Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/la-serie-de...Han tenido que pasar casi 250 novelas de la excelente colección de novela negra de RBA en su Serie Negra para poder tener publicada, en su totalidad, las diez novelas que componen la serie del comisario Martin Beck; perpetradas por el comprometido matrimonio sueco Maj Sjöwall y Per Wahlöö, posiblemente nos encontremos ante una de las series más influyentes en el género europeo, no sólo para los nórdicos, punto de obligada referencia para entender la marea nórdica actual, sino para toda Europa.En mi caso personal, la primera novela que leí fue la excelsa “El policía que ríe” (1968), novela que se caracterizaba por un argumento original que generaba una trama excitante en la línea más clásica de los grandes del género; a partir de ahí, comencé con “Roseanne” (1965) y se fueron publicando en estricto orden cronológico, que seguí a rajatabla, hasta este año 2013 donde hemos visto la publicación de la última: “Los terroristas” (1975).Vista en retrospectiva, hasta los dos últimos libros que comentaré más adelante, hay que reconocer que la serie resulta muy consistente en cuanto a calidad e interés por diferentes aspectos y, además, curiosamente, hay muchas variaciones en cuanto a la forma de planificar y realizar los libros. Para los neófitos en los autores suecos, intentaré explicar un poco la evolución de los libros.La SerieEn “Roseanne” (1965) asistíamos a la presentación de Martin Beck, el taciturno investigador y protagonista principal de la serie, y también a algunos de sus secundarios que se convertirán poco a poco en un elemento principal de la serie. El caso (el asesinato de una mujer en el fondo de un canal) entra dentro de la más firme tradición de novelas de investigador puro y duro. Empiezan a comprobarse las buenas maneras del matrimonio con una trama muy bien llevada.“El hombre que se esfumó” (1966) y “El hombre del balcón” (1967) suponen una transición inevitable y enriquecedora que nos llevará progresivamente a su obra maestra “El policía que ríe” (1968); experimentan con la narración cambiando los puntos de vista, añadiendo incluso el del asesino; aunque el protagonista principal es Martin Beck (que es dibujado a la perfección en sus relaciones personales), el resto de personajes ganan tal importancia que se vuelven prácticamente “corales” en la tradición del gran McBain y su comisaría del distrito 87. También se caracterizan por ser muy ingeniosos en la resolución de los casos, tramas hiladas con maestría y, desde luego, mucho sentido del humor.“El coche de bomberos que desapareció” (1969), quinto libro de la serie, se convierte en la consolidación de lo que habían avanzado. En tradición con sus anteriores entregas, se trata de una novela coral clásica, donde la trama está muy bien hilada, el pulso narrativo está llevado con maestría, tiene humor… en fin, otra muy buena muestra de literatura policíaca que, además, tiene una resolución muy creativa.“Asesinato en el Savoy” (1970) es un giro radical en el estilo de los suecos, la novela se convierte en un pretexto claro para la crítica evidente (no sutil como en las anteriores) de una sociedad sueca desgastada por el crimen. Una clara muestra de novela social donde los escritores cargaron contra el capitalismo, las grandes empresas que lo controlan todo confabuladas con un estado corrupto. Todo ello redunda en una trama que es bastante más floja que la de las anteriores y sin ese punto de genialidad. Aún así, está estupendamente escrita, con descripciones muy gráficas pero al mismo tiempo cargadas de detalles y que resultan entretenidas. Una obra, aún así, por encima de la media“El abominable hombre de Säffle” (1971). Tras la novela de transición anterior donde parecían haber perdido un poquito la chispa, aquí los volvemos a recuperar en plena forma, creando una trama excelente sobre la corrupción y la brutalidad policial de la sociedad sueca de la época de los setenta. Novela cargada de grises y que hacen llevar a Beck y a sus compañeros a tomar posiciones ante una situación difícil, llegando a plantear dilemas de todo tipo, tanto éticos como de funcionamiento del propio cuerpo de policía y la sociedad. “La habitación cerrada” (1972). Supone la revisitación del clásico de las novelas policíacas en su vertiente más detectivesca. Una obra teñida nuevamente de la vertiente más amoral de una sociedad en descomposición. Muy densa, con una progresiva descoralización que fructificará definitivamente en la novena novela de la serie que comentaré más adelante.Los dos últimos libros“El asesino de policías” (1974) se convierte en la novela que cierra un círculo, Beck vuelve a sus inicios, el caso de Roseanne, con el mismo acusado Folke Bengtsson y un caso de similares características en la misma zona en que se produjo el primero.A pesar de la amargura de Martin, hay resquicios de una belleza que contrasta severamente con la crisis de la sociedad de bienestar.