Scandinavian fiction, crime, and other books

Linn Ullmann’s most recent book, A Blessed Child, was reviewed in the New York Times Sunday Book Review today! This is, of course, a great honor. Linn Ullmann is a very talented writer, improving from book to book, and I was very pleased to see her book reviewed.

New York Times writes that

Her mother is the actress Liv Ullmann and her father the writer and director Ingmar Bergman, who fathered nine children by six different women. Ullmann is the youngest of that brood: a fairy-tale position if ever there was one, the great man’s last baby, daughter of his wildly talented, gorgeous and ferociously intelligent muse. One admires Linn Ullmann — a lot — for surviving such a powerful and intoxicating legacy with such a strong artistic drive.

The review is positive and very interesting!

Brand is the drama of absolute intransigence in support of the religious life as opposed to the hedonistic one. The motto of Brand, the main character, is “All or nothing”. He is a strong person, a very stubborn Norwegian, and he does not admit compromises nor expedients, but goes directly to his goal, over-riding affections, memories and traditions. The conventional God is a God too spineless for Brand, a God weak and antiquated, a God who contents himself with fragments of human hearts, and who finds it sufficient that man, fortified by the Christian doctrine of redemption, offers Him homage every seven days.

Upon this petty and what he views as a vulgar concepcion of religion, the young Norwegian pastor declares war to the death. Better, according to Brand, to live in utter impiety, better to live like a libertine than to accommodate oneself to the practice of such a false and lying life. “Either everything or nothing.”

Thus Henrik Ibsen lets Brand struggle with and live out the dilemmas laid out by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in Either/Or (see Either/Or: A Fragment of Life (Penguin Classics)). And to some extent Brand may be viewed as Ibsen’s reply to, and partly also refutation of, Kierkegaard.

If there is a God, one should dedicate oneself to him completely, without dissimulation and without defections. In conformance to this ambitious ideal of his, Brand refuses to leave his parish although the climate threatens the life of his wife and child and later they die; and he also denies the sacrament to his aged dying mother, because she will not consent to give away all her riches. Contrary to Zarathustra, who from the mountain descends into the valley to be among men, Brand painfully climbs to the summit in order to be nearer to his God. But an avanche descends upon him. Dying Brand asks of the Eternal if the littlie grain of human will has any weight in the scale of redemption.

In the midst of the crash of the avalanche the answer comes to him: “God is love!” With such an answer the tragic Norwegian arrives at a more humane and generous conclusion than the philosopher Kierkegaard, whose life has some points of similarity with that of the cleric Brand. This is a wonderful play and a great, thought-provoking reading.

See also: George Bernard Shaw’s The Quintessence of Ibsenism (Dover Books on Literature and Drama), James McFarlane’s The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen (Cambridge Companions to Literature), and Toril Moi’s excellent Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy.

The Draining Lake takes place partly in Iceland today, partly in East Germany during the 1960’s.

In the city of Leipzig in East Germany, a group of young, radical Icelanders have gone to study at the University there. We follow some of the, in particular a young man named Tomas. They expected to meet a communist paradise, but encounter instead a society where the secret police, Stasi, is present everywhere, where people are scared, and everybody spies on everybody else. Tomas meets repression, but also his first love.

In Iceland, 40 years later, a lake is draining out and a skeleton becomes visible. The scull has a hole and has been tied to a radio transmitter, as it turns out - a Russian short wave transmitter. Detective Erlendur Sveinsson and his colleagues are summoned to investigate.

There is hardly any evidence to go by. Who is the man? How did he end up in the lake? Erlendur, who know nothing about the students in Leipzig, works from the assumption that the man has been reported missing. For personal reasons, Erlendur is obsessed with disappearances and missing persons. This obsession comes in handy in this case, where persistence and intuition are the only real assets for the police.

The Draining Lake is a wonderful police procedural. Indridason’s descriptions of the tedious work of the police, the characters in the book, and - in particular - of the somewhat mellow and slightly depressed Erlendur, are masterful. It is an intelligent, very written crime book, written by one of the very best of Scandinavian crime authors. I do not hesitate to recommend it!

You can also order Arnaldur Indridason’s The Draining Lake from amazon UK.

Jan (Oscar Sverre Lucien Henri) Guillou is one of Sweden’s most famous authors. His Coq Rouge-novels, a series of books about the Swedish secret agent Carl Gustaf Gilbert Hamilton, the Scandinavian James Bond, have been translated into some 15 languages.

Carl Hamilton has special training in FBI and US Navy. He comes from the Swedish aristocracy, but he is also a former leftist, opposed the Vietnam war in the 1960s and was a member of the Maoist Clarté group.

A high ranking officer in the Swedish Secret police is shot in Stockholm. The authorities are confused. Who is behind the execution?

Carl Hamilton, who has officially studied political science in California, but has in reality been trained as a Navy Seal, and a spy, is assigned the case. His is assigned the code name Coq Rouge. This is his first big case, with a trail that goes to Oslo, Beirut, Lillehammer, Israel, and Iran. This is the first book in the series about Hamilton.

