Another Swedish mystery writer
I suppose I might mention Anna Jansson too. A few years ago, I read some of her books and thought they were quite ok, but at the time, I was busily devouring other, more interesting books – Barbara Nadel’s mysteries and Eliot Pattison’s among others – so I wasn’t particularly impressed. This summer I got my hands on a few other books by her and either she’s improved or I’m in a different mood right now. Last year one of her mysteries was turned into a tv series, which I quite liked.
Anna Jansson is a nurse who turned to writing mysteries. Her books are set on the island of Gotland. The setting is one reason I find these books so interesting. Gotland is a very special place, with a fascinating history. Her heroine is female cop Maria Wern. She seems quite intelligent, but not particularly tough, not like the tv version, played by Eva Röse, who is an excellent Swedish actress. In a few of the books, there’s a medical theme, which seems appropriate.
Wallander
Since the (originally) Swedish Wallander mysteries have been successfully exported to the UK, I thought I’d put in my two cents’ on this topic. In an earlier post, I’ve already mentioned that they’re not quite my thing. What I would like to discuss is something else. In the UK reviewers are raving about Kenneth Branagh in Wallander. After seeing what seems to be season 1 of that, I must say I enjoyed it more than the Swedish version.
What I’m reacting to is just one thing that keeps being repeated over and over again, in the reviews, in the UK and even in the US. Sweden is gloomy. What? Ok, I’ll admit that the north, far away from Wallander’s Scania, could be described as gloomy, especially during the dark season, which, frankly, lasts almost all the year around. That’s the north, not Scania. If you went to Scania presumably you’d notice that much of Sweden is pretty ordinary. The scenery is beautiful. (I just had to mention that. After all, I live here. I like the scenery.) But let’s get this straight once and for all, Scanians are not gloomy. Not generally. Sure, anyone can get gloomy, especially if you work hard all day tracing killers and dealing with gruesome murders. Are the British sleuths any more cheerful?
This is how the rest of us Swedes (or Goths, as I am – and no, I’m not dressed in black, we’re called goths anyway and there’s a fascinating linguistic or semantic explanation to why there are so many goths worldwide, especially throughout history) view Scania and the Scanians:
They’re jolly, positive people. They love to eat and drink. Kind of, if you allow the metaphor or simile, like hobbits, though not as short and fat, well some might be, but then so can anyone. Scania is usually green and smiling, rather than gloomy, though personally I tend to agree that the area around Ystad might be described as gloomy, especially during the winter.
Swedish mysteries
Right now, Europe is discovering Swedish crime novels. I just read an article on the Guardian’s website which mentioned, among others, Stieg Larsson, Liza Marklund and Camilla Läckberg. The UK has already taken Henning Mankell’s Wallander mysteries to their heart.
It seems almost petty to mention that they’ve just scratched the surface. In all honesty, I haven’t read Stieg Larsson or Liza Marklund. I have however read Mankell, Nesser and Läckberg and I must say I wasn’t impressed. For instance, take the latter – when you write a ‘mystery’ that is so predictable that someone like me – a writer wannabe, but still just an amateur – knows exactly who is the killer, why he did it and how it all happened when I’m reading the first couple of lines of the second chapter – what does that tell you about the quality of the book?
Forget all of the above writers (the Whiskas people books – Whiskas people are those who go for the most popular of anything, in case you’re wondering). I’ll tell you about my favorites instead. Since we’re talking about Swedish mystery writers, I won’t go into my Finnish favorite, at least not here, or the British, American or French books I like. So, here goes…
Emma Vall. She’s really three persons using the same pen name. They’re reporters, and so is their main character Amanda Rönn. She investigates crimes in the northern town Sundsvall. Emma Vall also writes mysteries for kids, about a girl named Svala (she’s originally from Iceland, hence the unusual name). The mysteries for kids are as well written as the others. My only problem with the kids’ books, is that they’re a little predictable. The basis is as follows: Svala makes a few new friends (or reconnects with some old friends) who have a problem. She starts to investigate to help them. That’s it. Don’t let that stop you from reading them, if you like books for older kids. They’re still good, even if the writers might want to vary the ‘recipe’ a little. If I have to criticize anything about the ‘grownup’ mysteries, it’s the fact that while Amanda Rönn is relatively young – just over 30 – she prefers men who are around 60. I think that’s because one of the writers is about that age herself and creates love interests of her own age. All their books are well written and definitely worth reading.
