people. It about how this hatred transforms sensible, gentle, and loving people into ruthless killing machines.

(An aside: when I finished reading the book I looked at some reviews on Goodreads. They were, as usual, mostly clever and insightful. However, one of the reviews rendered me speechless. The reviewer was indignant that Tomislav kills a dog. No further comment.)

Four and three quarters stars.
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Dec 21, 2012 Kara Jorges rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I absolutely had to have this book, and was delighted to see that the story lived up to the clever title. Croatian immigrant/mob hit man Tom Bocsic, known as Toxic, has to get out of town when his latest hit turns out to be an FBI agent. When the feds get a little too close at the airport, to save his own skin, Toxic offs one more guy and takes on his identity. It’s not until his plane lands in Iceland that Toxic realizes he’s now impersonating an American TV preacher, Father Friendly, as well a...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Mack rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Other reviewers have given excellent summaries of the plot of this book so I'm going to confine my remarks to what I like about it.

The "Stranger in a Strange Land" trope is well established in literature and for that reason needs to be handled deftly or risk losing the reader in its sameness. Combine this with dark, darker, darkest humor and you can have a book that will grab the reader from the beginning or fall flat. Hitman't Guide... grabbed me and I loved it.

One aspect that I enjoyed is the...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Ellen O'brien rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tom Boksic (aka Toxic) is a hitman with a troubled past and some deep secrets. The title of the book takes on a double-meaning when Tom has to confront those secrets and clean up his past. Before I got to that part,however, this was a pretty funny book full of humorous comments about killing people for money, sex for money, stealing money and running away from the law. Tom finds himself with the need to make a quick escape from the law and from other hit men sent to get him. At the airport, he h...more

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May 10, 2012 Darrell Reimer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The witless naif who wanders around a foreign environment and calls it as he sees it, unintentionally bringing the oppositional truth to light, is a literary trope that has been around since the beginning of story-telling. Just consider Adam's initial exclamation when he first encounters Eve: “Flesh of my flesh!” surely rates as the most original and mythical naif “boner” of all time.

It's hard to improve on that, but the literary impulse is relentless, giving readers a rich heritage of unforgett...more The witless naif who wanders around a foreign environment and calls it as he sees it, unintentionally bringing the oppositional truth to light, is a literary trope that has been around since the beginning of story-telling. Just consider Adam's initial exclamation when he first encounters Eve: “Flesh of my flesh!” surely rates as the most original and mythical naif “boner” of all time.

It's hard to improve on that, but the literary impulse is relentless, giving readers a rich heritage of unforgettable naif progeny, including Don Quixote, Prince Myshkin and Howard The Duck. And now we have Hallgrimur Helgason's Turn-of-the-Millennium naif: Tomislav Boksic, AKA “Toxic,” a hit man for the Croatian mafia who finds himself on the lam, posing as an American televangelist in contemporary Iceland — very much "trapped in a world he did not make."

Toxic navigates this bizarre world in a manner common to oafish thugs everywhere: improvising a constant stream of imbecilic lies, while exuding equal parts menace and brute sexual charm. All the while he observes and processes and alters the environment he's in, developing a perspective that becomes uncomfortably familiar. Here he follows his new lover into a furniture store, after hours:

We make our way through the office and out into the store. In back there are three king size beds on display, all made in India by twelve-year-old carpenter whiz-kids. We've tried them all, but the one behind the Kama Sutra room divider is the safest. It can't be seen from the screaming bright window out front. So after all, we manage to find a semi-dark corner in the bright and shining land. And by making the Hindu handiwork squeak, I can honor the memory of my lost [read: “murdered”] love. Still the bed holds up to all our freaky gymnastics. Those Indian kids really know their craft.

The real gymnastics are Toxic's moral equivocations, involving a body-count that begins with, but is not limited to, the 66 hits he carried out on American soil. But of course taking the life of another is just the one extreme of the moral spectrum. There's also this business of benefiting from household items made by children in other countries . . . .