Coq Rouge is a great read, with an interesting plot, and a wonderful start on the fabulous series of books about Count Hamilton. One of the best international spy series in modern time, in the same class as LeCarrè. All of the books, and this one as well, are extremely exciting, with lots of action and rapidly unfolding plots. Coq Rogue is a wonderful read.

For some or other reason, the books in this series are hard to find in English, and a number of them are currently selling for USD 100 or more from private sellers on various internet sites.

Also by Jan Guillou: The Knight Templar (Crusades Trilogy), (historical novels) another great series!

Order from amazon UK: Coq Rouge., The Road to Jerusalem (Crusades Trilogy), and The Knight Templar (Crusades Trilogy).

(Norwegian title: Før du sovner.) Before You Sleep was originally written in Norwegian. While it was not viewed as controversial in Norway, American reviewers have regarded it as a “detailed and sexually frank novel.” Such labels aside, Before You Sleep is a great and strong story of a Norwegian family, Blom, with strong and also somewhat eccentric women, that spans several generations. The story moves from Oslo to Brooklyn, both places well known to the author.

The story is complicated. It is told, over time, from the mouth of one of the key characters in the book, Karin.
It is about relations inside and out of the family, about motherhood, marriage, emotions, love, and even infidelity.

Before You Sleep is an exceptional debut book. It is very well worth reading. Linn Ullman tells her story in a way that makes the characters come alive, and make you sympathize with their strange actions and understand their emotions.

“Of this autumns literary output, novelist Linn Ullmann is the wickedest and wittiest, and because she writes with a silent sincerity and merges all this with wit, intelligence and a generous picture of human beings, the novel is a real pleasure to read.”

CECILIE WINGER,
FÆDRELANDSVENNEN (Norway)

“Before You Sleep is infernally well written. The debutante, Linn Ullmann, has, from page one, found her own form and language, consistent in style until the end.”

GT (Sweden)

The most popular Scandinavian fiction books at amazon.com (May, 2008):

1. Kristin Lavransdatter (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Sigrid Undset (Author), Tiina Nunnally (Editor, Translator), Brad Leithauser (Introduction)

2. Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (Perennial Classics) by Ole Edvart Rolvaag (Author)

3. The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Hakan Nesser (Author)

4. Four Major Plays: A Doll’s House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder (Oxford World’s Classics) by Henrik Ibsen (Author), James McFarlane (Introduction, Translator), Jens Arup (Translator)

5. Four Great Plays of Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder (Enriched Classics Series) by Henrik Ibsen (Author)

6. Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg (Author)

7. Hunger: A Novel by Knut Hamsun (Author), Paul Auster (Introduction), Robert Bly (Translator)

8. Unspoken: A Mystery (Inspector Anders Knutas Mysteries) by Mari Jungstedt (Author), Tiina Nunnally (Translator)

9. An Enemy of the People; The Wild Duck; Rosmersholm (Oxford World’s Classics (Oxford University Press).) by Henrik Ibsen (Author), James McFarlane (Translator)

10. Growth of the Soil (Penguin Classics) by Knut Hamsun (Author), Brad Leithauser (Introduction), Sverre Lyngstad (Translator)

(Translated by Arthur G. Chater.New : York: Knopf, 1936. New translation by Tiina Nanally.) (Norwegian title: Fortællingen om Viga-Ljot og Vigdis. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug, 1909.)

Set in Norway and Iceland at the beginning of the eleventh century, Gunnar’s Daughter is the story of the beautiful, spoiled Vigdis Gunnarsdatter, who is casually raped by the man she had wanted to love.

A woman of courage and intelligence, Vigdis is toughened by adversity. Alone she raises the child conceived in violence, repeatedly defending her autonomy in a world governed by men. Alone she rebuilds her life and restores her family’s honor, until an unrelenting social code propels her to take the action that again destroys her happiness.

More than a historical romance, Gunnar’s Daughter depicts characters driven by passion and vengefulness, themes as familiar in Undset’s own time - and in ours - as they were in the Saga Age. A strong, unsentimental book by Undset.

Gunnar Staalesen is Norwegian, born in Bergen, 1947. He has, among other books, written a series of crime books starring Varg Veum. The first book in this series was published in 1977. Varg Veum is a kind of Scandinavian Philip Marlowe. He is a former social worker turned private detective. Staalesens books have been translated in 12 languages. The Writing on the Wall was originally published in Norwegian in 1995.

In The Writing on the Wall, Varg Veum returns from the funeral of his ex-wife’s most recent husband to find the distressed mother of missing 16 year old girl Torild, waiting to see him. Usually, when women are waiting to see Veum, something bad has happened or will happen.

Also, Bergen is buzzing with rumours about the death of Judge Brandt after he is found dead in a hotel room wearing flimsy female underwear.