Arne Dahl. Pen name for a man named Jan Arnald. In addition to writing mysteries he’s also a short story writer, editor and critic. His mysteries are about a fictitious group investigating serious crime – the A group. The group employs quite a few people, so chances are you’ll find a main character you’ll like. For instance out of the roughly ten people involved, I primarily like two of them, both male, but there’s no one I absolutely can’t stand. These books are well written and fascinating, but once in a while, Arne Dahl tends to get a little too fanciful (I noticed this in Hidden Numbers (Mörkertal).
Thomas Kanger. He’s a reporter too, just like the women behind Emma Vall. His main character is young cop Elina Wiik who works in Västerås in eastern Sweden. Just like most cops, she’s single and trying to find time to date in the midst of her busy professional life. I used to like these books and I still like most of them. However, in The Borderland (Gränslandet) he just gets too fanciful for my taste. There’s absolutely no logic in the ending. It stops being a mystery and turns into speculative fiction and that just isn’t appropriate, without any warning. The earlier books are still fine, but I won’t recommend The Borderland.
Åsa Nilsonne. She’s actually a psychiatrist and medical doctor, but also writes excellent mysteries about the cop Monika Pedersen, working in Stockholm. Monika Pedersen is single (is there any cop who isn’t either single or divorced?), but has a close male friend, who is gay. Most of the cases are investigated in central Stockholm, but in the last book Monika goes to Ethiopia to follow up on a lead.
Veronica Mars
You must have heard of the tv series Veronica Mars. Maybe you’ve followed it right from the start, like me. If not, and you’re curious about the series, read on.
On a superficial level, VM is just like other American series for teens – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell and many others. The difference is that VM is also a series about a PI. Veronica is not only a high school student (in the first two seasons), but also a private investigator.
At the beginning of the series. the school where Veronica is a student, and the little town where she lives, is stunned by the brutal murder of Veronica’s friend, Lilly Kane. She was the daughter of an IT millionaire and was found dead on the family’s patio. One of the suspects in the case was Lilly’s own dad.
Veronica’s dad, who was the sheriff of their little town – Neptune, California (imaginary town) – was the one who dared to accuse one of the most prominent citizens of the town. He lost his job over that. At almost the same time his wife leaves him.
What’s left of Veronica’s family is now poor and impopular and Veronica can’t hang out with her old, rich friends.
She makes a new friend – a guy who has just moved into town – but she’s still obsessed with finding out who killed her best friend and to regain the good reputation she and her dad used to have.
Throughout season 1 she keeps getting closer to the solution of the crime, but she also solves other crimes, for instance for people from her school. She also gets to know a computer expert, called Mac (her real name is Cindy, but she hates that.)
In the last episode of season 1 Veronica finds out who killed her friend, but at the same time, she and her dad end up in mortal danger. She also falls out with her boyfriend, who is also her best friend’s ex. Unfortunately, she and her dad’s has him figured as the prime suspect for the murder.
At the beginning of season 2, Neptune High, Veronica’s school, is the victim of a major tragedy.. A bus full of students from poor families, end up in a traffic accident. Before long, it’s apparent that the accident is suspicious and Veronica decides to investigate. For instance, her ex’s new girlfriend is in the bus when it goes over the cliff. She is also the sole survivor of the crash, but ends up in a coma.
For various reasons, she hated Veronica, but ironically, it’s thanks to her that Veronica isn’t on the bus when the accident happens.
Just like in season 1, Veronica solves other cases too, but the main theme is the bus crash. After following a number of false leads, Veronica finds out who was behind the crash. This time too, she ends up in serious danger. She also finds out that she was raped, even though at first it looked as if she wasn’t – she’d had voluntary sex with her ex-boyfriend, who she thought was her half-brother.
Confusing? If you’d followed the series, you wouldn’t think so. In any case, her ex wasn’t her brother, but someone really had raped her while she was out cold. That’s where season 2 ends.
Now I’ve watched season 3 as well. Sadly, that’s the last one ever. I’m sorry about that, but on the other hand, no series can last forever. Also, I have to say that season 3 wasn’t nearly as good as the other two.
The reason I can really recommend this series is that it maintains a high quality throughout the two first seasons. The dialogue is great, the main characters are well defined, and the series writers don’t hesitate to deal with serious problems. Unlike many series I’ve seen in the past four or five years, this feels a lot more genuine.
