The founder and former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment,
Inc., Olaf Olafsson is now Vice Chairman of Time Warner Digital
Media. Yet somehow he found time to write THE JOURNEY HOME, a quiet
but fierce novel about a young woman dealing with profoundly tragic
circumstances and her journey back home to find peace amid so much
saddness. Equally touched by THE JOURNEY HOME, Bookreporter.com's
Jana Sicilano and Carol Fitzgerald were fortunate enough to ask
Olafsson some questions about his book, his homeland, the future
of the printed book and much more.
BRC: In THE JOURNEY HOME, you trace the arc of a woman's life,
and her personal journey. Tell us about Disa, your protagonist.
OO: Disa is born in the northern part of Iceland in the mid 1910s, the
daughter of a district doctor and his wife. Together with her sister she is
sent to the capital, Reykjavik, to study at a commercial college, as was
often customary for daughters of the upper class. In the capital she
discovers her love for cooking and decides - against her mother's wishes ---
to go abroad to pursue her passion. This is the mid '30s and a couple of
years later Disa is back in Iceland, only to leave for England after a brief
stay.
It's the early '60s when Disa tells her story in THE JOURNEY HOME. She
doesn't have long to live and has decided to go to Iceland for the first time
in 20 years to confront her past, much of which she has spent years trying to
forget. She has been living in Somerset, England since 1941, running a
country hotel, and recounts her life on a car ride from her home to Scotland
and subsequently on the ship which takes her from there to her home country.
Disa is influenced by women I knew of that generation, some of whom suffered
quiet hardships during the war, and most of whom never said much about their
experiences. It took me a few years to write THE JOURNEY HOME and Disa and I
"lived together" for quite some time prior to me first putting pen to paper.
In my mind, Disa is inordinately sensitive and easily hurt. We witness her
rift with her mother and others, her outbursts over people who criticize her
cooking; she's proud and sometimes self-deluding; she bears a great deal of
sadness and grief yet is capable of happiness and affection, and able to
inspire it in all sorts of people. And she is brave in the face of her fatal
illness. Disa tries hard to put up a barrier to prevent us from knowing her,
but this attempt often reveals more than it hides. In cooking she finds a
language she's comfortable with.
BRC: What does Iceland represent for Disa? What does it represent
for you?
OO: For Disa, Iceland represents memories she cherishes and others she has
tried to escape for years. Her roots are there, and while she describes her
preferences for the quiet English landscape to the harsher Icelandic one, she
cannot shed her origin. I guess none of us can, whether we want to or not.
I've now been living in the United States for 18 years, but I recently bought
a house in Reykjavik so that my family and I could spend more time there. The
roots pull and voices call you back --- it's comforting at times, but not
without its moments of perplexity.
BRC: There's something cinematic about the structure and imagery
in the novel, as you cut back and forth through time --- is this
intentional, and do you think in cinematic terms at all when you
write?
OO: I don't think it's intentional, but then cinema has been a major
influence on my generation. I grew up reading a lot and became a movie buff
early on. I remember at the age of 12 sneaking away to the cinema to watch
one Hitchcock movie after another. I also remember clearly the first Fellini
film I saw --- I was probably 13 or 14. Many of these films had as profound
an impact to me, I'm sure, as did ULYSSES, or THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, or LONG
DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, etc. So it's not intentional but it's a part of the
mix, however the mix can be analyzed and defined.
Most importantly, though, Disa's story had to be told this way, going a bit
back and forth as your mind does when you look back at your life, fluctuating
a little, avoiding what is unpleasant, diverting itself, seeking what you
believe to be good, confronting yourself in a moment of honesty.
BRC: You use the color red as a powerful image throughout the
novel, setting it in sharp contrast to the subdued, gray palette
of England and Iceland. What can you tell us about color in your
novel?
OO: Since I've always been interested in art but never been able to paint, I
try to compensate the best I can. I've always viewed color as one of the
fundamental tools one has at one's disposal.
BRC: Tell us about Anthony. How does his sexuality, which becomes
an issue later in the novel, affect Disa?
OO: Disa meets Anthony when she's living with Jakob in England in the late
thirties, before Jakob goes back to Germany and Disa subsequently to Iceland.
He brings her back to England in 1941 after her horrible experiences in
Iceland and they've lived together ever since when she tells her story. What
would I have done without him? Disa asks herself. He really is her savior.
He's gay and one can question whether she is capable of a sexual
relationship, but their affection for each other is unconditional and quite
beautiful, in my mind.
BRC: Jakob (Disa's lover) and Atli (the man who sexually abused
her) both have a connection to the concentration camps. Can you
explain how this horrible, shared connection is developed in the
novel?
OO: The Nazis and Himmler in particular were very interested in Iceland. They
sent scouts there before the war, both to learn about this "only pure Aryan
Nation" and to try to influence politicians and men in authority. They had
quite a bit of success. There were young men like Atli who went to Germany
and became involved with the Nazis.
The British occupied Iceland in May of 1941. Their arrival was unexpected,
but welcomed by most, and Iceland became a very important post in the battle
of the North Atlantic.