“De pronto pensó en un par de frases inconexas de la quejumbrosa cantinela general acerca de las cada vez peores condiciones que reinaban en el país. Suecia es un país espantoso, pero sin duda es espantosamente hermoso. Alguien lo había dicho o escrito, pero no recordaba quién.”Crisis que se ejemplifica sobre todo en el cuerpo policial: “-No, yo sé lo que usted piensa –gritó-. Piensa que yo le he hecho algo a Sigbrit. Pero no le he hecho nada. ¿No puede entender eso? Malditos maderos, sois todos iguales, aquí y en todas partes. Los policías sois ratas de cloaca y para lo único que servís es para subir a bordo a pillar alcohol y cigarrillos a cambio de dejarnos en paz.”Y en el propio Estado: “Estado de Derecho. La expresión estaba desde hacía tiempo tan corrompida que muchos suecos no osaban pronunciarla y otros se echaban a reír cuando alguien la mencionaba en serio. Ciertamente, existía una ley, pero la evolución de los últimos años había demostrado que esa ley podía subvertirse a conveniencia por las autoridades y el régimen. Los que estaban en el medio eran de costumbre los ciudadanos.”El final es una vuelta de los personajes y la recuperación de la trama a una ligera coralidad sin perder de vista el papel de Beck, un Beck crepuscular pero no tan amargado sino rehaciendo una vida que no entendió en un principio.No es su mejor novela pero, indudablemente, es una buena novela policíaca.“Los terroristas” (1975), la última novela comienza con una nota de humor, ya que la perspectiva cambia al gigantón Gunvald Larsson: “Es cierto que tiene tendencia a ser un poco bruto y grosero y se comporta de modo demasiado despótico. Pero no se puede negar que es uno de nuestros mejores inspectores criminales, a pesar de que le cuesta obedecer órdenes y atenerse a las normas.”En su progresivo viraje hacia la crítica social y al supuesto Estado de Bienestar, en esta última entrega se centran en la justicia: “En gran medida tenía razón. Los miembros del jurado eran elegidos entre la escoria de los partidos políticos, a menudo tenían una censurable relación de amiguismo con el fiscal o se dejaban dominar por jueces de carácter resuelto, que, básicamente, los despreciaban. En su mayoría no se atrevían a contradecir a las autoridades judiciales y a menudo no eran sino representantes de la mayoría silenciosa de la nación, quien ponía todo su empeño en conseguir el orden a base de leyes sumarias y no mucho más.”De lo micro, pasarán a lo macro, las autoridades del país son fuertemente censuradas, como podemos ver en la conversación de la pobre Rebecka Lind con Beck: “Sólo me habrían enviado a unos asistentes sociales y luego me habrían quitado a Camilla. Yo no creo que se pueda confiar en las autoridades de este país. No les preocupa la gente común, los que no son ni famosos ni ricos, y lo que ellos llaman ayuda no es ayuda de verdad. Simplemente te engañan.”Lo mejor del crepuscular Beck es que, a pesar de no estar de acuerdo con lo que vive, no entra en una espiral de autodestrucción como en otras novelas del género sino que más bien, reconstruye su vida hasta llegar una felicidad mayor de la que poseía antes; es un buen tipo, los autores están muy de acuerdo, y lo podemos comprobar en palabras de Rhea, su amante: “-Tú eres un tío estupendo Martin. Pero tienes un trabajo de mierda. ¿A qué clase de personas metes en la cárcel por asesinato y otros horrores? ¿Cómo hace poco? ¡Un currante marginado que trataba de vengarse del cerdo capitalista que había arruinado su vida! ¿Cuántos años le van a caer?”Y cómo no, su gran amigo Kollberg en esa conversación final: “-Lo que haces mal, Martin, es trabajar donde trabajas. Es un mal trabajo. En una mala época. En una mala parte del mundo. En un mal sistema.”Posiblemente esta última novela, la más voluminosa, sea el ideal al que trataban de aspirar y que reunía sus aspiraciones para construir una novela negra. En mi opinión no es la mejor, la trama está más diluida y menos elaborada; sin embargo es un digno colofón a una serie excelente y que tiene en sus primeras novelas, sobre todo hasta “El policía que ríe” y “El coche de bomberos que desapareció” sus momentos más sublimes.Comentario personal/críticoComo dice Liza Marklund en el prólogo de “El asesino de policías” : “La pareja Sjöwall-Wahlöö estableció un nuevo estándar para la narrativa político-criminal, conjugando una alta calidad literaria con hábiles intrigas dramáticas, así como añadiendo un compromiso social que proporcionó un especial ardor a sus páginas. La combinación de su gran éxito creo que radica en la combinación de estos tres factores, y el tercero es quizás el más importante”Totalmente de acuerdo en lo que comenta Marklund, la pareja sueca aspiraba a que sus novelas se convirtieran en una forma de denunciar las injusticias sociales y fueron transformándolas, partiendo de la base de novela negra norteamericana, en este tipo de novela de denuncia sin olvidar, claro, está, la trama policíaca. Quizá añadiría dos detalles más: los personajes, gracias a la coralidad que manejaron, todos ellos evolucionaron y es imposible olvidarse ahora de los entrañables Beck, Koellberg, Larsson, Melander o Rönn, verdaderos protagonistas de todas las historias; el segundo detalle es el sorprendente buen humor, con escenas dignas de los hermanos Marx que no puedo negar que me sacaron carcajadas.Creo que he relatado con exactitud las virtudes de estos clásicos de la novela policíaca europea y mundial. Si alguno no los ha empezado a leer, es un momento excelente para disfrutarlos. Son grandes, muy grandes. Los echaré mucho de menos. Han sido muchos años y muchas sensaciones.
