In this respect, his fate echoes that of his idol, Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon, who also suffered from the pressure of being in the limelight.īut there are no psychological revelations here. His desire to vanish is all-consuming and destructive, making it difficult for him to form close personal connections, and leading to relationship breakdown and mental illness. Mattias is at the extreme end of the spectrum. It’s an interesting aspect of the human condition, the tension between wanting to avoid attention entirely, being happy to do good work unseen, and seeking recognition. He wants to be useful but forgotten: ‘a smooth-running cog in the world’. But Mattias is desperately afraid of attention. He’s excellent at most things he does, and also happens to be an extraordinary, blow-you-away singer. Mattias, the protagonist and narrator, is a gardener at a local nursery, delivering flowers to the dying. But the Norwegian author’s novel has done well: it’s been made into a TV series and the rights have been sold in over ten different countries. ‘What twenty-seven-year-old Johan Harstad has written is quite plainly a work of genius,’ claims a recommendation on the cover of Buzz Aldrin: What Happened To You in All the Confusion? The cynic in me was immediately suspicious of such effusive praise.
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