When I was researching in preparation for THE JOURNEY HOME, I came across
memoirs by an Icelandic gentleman who had been close to Himmler, in which he
describes his stay in Germany, including his trips to Dachau and other
concentration camps. It has never been published --- he never finished it and
few know about it --- but it provided me with great material and perspective
I hadn't anticipated.
BRC: Atli says to Disa, "Germany, we understand what's going
on, you and I." Their "understanding" is worlds apart. How does
this comment affect Disa?
OO: Jakob goes to Buchenwald and so does Atli, needless to say under
different circumstances. Atli's father, a man of influence, is able to get
his son back to Iceland through Denmark which was occupied by the Germans.
Back in Iceland people in the know are careful not to talk about what Atli
was up to in Germany. Disa finds out, but only after having been misled ---
and blames herself for having been blind to the truth.
BRC: Unresolved conflict with her mother haunts Disa. Describe
their relationship, and their falling out.
OO: Disa's conflicts with her mother go back to her youth. Disa describes the
impact on her when her mother was delivering yet another baby whom Disa,
being the oldest, knew she would have to babysit. They are much alike, proud
and stubborn, unforgiving. Her mother passes away without Disa being able to
reach her deathbed and reconcile. It must be one of her great burdens.
BRC: Disa says, "perhaps ignorance and self-deception are the
best insurance for a happy life, and so it would be best to leave
this world in perfect ignorance of what was true and what false.
After all, the truth has often proved a poor provision on my journey."
What does she mean by this?
OO: The truth has oftentimes been harsh for Disa but nonetheless she's always
sought it. She pushes her doctor to be specific about her illness, she finds
out about Atli's doings in Germany, she discovers the truth about Anthony's
sexuality, etc. Maybe her life would have been more pleasant had she been
more ignorant. But that being said, she isn't capable of the big lies.
BRC: THE JOURNEY HOME is your second novel, but what many readers
may not know is that you've had a very successful career in the
world of technology and the Internet. How do you balance these two
distinct parts of your personality?
OO: It still amazes me sometimes that I actually stumbled into the world of
business. I don't think I ever intended to. Growing up, I envisioned
businessmen as being rather dull, manipulative old blokes, smoking a cigar
and making pronouncements, usually not very smart. So much for that. I enjoy
working with people in building businesses, putting ideas into motion ---
it's a bit like starting with a blank piece of paper. Writing on the other
hand is a basic need. If I don't write, I'm not content. It's pretty simple.
BRC: What do you think about the future of the printed book? Will e-books
make them obsolete?
OO: If paper had been invented
yesterday, today everybody would be marveling at this terrific,
new technology. Imagine what you can do with it! they would say.
You can put a book in your pocket, read it in bed, take it on a
train; it survives sunshine and humidity, can be pleasant to touch
and appealing to look at. It comes in different sizes and shapes,
and the battery never runs out. Isn't it also nice on the eyes?
Reference books are more useful electronically, but I don't think e-books
will replace, anytime soon, books that people read from start to finish, or
actually like touching and browsing.
BRC: What kind of historical research did you do in writing
THE JOURNEY HOME? For instance, did "water babies" actually exist?
OO: There was a lot of research, both in Iceland and also in Europe ---
England in particular. Anything from running a country hotel in Somerset in
the '40s and '50s to traveling from Reykjavik to northern Iceland during
snowy days in December 1940.
Yes, the so-called "water-babies" did exist. They were Jewish girls whose
husbands were in concentration camps. They were usually affluent and for
safety and maybe out of habit had not set foot on land since they escaped
from Germany. Instead they went back and forth from Europe to America,
sometimes for months on the same ship, making one trip as the First Officer's
girl, the next as the Second's, and so on. I came across stories about them
traveling on Dutch ships, prior to the Germans occupying Holland.
BRC: The love of Disa's life is a man named Jakob. Tell us
about their relationship. The tragedy of knowing she'll never feel
love again is so real for her. Would you describe yourself as a
romantic?
OO: I'm pretty lousy at analyzing myself, but aren't we all romantics to a
certain degree? Disa tells her story more than twenty years after Jakob is
sent to Buchenwald. Is he the only reason she's not capable of feeling love
as she did before? Probably not. Her episode with Atli certainly has
something to do with it. One can also question whether the Jakob of her
memories in 1961 is the same as the man she lived with in 1938. So it's not
only a question of her relationship with Jakob but also her relationships
with other people, some of which were pretty difficult.
BRC: How does your work relate to Iceland's rich literary tradition?
Who are your literary influences?
OO: Books and literature are important to folks in Iceland, and have been for
centuries. I grew up with books --- on top of the normal reading my father
was a writer, so literature was a part of the daily diet. I read the
Icelandic Sagas, of course, but began reading foreign literature of all kinds
early on in life. When I went to the university, I felt I didn't know enough
about science so I decided to study atomic physics. The philosophy of it
interested me. But I read literature the whole time as well, on my own,
mostly; I couldn't stay away from it and never intended to spend my life as a
physicist. I cannot really say who has influenced me most. It's a mix, I'm
sure, a cocktail, and probably impossible to be reduced to its elements at
this point.
