Book ReviewAs each Martin Beck novel in this series is presented with a foreword by a Scandinavian writer, and to have this novel's first gasp of breath written by none other than Jo Nesbo...well, it had to happen sooner orlater. It is fascinating to unravel the threads that tie authors to each other; tethered by influential strands like sticky spider webs authors learn from other authors. Through reading they learn to stand on their own; through writing they gain strength and conviction and as they take from what has been written they in turn become the source of what will be written. In this sense: originality is the art of hiding your source.Jo NesboArtists stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. That is how it is whether they like it or not and whether they are aware of it or not." - Jo NesboI've recently been having some interesting conversations about a comparison between Henning Mankell's books featuring Kurt Wallander and this series. Some readers see Beck as the source behind Wallander and I'm sure that to an extent that is true: Henning Mankell freely admits that Maj and Per have had a remarkable influence on his own writing. Surprise often accompanies this discovery. Perhaps Kurt's character isn't as original as I'd thought, you might say. But then again, isn't that true of any source of inspiration? Jo Nesbo addresses this very question in his foreword:Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, beside writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Georges Simenon, have shaped the genre and the readers' expectations as to what crime fiction should be, the very starting point, ground zero, where all writers with the genre-defining label "crime novel" on the sleeve of their book begin communicating with the reader. Where they go from there is, of course, up to the individual. And, naturally, they can create something quite new. As Sjöwall and Wahlöö did.And so I asked myself: why does Wallander on the surface appear to be so similar to Beck? The first thing I observed when I started concentrating on Nordic and/or Scandinavian novels is the tone and style of the novels as can be attributed to Scandinavian writers in general. I was a bit puzzled by the seeming lack of Romanticism in the style of prose. The tone is matter-of-fact, slightly borish, almost written in a deterministic fashion, free of sensationalized emotional responses, and very straightforward (Ok, Peter Hoeg is an exception). It took a while for me to discover that the term that is applied to this style of writing, although somewhat dated,is called Literary Realism (and I had to get used to it!). Simply put, realist authors opt for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, depictions of contemporary life and society as it is, without embellishment. Per and Maj wrote their novels in this style, and it works beautifully for the genre that was their focus: police procedurals. Again, Jo Nesbo acknowledges this realism as well:The story is real. Through objective eyes, the opening scene is a sober account, there is no drama, the atmosphere is not charged in any way. Within this context Martin Beck is characterized without much embellishment. Beck's life is carefully constructed around the work place: his personal life is dismissed (at least in so far that I've read this series). There is no deep introspection, no emotional outbursts, no passion per se and overall Beck isn't one to enjoy company and dislikes most people. There is the case and there is the resolution to the case and it all happens in strictly chronological fashion, much as in real life. But, it is easy to mistake the realism utilized by Per and Maj (in a sense this pair are purist in this sense), with the similar realism employed to a slightly lesser extent by most of today's Scandinavian writers and this similarity can carry over into the characters, causing them to appear similar...even when they are not. It took a reading of Frozen Moment (my review)to get that point across to me. Laying aside the stylistic similarities and some physical similarities (both can't sleep and suffer from bad health), Kurt Wallander often reflects on his personal life, is quite passionate about opera, falls in love easily, worries about his daughter, has ambivelence towards his ex-wife,struggles with his ailing father, possesses a mercurial attitude towards nature (as many Scandinavians do), he sometimes likes his colleagues and fosters a deep fondness for dogs. This is quite a contrast to what we see portrayed in Beck.It is rather confounding, if truth be told: this oscillation between these writers (Per and Maj vs. Henning). Some Per and Maj novels are just plain better than Henning's, and some Henning novels just outdo his mentors' output. So why did I give this novel 3 stars? And why go through the above explanation on Literary Realism? Because in the