Is Toxic — are we — even capable of acquiring moral perspective in this environment? Astute readers know there is a more pressing concern on Toxic's horizon, thanks to the botched hit-job that began the novel: will he live long enough for any of this to matter?(less)

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Jan 18, 2012 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

I picked this up because many years ago I took a four-day vacation to Iceland, and have been more than averagely interested in the place ever since. I also enjoyed the film made from Helgason's most well-known book (101 Reykjavik), and thus figured this had a good chance of being fairly entertaining. The book is basically a fish-out-water story with heavily farcical elements, mainly in the service of satirizing Iceland. The protagonist and narrator is Tomislav Boksic, a hitman for the Croatian m...more

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Mar 08, 2011 rebellyell666 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Inhalt:

Toxic, ein Name, der sich aus seinem Vor- und Nachnamen ergeben hat, ist Auftragskiller in New York. Als sich ein Auftrag als FBI-Mann herausstellt, organisiert die Mafia seine Flucht. Doch schon am Flughafen wird er verfolgt, flieht auf die Toilette, tötet kurzer Hand einen Pfarrer und findet sich mit dessen Ticket in Irland wieder...

Schreib-/Erzählstil:

Kunterbunt und doch strukturiert, Fäkalsprache und doch manchmal gefühlvoll – so präsentiert uns Helgason seinen Protagonisten Toxic. Er...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Harsha Priolkar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

A corker of a book this! You'll either love it like I did or be totally uninterested in the fate of a Croatian hit-man on a forced sabbatical who finds himself in Iceland! But somehow I find that hard to believe :P

So we have Toxic the Hitman, who wonders whether it was him that poisoned his name or the name that poisoned him! Yup! He is quite the philosopher is our Toxic! Perhaps that is just what endears him to me, in addition to Helgason's brilliant writing and original concept of course :) To...more A corker of a book this! You'll either love it like I did or be totally uninterested in the fate of a Croatian hit-man on a forced sabbatical who finds himself in Iceland! But somehow I find that hard to believe :P

So we have Toxic the Hitman, who wonders whether it was him that poisoned his name or the name that poisoned him! Yup! He is quite the philosopher is our Toxic! Perhaps that is just what endears him to me, in addition to Helgason's brilliant writing and original concept of course :) Toxic has just had a goof-up of sorts in his chosen profession and has been asked to leave NYC and lie low by his Boss. Things get a little complicated however and through a set of 'unavoidable circumstances' so to speak, he ends up in Iceland instead of his beloved fatherland Croatia. What follows is a wild ride, both for Toxic and the reader, as he attempts to maintain a LPP (Low Public Profile) in this country of endless summer light and deals with its weirdly wonderful and accepting people, their tongue-twisting language and their perfectly peaceful existence!

This is Helgason's first book written in English but nowhere does it seem tentative. If anything he is innovative with his wordplay, coining phrases like ‘thrust-trust’ with panache ;) He knows what he wants to say and he finds the perfect voice and vocabulary for Toxic. With lines like “I’m an environmentalist. I don’t want to add an unnecessary gunshot to the already noisy city.” and “I see myself as a hunter. I shoot pigs for a living.” he sets the darkly humorous tone of the book and makes Toxic one of the most fascinating characters I’ve come across in fiction recently. And although the entire premise is fantastical and the characters over-the-top, Helgason keeps it real with his witty, pithy and seminal writing! I found it hard to stop once I got started! It’s clever writing too. Every time I thought Toxic was settling down into one way of life, something happens – an event, an action, a thought – that shows me otherwise and warns me that you can get a man to stop killing perhaps, but you can’t quite get the killing out of the man! There’s a particularly chilling scene with a dog that left me gasping in horror at the event and in awe at his writing skills!

And yet Toxic manages to come across as strangely endearing. I found myself rooting for him even while I was horrified of the things he was capable of. Perhaps it’s because of his past in war-torn Yugoslavia, where as a young boy he has witnessed and committed atrocities of the worst kind. Perhaps it’s his wicked sense of humor, or the fact that he is honourable towards women, or his willingness to accept his crimes and even repent given the right circumstance! It’s hard to explain because nowhere does he come across as a softie. Perhaps it’s that all that Icelandic love that has rubbed off on me ;) Whatever it is – there’s a definite, undeniable connect between Toxic and the reader that enhances the reading experience. Like I said – clever writing!

I enjoyed the Icelandic setting since it's a country I know next to nothing about! Suddenly I feel the urge to up and away to this mystical Island, with its lunar landscape and population of Day 3 Girls, its citizens with friendly round faces and pebble eyes; where no one walks the roads, where there are no wars, and where the biggest event on TV is the Eurovision singing contest! An ideal retreat for retired hit men ;) A fast-paced, easy flowing book that is a delightful refreshing read. Another great find while browsing Amazon :)The quotes in the book quite understandably make more sense in context but there are a few that are just too hilarious not to share here!

“The Balkan animal, which is my soul, is always hungry for prey.”

