Let normal people have their 'normal' heroes. The rest of us have Jón Gnarr, and the world's a better place for it. –
Michael Schaub, NPR Loved
The Indian. Am adding lice-rats to my lexicon. No one will never know I stole it from the poor people of Blesugrof. –
Doug Stanhope, via Twitter Critic's Pick: By turns funny and despairing (Gnarr had ADHD and severe dyslexia as a child), as well as providing a glimpse into Icelandic culture beyond Björk,
The Indian is entertaining and enlightening. –
Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram A dark memoir full of black humor that details the author's painful experiences as a child unable to fit in due to struggling with learning and emotional disorders, Gnarr's book illuminates the struggles that come from being considered broken. Written with cleverly shifting points of view, this haunting narrative invites readers to consider the trauma of an outcast child. –
World Literature Today Painful yet intensely beautiful. –
Nancy O'Donnell, Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle Gnarr's finest accomplishment in this book, surpassing others in the genre, is the absolute immediacy of the childhood experience. . . . Gnarr returns those emotions–all the emotions of childhood–to their context, adding the suffering of learning them, finding new restrictions, fearing ones you don't know, and we relate to them once again. This is the gift of The Indian, the way that it makes the child, our child-self, alive, close to heart and mind, in all his pain and his happiness.
The Indian is brave in this gift, and dares me to be brave too, enough to find the child of my past and make him present.
P.T. Smith, Three Percent A novel about self-discovery in a world where being different is of no good. It is an ingenious and bleak book, cleverly exploring the life of a ginger misfit, with writing that seamlessly blends Jon Gnarr's comedic abilities with an emotional connection that results in a need to learn everything there is to know about the boy who didn't fit in his surroundings and wanted to become an Indian. –
Denis Barbov, Graphic Policy The Indian is refreshingly original because it not only speaks to a very specific subset of people who have learned to cope with, or are learning to cope with their learning disabilities, but also anyone who has ever experienced feeling like an outcast or alone in their childhood, aka: Everyone. Gnarr's story is incredibly relevant to all our lives and this is a book that needed to be written . . .this story of Jón Gnarr, similarly to how it was necessary to write, is a book that must be read. –
Eilidh, via Young Adults Book Central As a Psychiatrist I found this book to be amazing. I loved the juxtaposition between his experience and the excerpts before each chapter from various Psychiatrists. This is the best first-person account of the real neuro-biological differences that children with serious learning differences have. This is a bittersweet story but Gnarr's genius is in how he keeps the tone victorious. I loved this book. –
Adam Rekerdres, via Goodreads A candid, anecdotal, and lighthearted approach to political speeches is what propelled Gnarr into popularity in the wake of Iceland's 2008 financial crisis. His Best Party, composed of punk rockers, campaigned on free towels in all swimming pools and a polar bear for the capital's zoo, among other things." –
Foreign Policy
