Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

by Michael Lewis

Iceland instantly became the only nation on earth that Americans could point to and say, “Well, at least we didn’t do that.”

You can tell a lot about a country by observing how much better they treat themselves than foreigners at the point of entry.

AS IT IS mid-December, the sun rises, barely, at 10:50 A.M. and sets with enthusiasm at 3:44 P.M. This is obviously better than no sun at all, but subtly worse, as it tempts you to believe you can simulate a normal life.

“We’d like you to explain our financial crisis,” she says. “I’ve only been here three days!” I say. It doesn’t matter, she says, as no one in Iceland understands what’s happened. They’d enjoy hearing someone try to explain it, even if that person didn’t have any idea what he was talking about—which goes to show, I suppose, that not everything in Iceland is different from other places.

“Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress.”

“The Nazis built it,” she says. “That’s what people say about Hitler, when they get tired of saying the usual things. Well, at least he built good roads.”