Varg Veum starts digging. He looks into the last known sightings of Torild and her few friends. They seem to centre around a local amusement arcade. What initially seems pretty normal, rebellious behaviour seems to be covering up something more sinister, and Veum soon receives death threats. Then Torild is found dead.

Gradually what appears as the result of Veum’s digging, is a thriving teenage prostitution scene in the city. Varg is also convinced, that there is a connection to the death of Judge Brandt. Before long, Varg finds himself deep within the seedy underbelly of Bergen’s criminal world.

The Writing on the Wall is a detective novel you like or don’t like. To a large extent this has to do with Varg Veum. The novel itself is good, it is well written, and Staalesen is great with dialogues, but it doesn’t really excite you. However, if like me you have read a number of Staalesen’s novels and love Varg Veum, it is a great book. And generally, I think readers that like Veum will also like the book. But Veum isn’t all that likeable! He is a straight, believable hero, but he is a little boring and simple to some readers. Personally, I like him because he is pretty low key for a guy from Bergen, and is a little bit shabby. I do recommend it.

Order The Writing on the Wall (Eurocrime), by Gunnar Staalesen from amazon UK!

The Fourth Man, actually the fifth novel about inspectors Gunnarstranda and Frolich (Frølich) by K O Dahl, is in some ways more similar to American crime novels than for instance those by Scandinavian authors like Karin Fossum, Karin Alvtegen, Jo Nesbo, Ake Edwardson or Henning Mankell. It is a hard-boiled noir style novel with a lean style, and reminds me more of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. There is, however, considerable psychological depth.

In the course of a routine police raid, Detective Inspector Frank Frolich of the Oslo Police saves the life of Elizabeth Faremo. She is a dark-haired beauty with mysterious eyes who was inadvertently caught in the crossfire. This is where The Fourth Man starts. Some weeks later, Frolich coincidentally runs into her again. He is attracted to her and they start an affair, even though his colleagues warn him about it.

By the time Frolich learns that Elisabeth is the sister of a known local gang-member, Johnny Faremo, it is already too late. And then Johnny is implicated in a crime, a security guard is attacked and killed. But Elisabeth gives her brother and his gang an alibi and Frolich’s name is mentioned. Then Elisabeth disappears. Now Frolich is plunged into both an emotional tempest as well as a complex investigation. He is forced to rethink their relationship. Were things as they seemed?

Frolich is asked to take some time off. And his boss Gunnarstranda is upset and believes Frank has been played from the very beginning. And as the body count increases, Frolich begins his own unofficial investigation.

Complex, dark and tragic, The Fourth Man is a tale of revenge and erotic obsession, where love lures a good cop to walk on the wild side. This is classical crime noir in a modern setting. It has it all: cynical strippers, tough-talking gangsters, corrupt businessmen, mixed identities and a bona fide femme fatale. Dahl’s language is, as one critic put it “spiced with small poetic observations … of remarkably high quality.” The author himself says that this is his project, to “combine the genre literature with a little poetry and literary storytelling.” The Fourth Man proves that Dahl is able to do this.

Order from amazon UK: The Fourth Man and The Man in the Window.

The Demon of Dakar is the third book by Kjell Eriksson about Detective Ann Lindell of the Uppsala police. The first was The Princess of Burundi, and the second Cruel Stars of the Night.

The life of Manuel Alavez, a Mexican peasant, has changed for the worse. One of his brothers have died, the other is imprisoned in Sweden for drug smuggling. Both were set up by a stranger. The Zapotek indians of Mexico, Manuel’s tribe, call such men bhni guí’a. They tempt people with riches and a good life, but in return take their souls.

Manuel decides to go to Sweden. He learns that the demon is the unpleasant owner of two restaurants in Uppsala who with his partner has set up a smuggling operation to finance his restaurant empire. His name is Slobodan Andersson.

One day Ann Lindell shows up in the restaurant. Slobodan’s partner, Armas,has been killed, and has been found with his throat sliced. All clues lead straight back to the popular restaurant Dakar, owned by Slobodan Andersson. has some shady connections in his past, and his partner’s reputation is equally murky.

The murder of Armas seems to have started a wild chain of violent and dramatic events, centered around restaurant Dakar. A large number of people are suspicious. The meat chef is an oddball, to say the least. The newest hire’s personal life is a tangled web of lies. Even Eva Willman, the seemingly blameless older woman returning to the workforce as a waitress, has skeletons in her closet. Ann Lindell feels she is chasing some shadow on a revenge mission that is likely to hit again.

The Demon of Dakar is a wonderful police procedural. If Ann Lindell is to prevent a bloodbath, she must match wits with and out-maneuver an invisible killer whose motives are seemingly completely obscure.

But the reader knows the killer well. To the killer, the crimes are justified. Actually, he’s a very likable fellow who is only looking for justice.

In The Demon of Dakar, as in all of Kjell Eriksson’s compelling spellbinders, though, justice entails a frantic race to the finish, a race without rules and fraught with danger.