case of The Man on the Balcony, a novel based on a real 1963 event that happened in Stockholm, a novel that has as its focus the murder of children, I find the authors' realism employed to be distracting to the novel itself. The subject matter is emotionally charged to begin with and the matter-of-fact style serves to minimize the nature of these disturbing crimes. To a certain extent that's probably true in real police work, but this is fiction and it is rare to find an author that will take the risk of simply depicting events in such banal terms. The risk is that it won't work for the reader. At least not in this case. As to plot. Normally, Per and Maj hold a pedigree in plot: they are masters of it. But in this case there were no surprises and for me there is nothing more disturbing than for a reader to have the answer while Beck does not. "Idiot!" I exlaimed every other page or so. "It's right there before your eyes." Even for a police procedural where we do expect it to involve primarily police work, often mundane, as fiction it should hold a certain tension that carries the reader along. I found this notably absent in this particular novel. I know many Martin Beck afficianados will probably disagree, but...there you have it. -------------------------------------------------Series ReviewPer Wahlöö and Maj SjöwallTwo writers from the left, without too much argument, started it all where it concerns crime fiction in Scandinavia (the books were written in the sixties). Jo Nesbo considers this team of writers the Godfathers of Scandinavia crime fiction. Henning Mankell perhaps the most famous Nordic writer of them all often makes references to Per and Maj as having influenced his work. In the words of Barry Forsaw whose Death in a Cold Climate: a Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction serves as the Bible for Nordic readers says of these authors: "Their continuing influence (since the death of Per Wahlöö) remains prodigious."Briefly: Wahlöö was born in Tölö parish, Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland. After his studies, from 1946 onwards he worked as a crime reporter. After long trips around the world he returned to Sweden and started working as a journalist again. He had a 13 year relationship with his colleague Maj Sjöwall but never married. Both were Marxists.He has been married to Inger Wahlöö, née Andersson. He was brother to Claes Wahlöö. He died of cancer at Malmö in 1975, aged 48. His work (independent of his collaboration with Maj on the Martin Beck series) primarily consists of his Dictatorship series and the two novels featuring Inspector Jensen.Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm. In 1971, the fourth of these books, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den skrattande polisen, originally published in 1968) won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel.They also wrote novels separately.Until recently, it was considered a scandal that publishing houses offered no translations of these two highly influential authors. But as the Nordic crime wave hit British and American soil (beginning in the nineties), this egregious blot on the reputation of publishers was finally remedied...albeit late in the game. There were simply too many crime writers that cited Per and Maj as the fountain head of the socially committed crime novel. Yet one more example that everything starts at the grass roots level and then filters up into the corporate halls of publishing.Although not as prevelant as in the work of Per Wahlöö (see my review of Murder on the Thirty-first Floor), the left wing ideological views of the pair are common knowledge and can be viewed as interspersed throughout their famous Martin Beck series. I've often spoken in my reviews of Nordic fiction that aside from being excellent and compelling reads in the mystery genre, Nordic writers on the whole use this genre based platform to comment on sociopolitical issues of the day as that takes place in the Scandinavian countries. For their time, this pair of authors were considered the pioneers of this authorial attitude.Now before you decide to forego this excellent series based on the Marxist ideology of its authors, let me assure you that Per and Maj's views at no point interfere with your appreciation of a good mystery novel. It might be said that their edgy point of view may be considered less important than the telling of a good tale. This too, is a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction: sociopolitical commentary never overshadows the story itself (though I would argue that in Per's novels written alone, this might not be the case).For an understanding of the realism of their work within Scandinavian crime fiction as married to their political attitudes, I highly recommend a reading of these two authors, together, as well as (in the case of Per) his own novels.
