I went to the local mystery novel bookstore and was overwhelmed by the number of novels by writers from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway.
I bought a novel by an Icelandic author and wondered if the current vogue for novels set in the dead of winter in Nordic countries has to do with an unspoken realization that the climate change is taking away the cold and the snow. Are people trying to get their fill of the snow before it goes away for good?
I think Henning Mankell was the first to get his novels translated into English, and when people discovered that they werre rather good, the demand increased. Actually I think Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow came first, but she was an amateur, and not a police detective. But in her case the snow and cold thing still applies, so maybe you’re on to something there.
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I think it is because people think of Scandinavia as being these welfare paradises. So the contrast of having seriously dysfunctional underbellies really interests people in the English speaking world. We are told that Sweden is a perfect and larger version of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood by the leftwing academic intelligentsia in the US. But, it turns out it is full of thieves, murderers, prostitutes, drug dealers, and other scum.
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That and Swedes tend to like their crime fiction in copious quantities …
At least that’s what I saw when I was in Hedengrens on Stureplan a while back.
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I think it’s less the cold than the dark. The Nordics are doing noir better than anyone else now with a hard, determined non-sentimental edge and there’s no guarantee of the happy ending or neat resolution that Anglophone authors often seem unable to break from.
And which Icelandic author? I’ve read two (in Polish translation) by Indriðason, Jar City (The bog) and the Draining Lake, and would probably read more if I stumble across them.
I’m currently reading Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (also in Polish)
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Man, this is really eerie. The book I’m reading is Last Rituals by this writer!
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I teach Scandinavian crime fiction in one of my courses. The obsession with crime fiction in Scandinavia goes back to Sjöwahl and Wahlöö who wrote the Martin Beck series in the late 60s/early 70s. They pioneered the detective novel as a vehicle for social, political, and economic criticism, though the vein of criticism that runs through their work can be really hard for American undergrads to interpret.
Sjöwahl and Wahlöö were wildly successful in their time and made crime fiction serious stuff in their part of the world. I think quite a bit of Scandinavia’s literary talent in the past few decades have gone into crime fiction because they see it as a serious literary genre that can also lead to commercial success.
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I’m not quite sure either, I’m over half way through but I’ve had to put it aside for awhile because of a clumping of work.
The protagonist is, unusually for the genre, so far a competent parent and generally likeable, in a staid nordic kind of way.
My favorite characters so far are the horrible, horrible secretary and the Filipina immigrant.
So far, if there’s a theme it seems to be about the presence of outsiders in a small, hermetic society but I’m not sure where it’s going.
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Nordic temperaments are the funniest thing about the book. A 33 – year-old woman realizes that she hasn’t had sex in 2 years and it barely even registers. 🙂
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Actually, my favourite crime fiction right now is the German television show “Polizeiruf 110” …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polizeiruf_110
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polizeiruf_110
I liked the dynamic of Bukow and König — their attitude is one in which they both have dirt on each other that might end their careers, and it would certainly end their partnership …
“Oh, too bad this’ll be the last case we’ll be on together …”
“Yeah, too bad …”
Then in the next episode, they’re at it again. 🙂
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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