I am in mourning. I've just finished the last of the Martin Beck mysteries. There will be no more regular visits with Beck and his doughty but quirky band of Swedish policemen as they battle to rid their society of the evil that afflicts it. It seems fitting somehow that this last book featured terrorism as its theme, since terrorism has become such an expected part of our lives in the twenty-first century. This book was published in 1975 but it seems as fresh as today's news. Indeed, all ten of the books in this series, starting with Roseanna in 1965, seem current and not at all dated in their outlook. They seem very relevant for the times in which we live.The Terrorists begins and ends with acts of terrorism - the first in an unnamed Latin American country and the second in Stockholm. These acts are committed by a very well organized international terrorist organization for whom terrorism is a business. But Sjowall/Wahloo seem to be exploring a much wider definition of terrorism including that which is perpetrated by the bureaucratic apparatus of the state which is always portrayed as a hapless, insensitive, incompetent villain in these books. The writers were always looking at the wider cultural issues that plagued Swedish society during the time about which they were writing and that, in fact, continue to plague Western societies today. That wider cultural focus is, I think, why these stories remain so fresh while some others from the same period seem hopelessly dated.At the beginning of The Terrorists Gunwald Larsson is sent to that unnamed South American country as an observer of the security measures taken for a state event. As an observer, he is present when a bomb explodes, killing the president of the country as well as several other people. What he has learned from the experience, primarily, is that the terrorists are very skilled at their jobs.Back in Stockholm, we meet a young teenage mother who is caught in the coils of red tape produced by that aforementioned incompetent bureaucratic apparatus. She responds by attempting to borrow some money from a bank. Her actions are misinterpreted and she is arrested for bank robbery. The gears of the bureaucracy continue to grind her up.Then a millionaire pornography filmmaker is murdered and the search is on for his killer. That particular crime is cleared up in fairly short order when a confession is secured, but during all of this, while investigating the everyday crimes of Stockholm, the police must also prepare themselves for the upcoming state visit by a very unpopular United States senator. An act of terrorism is expected, perhaps an attempt to assassinate the man, and Martin Beck is put in charge of the security detail which must try to prevent that from happening.He assembles his team which includes most of the names that we are familiar with from the previous nine books and they put a plan in place. It's never clear right up until the event itself whether that plan will actually work, but, throughout, the narrative is rendered in crisp and elegant prose and the pace is brisk. The reader is never bored.As we say a sad farewell to Martin Beck, at least we are leaving him in a far better place than we found him. When we first met him, he was dyspeptic and morose, constantly battling an oncoming cold, and trapped in a loveless marriage with a woman who didn't appreciate him. Finally, after several books, he extricated himself from that marriage and since then, he has been happier and has been building a life that better suits him. He has found a woman, Rhea, whom he loves and who loves him and who makes him very happy. The only fly in his ointment seems to be the job, even though he is very good at it.In the conclusion of the book, his friend, Lennart Kollberg, who has resigned from the police tells Martin Beck that he has "the wrong job. At the wrong time. In the wrong part of the world. In the wrong system." That is the Sjowall/Wahloo indictment of that "system" which they obviously felt soiled everything that it touched. These books have a point of view and the reader is never in doubt as to what that is.One further note: One of the many pleasures of the editions of the books that I have been reading has been their introductions penned by present-day crime fiction writers. Those essays in themselves could stand alone and they have been a treat to read. This last one was introduced by Dennis Lehane and it is a worthy member of that collection.