I'm reading my way through this iconic ten book series by Swedish duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. The series was written in the 1960s and is the forerunner of much of modern popular Scandinavian thriller/mysteries. This is the third book in the series which features the morose policeman Martin Beck, now a superintendent in the Stockholm police.This time, we find Martin Beck and his colleagues investigating some particularly heinous crimes. Young girls are being raped and killed, their bodies left in the once-peaceful public parks of Stockholm. We follow the police as they follow their investigatorial procedures, collecting evidence from the scenes of crime, interviewing potential witnesses, checking public records for previously identified or prosecuted sex criminals, pounding the pavement and burning the midnight oil. No one can sleep soundly while this villain walks their streets.At length, the police are able to identify two possible witnesses. One is a criminal himself - a mugger who was actually mugging someone in the area while one of the girls was being murdered nearby. The other is a three-year-old boy, brother of a friend of one of the victims, who was with his sister and the victim in the park. How can they hope to extract useful information from such witnesses?Meanwhile, Martin Beck is haunted by a memory of something that he overheard that he is sure might be connected to the case, but the memory hangs tantalizingly just beyond his reach. Trying to reach it only seems to push it farther away. This book - in fact, all the books in this series that I have read so far - portray the police force very realistically. They have only their own humanity to pit against their enemies, those who would commit the most inhuman of crimes. The writers, through their very matter-of-fact, straightforward narrative, make us experience the frustration and horror of the men (and they are all men - this is the '60s, after all) who must try to make sense of utterly senseless crimes in order to find and capture the perpetrator. The result is a very credible story and a thriller that engages the reader and invests our interest in the solution to the crimes. Most of all, we learn to appreciate the perseverance of the police as they struggle to put all the pieces together and find their quarry.I continue to be very impressed with the writing of Sjowall/Wahloo. Their style is deceptively simple. They use short, declarative sentences. There is no bombastic action. They tell an unadorned story of ordinary people, people that ordinary readers like myself can identify with. As one begins reading, one may at first think that the story is very slow and that nothing is happening. Then, suddenly, after a few pages, one is caught unawares and is thoroughly enthralled in the tale that is being told. It all just creeps up on you, creeps into the corners of your mind, and you are hooked!It takes great talent and great restraint, I think, to write like that. I wish I could do it.
What do You think about The Man On The Balcony (1976)?
"In questo formicaio c'è il signor CHI, abitante in via DOVE?" Un giornalista andato a Budapest per lavoro scompare nel nulla, Martin Beck è costretto ad interrompere le sue vacanze per cercare di ricostruire ciò che realmente è successo a quest'uomo. Il nostro poliziotto, anche questa volta ci stupirà, riuscirà con la sua caparbietà e perseveranza a scoprire la verità, l'uomo sembra scomparso nel nulla, senza lasciare nessuna traccia, in un paese diffidente e misterioso, grazie ad un unico elemento che sembra del tutto insignificante, la valigia lasciata dal giornalista all'hotel, si arriverà a capo dell'enigma. Secondo racconto della serie, con la stessa classe che ho già trovato nel primo, mi sono appassionata anche a questo, Martin Beck ci insegna che bisogna cercare con insistenza nei pochi elementi che fanno capo all'indagine, è necessario avere spirito di osservazione e non credere mai a quello che vediamo al primo colpo d'occhio. Acuto, burbero e testardo sono i tre assi nella manica di questo ottimo poliziotto! "Martin Beck, il detective nato, l'ottimo osservatore, sempre impegnato ad annotare particolari insensati da archiviare per uso futuro. Al punto da non potersi fare venire idee strane in testa: non c'era posto per loro con tutto l'affollamento che c'è lì dentro."
—Claudia Sesto
As per their usual, excellent style, a very detailed, very involving crime story from 1960's Sweden. Specifically, Stockholm. Computers seem to have made an appearance, although not trusted at all by Martin Beck and his band of unhappy men.A tale of mugging, interleaved with a series of child sex murders, leads the reader through the storyline. Also, missed clues - such as the phone call informing on the eponymous man - feature. This doesn't result in making the police bunglers, rather it makes them human. A feature of all the books in the series, at least so far, is that the police don't make a quick arrest, but work at solving the crimes.
—Lee
Sjowall & Wahloo come of age with this clever police procedural. I really liked the sense of action but frustration of the police as they fail to find their man or build a picture of the assailant. There is tension among the officers, they are exhausted and have little time for their own lives; this is done in a fresh way and despite the novel being over 45 old it strikes you as being a clear and unique voice in terms of personal relationships; contrast to Maigret's faithful spouse.The plot is horrific in terms of subject matter; the brutal murder and rape of young girls but it doesn't sensationalize and presents the less pleasant task of police officers in breaking the news to parents and dealing with their grief.With so much TV drama to recall it is good to read this original work reflecting a trouble society in Sweden.This isn't a complex story compared to modern crime thrillers but it is still a compelling read and brilliantly demonstrates why so many people go on about this crime writing duo.
—Richard
