Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2014, Síða 23

Despite its late-night silence, eerie for a city of its size, most
would not consider Reykjavík a particularly spooky place.
One might be hard-pressed to argue otherwise, but novelist
Steinar Bragi has certainly tried with his collection of Icelan-
dic ghost stories, ‘The Haunting of Reykjavík.’
Words
Grayson Del Faro
sushisamba
Þingholtsstræti 5 • 101 Reykjavík
Tel 568 6600 • sushisamba.is
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23The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 16 — 2014 LITERATURE
Most of the writing in the book is well-
wrought, delivering the information
with some style. However, the material
often seems stretched as thin as the
book itself, containing just a few solid
stories altogether. Most stories, while
enlaced in the interesting specifics
of their identifiable location, are your
typical horror archetypes: a person
possibly died there and the furniture
moves itself now; in a dream, someone
sees specific details
they couldn’t pos-
sibly guess; women
in white dresses are
forever looking for
their children; and
so on.
Almost of more
interest than the
paranormal activity
are the histories of
buildings, places, and
characters that tie the
stories to Reykjavík.
Did you know there
was an outbreak of
typhoid in Reykjavík
in 1906, likely due to
human waste used as
fertilizer? How about
that the former home
of iconic poet Jónas
Hallgrímsson is now
the café at the Árbær
Open Air Museum?
You do now.
The book is de-
signed in an attempt
to enhance its spook-
iness. Each page is
laid out with sepia-
toned illustrations of
dark corridors, the
silhouettes of dead trees, and crum-
bling walls. While the overall effect of
the page design works well in terms of
vibe and pacing, many images crumble
under scrutiny. There are pencil draw-
ings whose cartoony style and qual-
ity make a joke of scenes depicted.
Many photos are spoiled by modern
details like new cars and the giant let-
ter ‘i’ of tourist information centres on
Laugavegur, making some pages look
like they were ripped from a tourist’s
Instagram account.
The book’s best quality is the fact
that it was written by Steinar Bragi,
who managed not to take it too seri-
ously. His sense of humour shows
through like a ghost through a mirror.
In describing a haunting at Höfði, the
house where Gorbachev met Reagan
to discuss nuclear disarmament, he
casually claims that the “greatest out-
come of the summit was that it led to
the single ‘Einn mol’á mann’ by The
Sugarcubes being
financed” and there-
fore Björk’s subse-
quent fame.
In between
drowned babies and
faceless heads, he
also makes sure to
include silly ghosts.
One haunting is
simply the persis-
tent smell of human
faeces where a con-
taminated well once
stood (and indeed
the design on these
pages includes poo
splatters). Another
is the ghost of a
wealthy but gener-
ous businessman
who allows any in-
voker of his name to
roll a perfect hand of
the dice when play-
ing Yahtzee. He is
also kind enough to
give explicit direc-
tions on how to catch
glimpses of certain
spirits around town.
He even offers the
ghosts consolation at
times, ending the chapter on a ghost
trapped in a public bathroom: “Look
into the light, man!”
So if you’re looking for a good
chuckle, want to hunt for ghosts this
October, or need supernatural assis-
tance to beat your co-workers at board
games—voilà.
“Look Into The
Light, Man!”
'The Haunting of Reykjavík'
by Steinar Bragi
…he casually claims
that the “greatest
outcome of the sum-
mit was that it led to
the single ‘Einn mol’á
mann’ by The Sugar-
cubes being financed”
and therefore Björk’s
subsequent fame.