What do You think about The Terrorists (1977)?
Dennis Lehane wrote a wonderful introduction to this title, well worth reading, in which he talks about the chaotic forms of terror described in this story.Martin Beck, head of the Murder Squad, seems to have risen as high as he can go, and he seems to have managed to get life in some sort of perspective, thanks to Rhea, his lover. But he still doesn't always get it right. A police procedural with a really different approach. This is a series worth reading, in order, if you have never tackled it. Vintage crime fiction.
—Kerrie
rating for the series as a whole, now that I'm finished with the last installment, Over the years, more than one person had wondered what it was that made Martin Beck such a good policeman. A legitimate question, given the enduring popularity of this series of ten police procedural novels written 50 years ago and still considered among the best in the field. For the authors, it is a rhetorical question, aboundantly answered in the actions of their lead character: "... a systematic mind, common sense, and conscientiousness", in that order. Many popular writers have tried to explain their own interest in Beck, and each of the ten novels is introduced by one of these big guns in the field. I usually avoid introductions, trying to make my own mind about what I am reading before I check out what others critics think, but in this present case, I believe Dennis Lehane is much more articulate than I could ever hope to be, so I will let him present Martin Beck to you: As this novel - the tenth in the series - is Martin Beck's swan song, it's worth noting that in the annals of realistic fictional policemen, Beck stands a full head above most. He carries plenty of psychic scars and admits to a depressive personality, but he's not gloom laden to the point of masochistic self-pity that so often masquerades as a hard-boiled hero's tragic worldview. Beck is a dogged worker bee entering his later middle-aged years with a healthy romantic life and no illusions about his place in the larger scheme of things. However exceptional, he is a civil servant. A great cop, yes, but in Sjowall and Wahloo's vision, a great cop is little more than a great functionary in a hopelessly flawed system. Beck's talents include "his good memory, his obstinacy, which was occasionally mule-like ... his capacity for logical thought ... and finding the time for everything that had anything to do with a case, even if this meant following up small details that later turned out to be of no significance"This is what makes a great cop - not the gun, not outsized emotion, not a need to tilt at windmills and otherwise rage against machines. That's the writer's job. The cop's job is to persevere, to examine the evidence, collate the data, push the papers, and work the case to its end. With an apology for the long quote, put here more for my own later reference, I will next remark on the writer's job, what Lehane calls "tilting at windmills". Over the ten book journey, I have remarked on the increasing acerbity of the social polemic promoted by Sjowall and Wahloo. The murder cases under investigation start with an anonymous victim of a deranged serial killer in "Roseanna", and slowly evolve into a condemnation of society in its entirety, in particular of the incompetent bureaucracy that controls the centralized police force. Martin Beck is apolitical, a functionary doing his job, but even for himself it becomes impossible to ignore the larger significance of the murders cases that land on his desk. For his colleague and best friend Kollberg, the pressure to conform to a rotten system proved too much, so he throws in the towel and quits. Martin is resigned to the loss of his friend, but this way out is not an option for him, too aware that it is the responsiblity of a good person to continue to do his job to the best of his ability: He's a nice man. I like his wife, too. And I think he did the right thing. He saw that the police as an organization devoted itself to terrorizing mainly two categories of people, socialists and people who couldn't make it in our class society. He acted according to his conscience and convinctions. It comes as no surprise to readers who followed the series in publication order, that the last book is dominated by the social issues to an unprecedented level. Given that Wahloo knew he was dying of cancer, it is probably not surprising that he turned the final chapter into a fiery anti-establishment manifesto. With his life partner Maj Sjowall, they close 'The Story of Crime' with the whole government put on trial for murders against 'the people'. I think lots of people know perfectly well they're being cheated and betrayed, but most people are too scared or too comfortable to say anything. It doesn't help to protest or complain, either, because the people in power don't pay any attention. They don't care about anything except their own importance, they don't care about ordinary people. There are several kinds of terrorists in this last novel, and analyzing their methods and their ideology is probably going to spoil the outcome of the investigation, so tread carefully from this point on.