The Return Of The Dancing Master (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
In the prologue of Henning Mankell’s The Return of the Dancing Master, I thought I recognized a character from a recent TV movie called The Last Hangman, featuring the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint. (actor:Timothy Spall) I was wrong about the novel character’s exact identity; Mankell’s hangman was a fellow called Davenport. As for the connection between the prologue and rest of The Dancing Master, my movie association however functioned as a helpful template in discovering one of Mankell's crucial themes, the need for impartial justice. Davenport moves covertly between England and Germany executing war criminals in a humane but just manner. The hangman’s admission that the horrible crimes for which the prisoners were punished were not unique to Nazi’s or Germans but could under similar circumstances be committed anywhere including Britain or the U.S. This episode is never mentioned again but its dissimilarity to the events that took place in the isolated village of Härjedalen, Sweden should not be neglected by the reader. The opening scenario depicts a retribution neither swift nor clean. Herbert Molin an apparently bland individual, with hobbies including Jig-saw puzzles and Tango Dancing with a broomstick manikin, is mutilated, dragged through the cold snow and left dead outside his cabin. Molin’s back story identifies him as a retired ex-detective from the more populated area of Boras, Sweden. He is an insomniac capable of sleeping only in the day, at night is he haunted by his past. Upon hearing of this gruesome death, Sefan Lindman a young detective formerly mentored by Molin volunteers to lend a hand in the investigation. Not unlike his elderly counterpart Sefan is paranoid, closed off to communication with others, and unconsciously haunted by family secrets. Complicating Stefan's sleuthing efforts is his recent diagnosis of mouth cancer which distracts him with a dread of death and social shame about how this disease that may signify more about him than he imagines. The themes of banal normalcy, with an underside of paranoia, cover-up, and an urgent desire for security, leak into the Swedish national character in the form or an insidious nationalist group called the Strong Swedish Foundation. This apparently conventional group, comprised of elderly housewives, successful business people, surpass the more overtly dangerous Aryan brotherhood and Skinheads in their poisonous effect on society. In this instance, the aphorism that “evil triumphs when the good do nothing” is intensified and comes to mean “the trouble with normal is it always gets worse.” (Lyriicist: Bruce Cockburn) Normal made Nazi Germany such a hideous triumph, normal made Molin a frightened puppet of ideology and normal made Sefan emotionally closed off and ashamed of his weakness. The extremely violent, out of the ordinary act of retribution, that initiates The Return of the Dancing Master administers a shock that unearths normal, exposing the perpetrator, his or her motives, and applying justice impartially and fairly with humane empathy but accuracy is at the heart of this excellent novel. Paul Patterson
The Return of the Dancing Master, by Henning Mankell. A. Narrated by Grover Gardner, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.This is a stand-alone published by Mankell in 2000, and it is as good as any of the best Kurt Wallanders. In this book we briefly meet a retired Swedish policeman Herbert Molin, who now lives quietly in the northern forestland in Sweden. It is clear that even in 1999 he has nightmares about something that happened during WW II almost 50 years ago-nightmares that don’t allow him to sleep at night. And then his nightmare comes true, and he is tortured and murdered. A young policeman, Stefan Lindman, takes a vacation to northern Sweden to try to prepare himself for treatment and surgery for cancer of the tongue. He is very afraid that he will not survive, even though the doctor rates his chances of surviving fairly highly. While he is watching television in the bar, he sees a photograph of a man recently murdered, and it turns out to be a former colleague of his who had retired to this area. He becomes involved with the local police in trying to solve the murder. Soon another man is murdered as well, and it is unclear whether the same person murdered both people, or whether the first murder was a catalyst for the second. In any event, as Lindman learns more about the case, (getting into people’s houses without a search warrant at will—the only part of the book where I had to suspend judgment—he finds that there is a connection to WW II, and specifically to the Nazi organization in Sweden and perhaps to the modern neo-nazi movement that still exists in Sweden. And he learns information about his own family he would rather not have known. This is an excellent book, full of the kind of dialogue and reasoned analysis that makes Mankell’s books so compelling.
What do You think about The Return Of The Dancing Master (2005)?
پلیس‌های داستانهای این نویسنده سوئدی، شخصیتهایی خوب هستند و می‌توان شباهت‌هایی میان داستانهای او با کتاب‌های آگاتا کریستی پیدا کردThe return of the dancing master, Henning Mankell (1948)عنوان: بازگشت استاد رقص؛ اثر: هنینگ مانکل، مترجم: جواد ذوالفقاری، مشخصات نشر: تهران، نوروز هنر، 1384، در 570 ص، چاپ دوم 1385، واژه نامه دارد، شابک: 9647109245، موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان سوئدی قرن 20 معنوان: بازگشت استاد رقص؛ اثر: هنینگ مانکل، مترجم: جواد ذوالفقاری، مشخصات نشر: تهران، نشر هیرمند، 1393، در 472 ص، موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان سوئدی قرن 20 معنوان: بازگشت معلم رقص؛ اثر: هنینگ مانکل، مترجم: هادی بنایی، مشخصات نشر: تهران، شهر کتاب هرمس، 1385، در 624 ص، شابک: 9643634450، موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان سوئدی قرن 20 م، ترجمه از نسخه زبان آلمانی
—Ahmad Sharabiani
I'm veering off from the crowd on this one. 67% of the ratings are for 4 & 5 stars. I don't get it.The protagonist is a 30 year old detective who is off on sick leave because he has cancer of the tongue, don't you know? If you read the book, he will tell you - every chance he gets. I'm not sure what the intent was behind having such an angst ridden, whiny, self-absorbed character. It didn't add anything to the story. In fact, if it had been left out, there would be no effect to the story except that it would have been a whole lot shorter. It may have actually improved the story.Things seemed to be slightly off kilter throughout the novel. Police procedure was sloppy and archaic. Even 14 years ago (the time setting of the story), a hotel clerk wouldn't hand over a guest's room key without a search warrant. The whole scene of them trying to get the garage employee to check to see if a certain vehicle was parked there was ludicrous. There was one line that I can't shake. "It could be blood. But it could be chocolate."Seriously! We are in trouble if the police can't tell if a stain is blood, chocolate, or something else entirely. It wasn't through any skilled detective work that they solved the crime. They stumbled on the solution. Correction, it was handed to them.Just about every review that I've read commented on how dark this story was. Dismal, is more like it.
—Janice
Mankell's novel is an indictment of the rise of hate groups in modern Sweden where xenophobic groups like Strong Sweden and other neo-Nazi organizations promote their racial hatred towards others. One can almost feel the cold snow and the isolation of Sweden in this well written novel of murder, suspense and careful police detection.The Return of the Dancing Master is bleak, yes, but it is fascinating and chilling, with the traditional flawed-hero, and it is refreshingly unformulaic. The plot is not ever predictable and it constantly shifts beneath the reader to create a kind of gutsy suspense and a great pace. A dark, excellent story by a talented writer.
—Carol
