"Anyone who felt like the outcast in school, in indefinable limbo between jock, bookworm, stoner, or class clown, yet still shunned and excluded and on your own planet, will identify with
The Pirate. In fact, it will make you relive those days in a way that brings all of those insecurities and triumphs vividly back to life." –
Doug Stanhope "The text encapsulates the feelings of loneliness and being misunderstood and bullied all while searching for self-identity that are all too common in the teenage experience. At times, the familiar emotions and questions posed by Gnarr's younger self can be anxiety-inducing for the reader." –
Hannah Wise, Dallas Morning News "Jon Gnarr may be best known as the comedian who became mayor of Reykjavik, but he also impresses with his writing.
The Pirate recounts his teen years and punk rock's influence on his life." –
David Gutkowski, Largehearted Boy "Here we are a delivered a furious mind racing to process and understand in order to solve the riddle of his perpetual position as outsider. . . . Those who found punk as a refuge in their troubled teens and twenties will delight in thinking through our experiences while reading. . . . Give it a read and remember your first all-age hardcore matinee show." –
Brandon Gray Miller, Professor, SMU "In my opinion this is one of the most remarkable books to have come out in the last year...Teenagers should read this book, without question...I thought it was simply wonderful." –
Kolbrún Bergthórsdóttir, Kiljan (Icelandic National TV) "Gnarr the writer does an incredible job of telling the story from a kid's perspective, showing Jón's naivete and idealism, along with poor judgement, tortured kid-logic and blasé cynicism and emotional detachment. . . .
The Pirate is brilliant, heartbreaking and so true to a kid's brain it's painful sometimes, great for adult readers of adult or YA fiction." –
Marie Cloutier, Boston Bibliophile "The language is reminiscent even of Thorbergur Thordarson, with his clarity and simplicity. I also find the history of punk in this book very interesting." –
Sigurdur Valgeirsson, Icelandic National TV "He's a bit of a genius, that Jón." –
Egill Helgason, Kiljan (Icelandic National TV) "A heartfelt and searing tale of bullying, rebellion and the search for a place to belong in the world. A story that genuinely touches the reader." –
Fridrika Benonysdottir, Frettabladid "...[The Pirate] plainly shows the destructive effects of prejudice and how a lack of realistic options and willingness to understand the boy is soul-destroying and dangerous...The strength of
The Pirate, the second volume of Jon's memoirs, is its sincerity: the boy's point of view and the narration shaped by his inner voice." –
Frida Bjork Ingvarsdottir, Vidsja (National Broadcasting Station) "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, [The Indian] 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, on The Indian "[The Pirate] is a highly readable book, enormously powerful and particularly heartfelt. ...A book not soon forgotten." –
Kolbrún Bergthórsdóttir, Morgunblaðið "By turns funny and despairing (Gnarr had ADHD and severe dyslexia as a child), as well as providing a glimpse into Icelandic culture beyond Bjo]rk, The Indian is entertaining and enlightening." –
Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Critic's Pick, on The Indian) "Hypnotic and heartbreaking...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, on The Indian "Gnarr's finest accomplishment in [The Indian], 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." –
P.T. Smith, Three Percent