------------The novel starts with three unrelated events: a young woman is accused of robbing a bank, a producer of pornographic movies is assassinated in the house of his mistress, and a president of a Latin American country is blown to pieces by a hidden bomb on an official visit, despite comprehensive protective measures. Beck, as head of the Crime section of Stockholm's police is involved in the first two, and is later assigned as coordinator for security measures surrounding the visit of a powerful American senator to Sweden. Given the absence of old time friend Kollberg, Beck has to rely to a greater degree on Gunvald Larsson, despite their mutual dislike.The trend of blaming the system and the incompetent of ill-intended oligarchy was started several books back in the series, but it reaches its peak here, as the role are reversed and the criminals are cast in a positive light and their actions are seen as justified rebellion in the face of gross injustice. The victims or targets are cast as guilty as charged of crimes against humanity. (view spoiler)[ the young unwed mother is pushed over the edge by a combination of incompetence and indifference as her boyfriend is arrested in the US for draft dodging and her visit to a bank to ask for a loan is turned into a tragic comedy of errors; the pornographer gets his just deserts for the corruption of young girls with drugs and empty promises; the American Senator is the epitome of militaristic adventurism and war crimes; the head of government pays the price of the whole systematic plunder of resources and accumulation of wealth and power at the top of the social pyramid. (hide spoiler)]
—Algernon
The Terrorists is the tenth and final book in Sjöwall and Wahlöö's series featuring Martin Beck. In this installment, an unpopular American senator has planned a visit to Sweden, and Beck is chosen as head of the security team for the duration. The biggest worry is terrorist activity, and as Gunvald Larsson finds out while observing in a Latin American country, the terrorists do not play nice. While Beck is busy with trying to keep the would-be assassins from killing the Senator, he is also investigating a case dealing with pornography, drugs, and murder. Although the main focus of this novels is the measures put into place to prevent the death of the senator from a group who kill, get out and go on to their next job, the authors also reveal that there are other forms of terrorism that exist beyond the political -- and that they exist in every society.Excellent book, especially the scene when Larsson is in Latin America, but consistently good throughout. My only problem was this nit-picky thing: in the Vintage/Black Lizard edition of Cop Killer, Martin Beck's friend and fellow detective inspector had the last name of "Allwright," where in The Terrorists, his name was changed to "Content." I know exactly what happened and that each translator does things differently to try to fully convey the nuances of a language, but at the same time, it should be more consistent in a series of editions. I spent a few minutes puzzled, but it dawned on me that the name change was in the translation.Now that this series is over and my Vintage/Black Lizard Crime editions are all neatly shelved together, it's sort of a bittersweet kind of moment. I'm rather sad that I've finished all of the books, but the getting there was great. These authors have put together an outstanding set of novels that no readers of crime fiction should miss, even if you do not agree with the authors' political statements. The series was launched when Wahlöö sold only a minimal amount of copies of a book of his own political philosophy, and the two authors came to the realization that although no one was paying to read what Wahloo wrote, they would pay to read crime fiction. Thus began the Martin Beck series, collectively known as "The Story of a Crime." Actually, they managed to get their various points across quite effectively, and there are some truths to what they say. On the other hand, as Dennis Lehane points out in the introduction to this particular edition, "One wonders how Sjöwall and Wahlöö managed to live there through the writing of the ten Martin Beck novels, so negative is their depiction of not just the failed welfare state but the physical landscape as well ...The courts don't work, the schools produce little but rot, and the ruling class skims the cream off the top and turns its back as the poor fight over the coffee grounds."They've also commented on the state of the police force since it was nationalized, the treatment of the elderly, and a host of other issues that they felt arose as a result of what they saw as the failure of the Swedish welfare state to take care of its people, setting aside the interests of regular citizens for the interests of those most actively involved in capitalism.But politics aside, Sjöwall and Wahlöö gave us Martin Beck, the detective who started out on a patrol beat and became good at his job on the way up, and all of his co-workers, friends and associates whose lives we've followed throughout all of the books. And there are many humorous moments throughout the series as well -- the Keystone cop-like antics of some of the patrolmen, the inept Stig Malm, Beck's boss whose job includes a great deal of toadying to his superiors, and there are many standing examples of Sjöwall and Perlöö's wry humor that run throughout all of the novels. But the best part of these books lie in the authors' ability to create believable plots, to come up with ever-developing characters who often become frustrated to the point where they want to chuck it all but inevitably show up the next day for work (if they go home to sleep at all), and then they throw all of that in with their political opinions, and still manage to create a crime fiction series that stays on task, never getting excessive. The bottom line is that Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö began these books as their personal mission, but the series stayed consistently excellent, and it has entertained and will continue to satisfy millions of crime fiction enthusiasts around the world.
—Nancy Oakes