Silent Witness
Silent Witness has been going on for several seasons already. I think I’ve been around for three of them, but that was late in the series. It started some time in the 1990’s. In any case, if you’ve seen Crossing Jordan you’ll have some idea about the genre.
Personally, I like Silent Witness better. I do have one, only one, which is unfortunate, favorite character, in each series, but usually I prefer the British series.
It’s set in London at a university (probably University of London, but what do I know? They might have more than one.), at the department of pathology of whatever they call it. Two pathologists work under a professor (well, there might be more pathologists, but the viewers get to follow these two). They perform autopsies and help the police solve criminal cases or eliminate the natural deaths from their lists.
Unlike in the American equivalent, there are no particular ‘effects’. There’s no cop returning in each episode (like Woody, played by Jerry O Connell). Instead there are new cops in each episode.
Sometimes, but not often, you get to take a look at the personal lives of the pathologists. That’s not always pleasant. For instance at the beginning of one of the latest seasons, Professor Dalton loses his wife and daughter in a very tragic accident. A car hits a cafe, killing everyone or almost everyone in there.
In Crossing Jordan, almost all the main characters irritate me. The ones in Silent Witness don’t.
It’s an interesting series and sometimes also exciting. I don’t think I can mention anything negative about it. Except for one thing, maybe. My constantly stressed out sister says she’s having trouble focusing on the episodes. They’re quite long. Movie length. Possibly they were meant to be shown in two parts. That would make it a longer series with shorter episodes. Like Crossing Jordan. Personally I prefer finished storylines. The only thing making movie length episodes a little tiresome is the commercial breaks.
In any case, I can really recommend this series if you like the cop series genre (or the pathologist, forensic subgenre). This one is just a little different. One detail: there’s a very beautiful song playing at the beginning and the end of the show. It sounds like gregorian chant or at least some type of religious music. I’m no expert, but I do know I find it really beautiful. One more thing. I think Harry, the youngest male pathologist, is kind of cute, if not really hot, if that means anything to anyone. 🙂
Transamerica
Transamerica is an American movie from 2005. It’s about Bree, who lives in California and is seeing a psychiatrist. The reason for this is that Bree really is a man, who wants to have a sex change operation.
‘She’ needs two psychiatrists to sign in order for ‘her” to go ahead with the surgery. Everything seems to be going really well, when suddenly, out of the blue, Bree gets a phone call from a seventeen-year-old boy who’s been arrested for drug possession and prostitution, in New York. The kid claims to be Bree’s son.
When Bree mentions this to her own psychiatrist, she realizes she won’t be allowed to have the surgery until she’s met and hopefully connected with the son she never knew she had. Not at all pleased, Bree sets out for New York.
Once there, she gets cold feet and tells Toby (the kid) she’s from a church – ‘The Church of the Potential Father’. She takes him back to his apartment, hoping she’ll be able to disprove the claim that he’s her son. Unfortunately, she recognizes a photo of a girl she/he dated at college.
Her plan to just drop the kid off at his place and go back and tell her shrink that they connected, but not that much, just falls through. Her ‘son’ wants to come back to California with the ‘missionary’ who bailed him out. He’s hoping for a career in the movies.
She gets talked into buying a used car to drive back home and when she leaves she has her son with her.
While talking to the boy she learns he has a stepfather and she makes a detour so she can reunite the two. That plan too, falls through, when she learns that the stepfather used to sexually abuse Toby for years, and that was why he ran away to New York to become a prostitute.
Once again, her plans didn’t pan out and when their car is stolen, Bree is forced to return to his/her parents. They are delighted to find that their wayward son has had a child. Bree isn’t quite as delighted to be back. Unfortunately, there’s a falling out between Bree and Toby, after he finds out who Bree really is.
Bree returns to California alone and has the surgery. One day Toby shows up again. You get the impression things might work out after all, even though they’re an odd family.
This movie surprised me by not being nearly as tragic as I thought it would be. Actually, I found it both comical and interesting. Both main characters and most of the minor ones were really good. You begin to care about them and want to know how they get on.
There are plenty of fun scenes, as well as some that are a bit tragic, but the main impression is quite nice. A feelgood movie in a quirky sort of way. Of course, you have to be prepared for nudity and some adult situations, but those are not the main point of the movie.
I really enjoyed this movie, you might like it too, just be aware of what it’s about.
