STORMAKSTIDEN: SWEDISH GOLDEN AGE?
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Bernadette at her excellent blog Reactions to Reading has finished the Scandinavian Reading Challenge devised by Amy at The Black Sheep Dances.
Bernadette comments there is no "next Stieg Larsson" but a group of great writers all with there own different styles, story telling abilities, personalities and sense of humour. I totally agree.
I am now engrossed in reading Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom, the novel that won this year's Best Swedish Crime Novel. [Thanks to Maxine of Petrona for this review copy]
My shelves have several more top Swedish crime fiction novels waiting to be read, and I [thanks to a nice commenter on this blog who enjoyed a Swedish summer] have 7 more Beck DVDs to watch.
The period between the wars 1919-1939 was regarded as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and was dominated by the great British writers [Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Francis Iles etc], Americans who wrote in a similar style [John Dickson Carr, S.S. Van Dine], or the more hardboiled style [Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett].
Will we look back on this period in time, and decide it was a new Golden Age of Crime Fiction dominated by Scandinavian, and especially Swedish writers?
Stormakstiden- The Swedish era of great power in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 3:18 AM
9 Comments:
Norman - That is a very interesting question! I do think different countries have had periods of great strength in crime fiction, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if this turns out to be a period of particular strength for Scandinavian writers.
Norman thanks for the histroy link. Nice to find out you also like history.
Margot-I wonder what will be next, South African, Australian or Latin American.
Jose Ignacio- at one time circa 1970 I was going to give up dentistry, and go to university to study history. I expect a few of my patients wish I had.
What I really celebrate is that crime fiction is now present in many countries, in pretty good health and more widely accepted as 'literature'.
I think it may indeed be the Golden Age of Swedish Crime fiction.
You could be right Norman. I read an interview with Henning Mankell recently and he was likening it to the success of Bjorn Borg in tennis - before him no one in Sweden played tennis - after that there was an explosion of the sport - similar thing with crime fiction. Whatever the reason it's good for us readers.
No matter what I read, although I'm now involved in Malla Nunn's second book, I keep being drawn back to Scandinavian mysteries. Now, to read Nesbo, and more Nesser, Mankell, Sjowall/Wahloo, Sigurdadottir and Indridason--and even more.
But there are more Italian mysteries out, as well as Irish. Many readers are now drawn to Southern Africa mysteries. And, more attention is being paid to Latin American crime fiction.
About dentists, you remind me of a relative: a computer software writer by day, violinist by night.
Although I'm wary of dentists, I do pay them homage as they are very necessary to human survival, health and functioning. And do I ever know it.
I have told my nephew three things as suggestions for his life, and "take care of your teeth" is one of them...so important.
Kathy, I am even more wary of dentists than you. Last week two people asked me for advice about dental matters, and I had to remind myself that I have been retired now for over seven years!
It is probably illegal for someone not on the dental register, and with a degree certificate gone yellow with age to give any advice on anything.
I agree we are lucky to have such a range of crime fiction to enjoy [I must read the Malla Nunns] and looking at my "should read soon' shelf I have books set in- England, Sweden, Italy, Laos, Spain, Iceland, Poland, Cuba, Brazil and Norway!
Wow! We'll all be so glad to read your reviews.
My "to be ordered" from Amazon and Book Depository lists are so long (due to the exciting reviews at websites) that they're now unmanageable and expensive, so I'm trying to pare down.
The library just doesn't carry enough international translated mysteries or it takes years, or one copy is bought and not circulated--and impossible to deal with.
So purchasing is crucial.
And I do give Malla Nunn an "A" for "Let the Die Lie," although I'm nearly half-way through it.
(And it's one of those "let the errands go undone" kind of books.)
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