In my first year as a creative writing student, Kári Gíslason was one of my lecturers. During one lecture, Kári told the room about the new book he was writing; a memoir about the pirate he knew when he was traveling through Greece as a young man. When he told us that he ended up skipping town without paying back his debt to the pirate, every student in the room knew this was a book they wanted to read. And after two years of waiting, it’s finally here.
This book tells the tale of eighteen-year-old Kári, traveling across Europe after a life changing meeting with his estranged father in Iceland. With newfound friend Paul, who he picked up in Scotland, the two end up on a ferry to Corfu, with nothing more than some dwindling funds and a pack of cigarettes. When the cigarettes go missing, the two begin to realise the direness of their situation. The two land, desperate for work and money, in the small village of Karousades, where they are told by locals to see ‘The Pirate’. They have no choice but to listen.
The Pirate is intimidating yet charismatic, rough around the edges, but more than hospitable to the boys. He swings wildly between a threatening presence and a loving father figure. But what is he really? Kari never really knows for sure. When things get a little too close for comfort, he is shocked back into the real world, where pirates are criminals capable of killing, not the eye-patch-wearing caricatures we’re used to picturing. With growing fear and debt, Kári makes the distressing decision to leave the island, the Pirate, and his debt behind.
Running with Pirates has all the excitement of a fictional novel, along with the wonder and admiration that comes from reading a story you know really happened. The story switches from his perspective as an eighteen-year-old, to him as a father, three decades onwards, as he revisits the island with his wife and sons. Exploring the concept of fatherhood, Kari draws on his experiences in Corfu to strengthen his relationship with his sons, the way he wished his own father would.
Kari beautifully compares the Corfu of his young, reckless adventures to the Corfu he re-explores as a father. Some things have changed, while some are exactly the same. One of the strengths of this story is the dual analysis of what was clearly a pivotal vignette of Kári’s life, and the way his perspective of that period of his life has warped and mellowed over time.