Pride and Prejudice
I’ve already seen Pride and Prejudice, at least once in some version or other, but that doesn’t matter. I love Jane Austen’s books (most of them anyway), but now I’m talking about the movie. One version was a tv series, but like I mentioned before, in whatever form, I love them. I’m not sure about a comics version, but who knows? Some Japanese comics can be really good and so are the French/Belgian ones.
In any case, the actors (Donald Sutherland, Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen) did a great job. The funny thing is, I’d already seen McFadyen in a tv series, and I didn’t like him there at all. In the movie, he was a lot better.
The plot can be summed up in a few words, even if there is much more underneath, so it’s not the basic plot that is so fantastic, it has to be the way it’s done. Jane Austen was brilliant in her deceptive simplicity.
You might want to consider how people lived in those days. For families in this social class (not nearly as wealthy as you might think) finding suitable husbands for their daughters was vital. At the same time, a woman’s life was sadly limited.
Jane Austen herself, who was a published writer, lived more or less on sufferance. When some domestic chore perceived as more important, was to be done, poor Jane had to pack up her writer’s stuff and move.
That reminds me of our own Selma Lagerlof. Once, right after she won the Nobel Prize in Literature, she was invited to some house in her home province. She assumed she was the guest of honor, because of winning that prize. When it was time to sit down at the table, she entered the room first. Her hostess was quick to reprimand her. “Wives first, Selma, dear.” Apparently, we hadn’t progressed any further in the hundred years or so that had had passed since Jane Austen’s time. Just a little food for thought.
One interesting detail about the movie is that there were two different endings shot. One for the America audience and the other for Europe.
In the American version there was something sentimental and the one we got to see here, in Europe, was quite fun. Watch the movie if you like historic chic lit. If not, don’t.
Spirited Away
Spirited Away is a Japanese movie from 2001. Chihiro is a sullen, ten-year-old girl. She and her family are moving into a new house. Her dad chooses to take a shortcut, to the new residential area, and ends up getting lost.
Quite soon Chihiro gets a bad feeling about the trip, because she catches sight of some ugly, rather scary warning figures. But naturally her parents won’t listen to her. After all, she’s just a little girl.
They arrive at what looks like an abandoned amusement park. There’s a restaurant filled with meat. Chihiro’s parents begin to eat, declaring that they will pay later. But Chihiro refuses. She thinks everything is scary and ominous.
Before long, it gets dark and faceless spirits show up. Chihiro runs back to her parents, but can only find two big pigs.
She tries to run away from the spirits and ends up hiding, but meets a mysterious boy, Haku, who promises to help her. He gets her work in a bathhouse for spirits and gods. It’s quite a scary job, and the people are odd, but Chihiro struggles on. She has to find a way of saving her parents who are due to be slaughtered and turned into food at that restaurant. In other words, they must have eaten other people in the form of pigs.
That’s quite funny, actually. As a vegan, I wouldn’t have been the least bit tempted to try that meat and besides, whatever kind of food it was, I would never have eaten anything without paying. But I don’t know what kind of customs they have in Japan. On the other hand, it’s always possible there was some kind of magic involved, so the parents might not have been able to help themselves.
In any case, it’s a funny, exciting and fascinating movie. I’m quite new at Japanese animated movies, but this one and Howl’s Moving Castle appealed to me. Don’t expect it to be anything like the usual, western type of animated movie, which seems to be almost exclusively for very young children (pre-school age). On the other hand, Spirited Away doesn’t seem to be intended for your average grown up, but it’s definitely for teenagers and young adults and anyone who’s young at heart.
This movie isn’t full of blood, violence and brain matter, but it can be frightening for younger kids. Of course, that’s not who this movie is intended for. I liked it a lot. The fantasy- or fairy tale ambiance was something I appreciate a lot. It’s well drawn and well made in every way. I can really recommend it.
Mysterious Skin
When I saw Mysterious Skin, I actually thought it would be more UFO-related than it was.
I knew it would be about children who were sexually abused, so I was prepared for it being upsetting. It was, but it was also fascinating and touching. I also have to say that I appreciated the fact that unlike in many other movies and books, it wasn’t girls who were abused.
I’m not sure what to say about this movie. It’s really good and interesting, but also sad. Despite that, you might say that it had a hopeful ending.