“Stupidity is no disguise for the stupid.”

“He who kills a man of the church will be killed by a church.”

“Tasteless dressing and tasteful jokes. That’s Seinfeld for me.”

“Icelandic names are like Scud missiles. Their trails linger in the air long after they’ve reached their target.”

And my very favourite, “As with all his colleagues around the world, he speaks in Airish, the incomprehensive language of the skies.” This while referring to the Captain’s in-flight announcements :P

Read it!

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Jan 27, 2013 Opunzia Espinosa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

In ordine di importanza, ho comprato questo libro perché:
1. era in offerta;
2. mi intrigava la copertina;
3. la trama surreale;
non me ne sono pentita, anzi, mi è davvero piaciuto. Chi l'avrebbe mai detto? Voglio dire, che avrei amato un libro scritto da un autore Islandese ed ambientato a Reykjavik. E invece...
Lo stile di Helgason (che non conosco e di cui non avevo mai letto nulla) è davvero accattivante. Crudo, ma non volgare. E mi piace l'ironia noir. Più volte sono scoppiata a ridere di gusto...more

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Mar 14, 2012 William Herschel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, iceland, 2012

The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning eftir Hallgrímur Helgason (the author of 101 Reykavík) starts by informing us that our protagonist, a Croatian man nicknamed Toxic, has over sixty professional kills under his belt. Things soon turn for the worse, however, and he finds himself on a flight to Reykjavík.

My first thought while reading this was how lost people unfamiliar with Iceland might be while reading this. In a way, it’s a huge poke at Icelandic culture — names, music, weather, society, the...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Clarice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the story of Toxic, a Croatian Soldier turned NYC Hit Man who prides himself on his perfect record - it only takes him one bullet to make his hit. Since this narrative is presented from Toxic's uncensored point of view, it is a little crude. Although I'm not usually a light-weight when it comes to language and graphic descriptions of violence, I did almost quit reading this novel after the first few pages. I was really repelled by the way he talked about women and his "hits", and my init...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Jacqueline rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-wall, from-readers-world, ptsd

Funny, crude, thought provoking, tragic and uplifting. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started this but it definitely wasn't what I actually read. I'm not sure I can actually say much about the book without spoiling it.

But here are some things I can say. It was very well written. It uses first person present POV, which if you're familiar with my reviews, you'll know I usually loathe. It was however the perfect tense here. The main character was more of a narrator than is typically the c...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Evan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A dark comedy with a slight euro flavor, from an Iceland author's first novel written originally in english. The twisted Tarantino-ish tale of serbo-croatian mafia hitman, and former war criminal, fleeing from New York after a job. He kills and assumes the identity of a look-alike who turns out to be a tele-evangilist heading to Iceland for an appearance. After bumbling through preaching in a string of profanity he tries to flee his past and echoes of ethnic cleansing war and find a future - pos...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Ancestral Gael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ancestral by: Amazon

Shelves: audio, fiction, humour, reviewed, crime, iceland

Why did I read it? " The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning " appeared on a list of items available for review and the synopsis provided sounded interesting, made more interesting by the fact it was the author's first book in English, his own translation no less. I was foolish, however, and chose another book in it's stead.

Synopsis: Tomislav Bokšić is a New York resident, Croatian-born hitman with 60 odd successful jobs, who is very comfortable with his work, and his girlfriend Munita. After his las...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Kelsey Simms rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my first book from the author, or even any Icelandic author. I didn't know what to expect, but I do know that foreign writers sometimes have an odd way of phrasing words or sentences. That's fine - I can handle that. Most of the time I can get through a language barrier in a book, but for some reason this one was hard to get past. Therefore, I don't know if my 2/5 star review is fair, but I did not like how Mr. Helgason wrote at all. I found myself often cringing at what I believed to b...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Ernesto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ernesto by: goodreads

Shelves: novela

Disfruté mucho la lectura de este libro. Creo que, desde la triología de Larsson, no encontraba una obra que me giuste tanto.

Un asesino a sueldo termina en suelo islandés, haciéndose pasar por un televangelista americano e inicia, de forma totalmente accidental, un proceso de "limpieza" que lo llevará a conocer personajes dispares como el pastor evangélico que creo que los pecados solo se limpian con violencia, el pastor y su esposa que creen que el asesino ha cruzado su camino para demostrar an...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This darkly comic novel has a strong beginning and a superb ending.

There were times toward the late middle when I thought Helgason might lose me in schmaltz. But I kept the faith and read on because I knew the complex character he had built so humanly in Toxic wouldn't let that happen.

