Wow. This book got me. Published under the crime novel genre - not at all my usual - I was absolutely spellbound, one night even reading it from 3am to 6am (ok, coupled with jetlag, but still...).
The gripping tale takes place in Sweden, and follows a somewhat disgraced, but totally righteous, journalist (and his lovers); a disturbed young punk hacker (and her abusers); and a wealthy aging industrialist (and his multi-generational back-stabbing family, each member with shares in the family empire). The main story is solving a 40-year old mystery, the disappearance and suspected murder of a young teenage girl. However, there are seemingly a bizillion sub-plots - and their twists and turns, and unexpected connections make for a very complex web indeed.
Parental discretion is advised. The crime novel includes just about every type of crime - rape, murder, serial murder, hate crime, financial crime, and cybercrime - at times so complicated, I could barely follow. There's some bondage (not all in the name of crime, if you know what I mean). And the mystery and its investigation involve some highly repellent, hugely graphic depictions of rape, sexual assault, torture, animal torture, and more. Around page 450, there was a description of a tortured confession that went on so long - 40 pages or more - and was so vividly described, my stomach churned and my head was addled. The characters in this book are sick, I thought. The author is a sick man for writing this. I am a sick woman for reading this. I briefly considered abandoning the book here - just too much for me.
But I continued. It was also around this point in the nearly 600 page novel, that it lost just a bit of its hold on me. The sub-plots, as they were wrapping up, were taking yet another turn, perhaps one too many. And there were just so many sub-plots to wrap up - I thought the book still could have been great with 2 or 3 fewer plots! A few seemed to hasten to finish, in order to wrap up without hitting the 800-page mark. Some of the delicious pacing got compromised to this end.
One thing I definitely loved about the book was it's Swedish setting. (I'm so predictable). You could really feel the summer white nights and the long, dark winter nights with their bone-chilling cold. Stockholm's modern cosmopolitan life was juxtaposed against the spare, simplicity of northern Sweden's secondary towns with their hearth-warmed cottages. The endless pots of very strong coffee could be smelled brewing throughout. And the lovers, and the other lovers, and the lovers of one's lover, and the lovers in their 20's and their 50's (sometimes even lovers of each other). Ahhhhh...Sweden....
All in all, a satisfying read - 3.75 stars of 4, just slightly marked down because of pacing and (over) complexity. But still, completely enticing and engrossing, and never, ever cheap.
I know we discussed this--I forget, did you say you have read Henning Mankell's novels?
ReplyDeleteDon't remember. Should I read Mankell?
ReplyDelete