Perhaps I should mention something about the plot first. The main character is Neil, a little boy who is the son of a single mother. She has many different boyfriends, and from an early age Neil discovers that his mother’s grown up boyfriends turn him on. Naturally not in the way that he’d like to have a relationship with them, but he does like to watch his mother having sex with them.
One day he meets a man who is considerably more interested in him than other grown men usually are. It’s his baseball coach. Back in those days – the 1980’s – parents weren’t as suspicious of that sort of thing as they are today, so Neil’s mother is just grateful that there’s a male role model willing to take an interest in her son.
You realize early on that there’s something not quite right about this relationship. I read that the boys playing two of the characters as children, never found out the truth about what the movie was really about. They were told it was about alien abduction. In one particular scene I don’t know how they managed to keep up the deception.
Neil has a best friend/faghag, Wendy, who is a willing participant in all his stunts, until she leaves for New York to get a better and more interesting life. It’s typical for this movie that despite the fact that Wendy ‘only’ gets to be a waitress, she’s not the one who ends up being abused. She does well for herself.
They have another friend, Eric, who is clearly gay, but who hasn’t been sexually assaulted as a child, so he isn’t as disturbed as Neil. When Neil (who Eric is in love with) goes off to New York to visit Wendy, Eric meets a new guy, Brian, who seems to be completely asexual. They end up being friends, but Eric soon realizes that his new friend is trying to find out what happened to him as a child. He has mysterious memory lapses and sometimes he suffers inexplicable nosebleeds. It turns out that the two boys – Neil and Brian – have something in common.
I won’t tell you how the movie ends, but I do think the ending isn’t as unhappy as it might be, considering the fact that it’s about little boys being sexually abused, a young man selling sex to older men and contains a gay rape scene. I have to warn you about that one though. It very disturbing and upsetting.
I’d like to mention a minor character. During the course of his search, Brian runs into a woman who thinks she’s been abducted by aliens. Avalyn Friesen. She’s a really tragic character, who can come across as comical, but I feel dreadfully sorry for her. You soon get the impression that she’s been sexually abused herself, as a child, and that she can’t handle it, and has made up farfetched explanations to all the things that don’t add up in her memories. The actress does a great job, I think.
So do all the actors. They’ve appeared in many other tv series and movies before. Neil is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from Third Rock from the Sun. Wendy (as a grownup) is played by Michelle Trachtenberg, from Harriet, the Spy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The woman who plays the tragic Avalyn has been in 24, among other things.
I can really recommend this movie, but bear in mind that there are some upsetting scenes in it.
Monsoon Wedding
Monsoon Wedding is an Indian Movie from 2001. When I saw it, I’d heard a bit about it and I was pretty sure I was going to like it. I wasn’t disappointed. It wasn’t just the plot, which was interesting enough, or even the cast – vivid, engaging characters. I think one reason I loved this movie was the colors, the vast milling crowds in the background and all the aspects of culture, like architecture, religion, the different languages and so on.
The story is about an extended family and friends who gather for a wedding. A young woman is getting married. Guests arrive from all over the country and abroad. The young bride-to-be is actually having an affair with a tv presenter. That strikes me as a little unusual for India.
Main characters are the closest family of the young woman getting married. She has a cousin living in the house, after her father’s death, and a younger brother.
It doesn’t take long to realize that the cousin is upset about seeing one of the guests. Her concern increases when she realizes that he’s very eager to befriend a little girl, another relative. While the rest of the story unfolds, you find out that the guest in question once sexually abused the bride’s cousin. She agonizes over the fate of the little girl and in the end, there’s a confrontation and her secret is revealed to the majority of the family.
The groom finds out that his bride-to-be has been involved with another man. Naturally, it complicates their relationship.
Another character that interests me, is the servant girl, Alice. As she works hard to serve the guests of the house, she watches the wedding preparations and you get the impression that she feels it’s high time she is married too. The man in charge of the wedding arrangements is the one she focuses her attention on.
She too, encounters complications, before her dream comes true.
Another character that attracts attention is a young man just returned from Australia. He has dyed hair and loves to go clubbing. You sense a culture clash, but appearances might be misleading. After all, dyed hair, clothing and visits to dance clubs are only superficial.
This movie fascinated me. One reason might be the fact that I’ve always found Indian and other cultures extremely interesting. I think it’s a movie that could be of interest to many different people. Perhaps not those who only like comedy or action, but in fact, you get a little of everything here, except special effects. Watch it. Enjoy. Chances are, you’ll love it too.