There are moments of suspense and irreverence that really launch it, right from the airport murder and the chance flight to Iceland. Helgason takes it to two places I knew little about and brought them closer to me...more

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Mar 26, 2012 Timur Aliev rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavian, helgason

Итак, у нас имеется: харизматичный, бравый герой, своеобразный юмор, легкий, притягательный язык изложения, интересный сюжет. Крутой мужик попадает в аналогичную своей крутости переделку, вследствие которой он вынужден свалить куда подальше, попутно сменив профиль деятельности с киллера на священнослужителя. Несмотря на такую жуткую изначальную профессию, герой обаятелен и вызывает симпатию с первых же страниц. Приняв облик известного священника, убийца попадает в страну, где нет армии и не прод...more Итак, у нас имеется: харизматичный, бравый герой, своеобразный юмор, легкий, притягательный язык изложения, интересный сюжет. Крутой мужик попадает в аналогичную своей крутости переделку, вследствие которой он вынужден свалить куда подальше, попутно сменив профиль деятельности с киллера на священнослужителя. Несмотря на такую жуткую изначальную профессию, герой обаятелен и вызывает симпатию с первых же страниц. Приняв облик известного священника, убийца попадает в страну, где нет армии и не продают оружия, а уровень преступности стремится к нулю.

Очень увлекательно читается примерно 3/4 книжки. Далее приходит мысль о том, что перерождение главного героя проходит очень тяжёлый путь, т.к. нашему киллеру приходится переосмысливать события военного прошлого, которое ему довелось пережить, и наконец доверить свою самую страшную тайну другому человеку. И всё бы хорошо, но в ход переосмысления киллером своих жутких деяний вмешиваются дружки из его бывшей мафии, конец выходит неожиданным и упоротым, но логичным.

(view spoiler)(less)

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Mar 21, 2013 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime

The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning was a pretty interesting experience for me.

While the book started out strong and Toxic was a great character to observe, the plot sort of nose dived the moment he arrived in Iceland. He was surrounded by uninteresting people, forced to act like an uninteresting person, and it was only his comments and adventures into his past (his backtracking into the past and how it was a part of his present was a dominant and very interesting part of the book) that kept thi...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Xirxe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, unterhaltung, humor

Toxic, bisher erfolgreicher kroatischer Auftragskiller aus New York, erwischt bei seinem letzten Job einen FBI-Agenten. Da nun der Teufel los ist, flieht er auf dem schnellsten Weg und landet als amerikanischer Fernsehprediger in Island. Ehe er es sich versieht, steckt er mittendrin in seiner Rolle als Geistlicher und becirct nicht nur isländische Gläubige…
Schräg, schräger, am schrägsten ;-). Dass bei einem solchen Titel einen kein ‚normaler‘ Krimi erwartet, leuchtet ein. Aber es ist auch kein U...more Toxic, bisher erfolgreicher kroatischer Auftragskiller aus New York, erwischt bei seinem letzten Job einen FBI-Agenten. Da nun der Teufel los ist, flieht er auf dem schnellsten Weg und landet als amerikanischer Fernsehprediger in Island. Ehe er es sich versieht, steckt er mittendrin in seiner Rolle als Geistlicher und becirct nicht nur isländische Gläubige…
Schräg, schräger, am schrägsten ;-). Dass bei einem solchen Titel einen kein ‚normaler‘ Krimi erwartet, leuchtet ein. Aber es ist auch kein Unnormaler sondern gar keiner, vielmehr eher die Beschreibung einer Läuterung eines immens großen Sünders. Was sich nun vielleicht fade und öde anhören mag, wird jedoch bei einem Autor wie Helgason zu einem skurrilen wie auch witzigen Leseerlebnis.
Toxic, der vor seiner Laufbahn als Killer Soldat in Kroatien war, ist der Icherzähler mit einem äußerst lockeren wie auch vulgären Tonfall. Er beschreibt Island, das ihm zuvor völlig unbekannt war, aus der Sicht eines Kämpfers (‚Was ist mit diesen Isländern los? Keine Armee. Keine Pistolen. Kein Nix.‘) wie auch eines Großstadtmenschen (‚Der Dom ist so groß wie eine Hundehütte Gottes.‘) und erzählt nebenbei noch aus seinen früheren Leben. Wie ihm der Eurovision Song Contest das Leben rettete, wie er aus Versehen seinen Vater erschoss, wie er seine Morde vorbereitete (‚‘Das Opfer ist König‘ ist mein Motto.‘), wie er den Krieg erlebte (‚In unserer Einheit haben wir fünf Leben verloren, sechs Beine, drei Arme und ein paar Finger.‘). Es sind schreckliche Dinge über die er berichtet, aber dies macht er mit einer solch scheinbaren Selbstverständlichkeit und Direktheit in einer derart ungewohnten Sprache, dass man immer wieder lachen muss.
Trotz der vielen Geschichten aus der Vergangenheit Toxics bleibt die aktuelle Story, der Aufenthalt in Island, spannend. Dazu noch eine Liebesgeschichte und ein überraschender Schluss - einfach gelungen. Die volle Punktzahl gibt es nur deshalb nicht, weil es gelegentlich doch ein bisschen sehr schräg war.(less)

