Buzz Aldrin

Blurb

Buzz Aldrin, What Happened To You in All The Confusion? is a novel by the Norwegian author Johan Harstad, published in 2005. The book deals with a thirty-year-old gardener, Mattias, near obsessed with the thought of being second best, the greatest number two, much to his girlfriend's grievance. He looks upon astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, as his role model, and tries to live up to what he thinks Aldrin would do in any given situation. He has an extraordinary talent as a singer, but refuses to become a singer in his friend's semi-famous band, arguing that "not everyone wants to be a leader, some just want to be the secretary. Not everyone wants to star in a movie, some just want to watch the movie." After losing both his girlfriend and his job, he accidentally ends up on the Faroe Islands, where he meets people with the same ideals as himself, living in a psychiatric halfway house. Using the lunar-like landscape of the Faroe Islands as a backdrop, the novel deals with their attempt at finding a balance between being second best and anonymous without going into total isolation.