REVIEWS ON EURO CRIME: A VENGEFUL LONGING
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My review of A Vengeful Longing by R.N.Morris is up on Euro Crime at:
http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/A_Vengeful_Longing.html
I really enjoyed this excellent historical crime novel set in 1868 St Petersburg which featured Porfiry Petrovich the detective created by Dostoevsky.
Also featured this week were a review by Karen Meek [Euro Crime herself] of the Crimini short stories, which made me want to dive into the remaining stories that I have not had time to read.
http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/Crimini.html
Fiona Walker confirmed once again just how much the modern Nordic crime writers owe to the masters Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. I know am a bit of a bore about this subject but it is true.
http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/The_Abominable_Man.html
And Maxine Clarke writes an intriguing review about a complex book.
http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/The_Thirteenth_Tale.html
posted by Uriah Robinson at 9:24 AM
3 Comments:
Well your comments on S and W are true as far as I am concerned, Norm. I am adoring this series, I have bought them all but only read three-- I'm savouring them.
The 13th tale is a lovely book -- a sort of modern version of a Victorian novel -- maybe the kind of thing Charlotte Bronte would write if she were alive today? But very easy to read.
I like your review of the RNM book- but I have been advised to read the first one first....
I too wholly second what you say about S and W. Henning Mankell made the same point very forcefully in this introduction to the Black Lizard reprint of Roseanna, but in general I am surprised their influence is not more acknowledged. I have just finished my first Kjell Eriksson, The Dark Stars of the Night, and I most certainly see their influence there, although I was not altogether happy with the book as a whole. I'll say no more about that -- don't what to spoil. But I will say that I was also not too happy with the translation by Ebba Segerberg, which reminded me that I wasn't too comfortable with her work on Mankell. In this one there are some pretty clunky sentences, a few simply not grammatical, and she quite misrepresents one character by equating his possible appointment to a university chair in Sweden with promotion from associate to full professor in the North American system, which is not at all the same thing and not necessary. I think the wonderful felicity of Bernard Scudder, David Bellos and, most of all, Sian Reynolds has established a benchmark against which I shall be measuring all others, which is a bit unfortunate. I can't find a full bio of Segerberg, but I think it fair to assume that she is not translating into her first language, and I think that is the problem, together with the seeming absence of a competent editor. This may be contentious, but it makes me think that translation is unlikely to be at its most felicitous if it is not into the translator's first language.
An interesting point about the S and W series is that my ten books have five different translators.
A recent book I read and reviewed for Euro Crime took clunky sentences on to a new plateau of unreadability, and I even forgot to mention the translator who must bear some responsibilty for this travesty of a novel.
Philip,I have not read any Kjell Eriksson or Asa Larsson the other author who I believe writes about Uppsala.
This is something I must remedy as soon as possible.
I totally agree with you about the high standards set by Sian Reynolds, and the late Bernard Scudder.
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