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Dec 05, 2012 Steve rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great title. Plus, Croatian hitman Boksic (I'm of Slovenian heritage, but I am sure we are "related" somewhere down the line). But, a bit of a mish mash - and the whole thing of him being reborn just comes off as rather unbeleivable, and not really fitting very well. Plus, towards the end an added on bit of plot regarding him and one of his former fellow countrymen. Just feels tacked in. And, I did not find it very funny (OK, maybe my sense of humor, but then I do laugh at Haissen's comic myster...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Eric rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Stop reading before the last five pages

Shelves: crime, humor

I was really enjoying this novel. It was told from the point-of-view of an interesting lead character, had a dark sense of humor, and some really cool moments -- of violence, of contemplative and humorous narration, and of fish-out-of-water interactions with the local Icelanders -- but all that was washed away by one of the worst endings to any novel I have read in recent memory. First, (view spoiler)...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Sho rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, drama, kindle-edition, thriller

This is totally bonkers, and totally brilliant.

It starts in New York when a Bosnian hitman kills the wrong person necessitating a quick getaway. A small problem with security at the airport leads to a sudden change in plan and our Bosnian hitman ends up in Iceland. With televangelists.

The writing is excellent, even more so because Helgason wrote it in English* rather than Icelandic (as he did with his first two novels). The tone is excellent throughout with lots of puns and plays on words which...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Aramis rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-whispersync

I have very conflicted views on this book. On the one hand, it is very very funny in parts. The writing can be deliciously sarcastic and some of the characters are very interesting. On the other hand, I felt like those stand-up comedians who think that you need a string of expletives to be funny. Another reviewer compared him to Joseph Heller which to me sounds completely perplexing. Heller never needed to stoop so low to create funny situations. The author sometimes goes for the cheap shots, fo...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Maggy Mistake rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ecco gli Islandesi, Rejkiavik ti appare piena di malati di mente e invasati, Rejkiavik : a world apart. E' ovvio: come deve essere un paese dove sei mesi all'anno c'è sempre la luce, dove per sole sei settimane è estate (15 gradi) piena e gli altri sei mesi sono di buio pesto? Un paese di fuori di testa. Il libro veloce e fumettato scorre nella voce di Tom Boksic (alias Toxic) sicario croato che per una serie di agganci non riusciti si trova a passare un periodo forzato in Islanda. Non è che sia...more

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May 20, 2013 Natalie Keating rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is very strange, very funny, and very good. (But I'll warn you now, there's loads of swear words in it, so if that bothers you, you may not like it.) It's the story of a hitman for the Croatian mafia who's forced to flee New York because law enforcement agencies are hunting for him. On a whim (I don't want to spoil anything here!), he ends up going to Iceland instead of his native Croatia. Hilarity and very odd events ensue.

What I really liked about this book was the author's willingne...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Byron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Picked this up on sale, sight unseen, thinking it might be a sort of action movie thing where a lot of people get shot. It's actually more like a sitcom, where a prolific hitman - a guy who does shoot a lot of people - through a series of strange events is thrust into this world of genteel Icelandic televangelist types. Typical hilarity ensues. I was surprised and pleased to learn that dude who wrote this has a filthy, hilarious sense of humor. I'd describe it as Tarantino-esque (Tarantino, in f...more

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About Hallgrímur Helgason

Hallgrímur Helgason is an Icelandic author, painter, translator, cartoonist and essayist. He has studied at the School of Visual Arts and Crafts in Reykjavík and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

His most famous works are 101 Reykjavík, which was made into a popular film, and Höfundur Íslands (Iceland's Author), which won the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2001. He was nominated for the prize again...more

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