Since I love mysteries, and I love Sweden, you would think I'd spend all my free time reading Swedish crime novels -- and you'd be wrong. I have read works by most of the popular Swedish writers, but they are often just too depressing. Henning Mankell in particular makes me feel like slitting my wrists (I do enjoy the Swedish "Wallander" movies they show on KCSM, though). The only Swedish mystery writers I truly love are Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, whose brilliant Martin Beck series (published between 1965-75) combines brutal crimes with just enough comic relief and black humor; the books are still in print from Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Books, and I recommend them without reservation.
I put off reading the late Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for an entire year (I got a copy last summer) because I'd heard it was supposed to be spectacularly violent. However, it's become such a massive international bestseller, along with its sequel The Girl Who Played with Fire, that eventually it could not be denied. So I finally finished it, and... frankly, I'm not quite sure why it has become such a massive international bestseller.
The best part of the hefty (600 pages) book is the 40-year-old missing persons case that hero Mikael Blomkvist is assigned to investigate by an elderly, wealthy financier. I'm a sucker for books with cold cases, locked room mysteries and lots of shoe-leather procedural work, and on that count, Tattoo delivers.
However, that compelling story is wrapped in a lot of exposition about Mikael's job as a financial journalist and his conflict with Hans-Erik Wennerström, an industrialist/arms dealer. This paragraph, for instance, comes about 20 pages in:
"It sounds as though Wennerström frittered away a little money for AIA. But compared with the half billion that disappeared from Skanska or the CEO of ABB's golden parachute of more than a billion kronor -- which really upset people -- this doesn't seem to be much to write about," Blomkvist said. "Today's readers are pretty tired of stories about incompetent speculators, even if it's with public funds."
I happened to know that Skanska is a huge construction company. ABB is an engineering company (I had heard of it under its old name, ASEA). I don't know anything about the scandals mentioned. I guess the specifics don't matter too much, but the paragraph kind of stopped me in my tracks anyway; it doesn't seem like the stuff of thrillers.
If I had to guess why Dragon has become so popular, I'd say that it probably has more to do with Lisbeth Salander, the eponymous Girl who works with Blomkvist to help him solve his case. Lisbeth is a troubled punk hacker in her mid-20s whose computer expertise has led her to a job with a major security firm. Because of her genius, she gets to come and go as she wishes and only take assignments when she wants to. The Amazing Computer Expert Who Can Do Anything has become a stock character in many mystery novels and one I complain about a lot. But OK, Lisbeth is more interesting than most of them and a scene in which she extracts brutal revenge on a man who took advantage of her is violent yet undeniably compelling. (The original Swedish title of the book is Män som hatar kvinnor, that is, Men Who Hate Women.) There are several allusions made to horrifying incidents in Lisbeth's past, but apparently you have to read The Girl Who Played with Fire to find out about them.
Here is another clunky paragraph, this one about a new computer Lisbeth is buying:
Unsurprisingly she set her sights on the best available alternative: the new Apple PowerBook G4/1.0 GHz in an aluminium case with a Power-P.C. 7451 processor with an AltiVec Velocity Engine, 960 M.B. R.A.M. and a 60 G.B. hard drive. It had BlueTooth and built-in C.D. and D.V.D. burners. Best of all, it had the first 43-centimetre screen in the laptop world with N.V.I.D.I.A. graphics and a resolution of 1440x900 pixels...
I'm reading a mystery novel, not Computer Shopper.
Because I'd heard that the translation was not very good, I decided to read the English copy with a Swedish one open for reference. (My Swedish vocabulary is not quite advanced enough to allow me to get through such a long and difficult book.) Lee Goldberg, whom I linked to above, complained about all the cliches in the book, such as "dead as a door-nail." Here's an example from the English version: "Within twenty seconds he should be unconscious, and within a few minutes he would be dead as a door-nail." Swedish: "Inom tjugo sekunder skulle han vara medvetslös och inom några minuter stendöd." "Stendöd" would literally be translated as "stone-dead"; my Swedish-English dictionary does indeed list "dead as a door-nail" as a definition. Since "stone-dead" is an accepted idiom, I might have stuck with that if it had been my decision.
Here's another cliche that caught my eye: "Maybe he's just a square peg in a round hole who happens to be poisoning the atmosphere." Swedish: "Han kanske bara är en malplacerad skitstövel som sprider dålig stämning." Literally, "Maybe he's just an out-of-place shit-boot who spreads a bad atmosphere." "Skitstövlar" would be a pair of boots you wear to, say, muck out a stall (there's an informative illustration on this Wikipedia page), but "en skitstövel" is a term that's analogous to the English dick or asshole. So why not use the more forthright "asshole" instead of "square peg in a round hole"? I mean, there's plenty of swearing in the book already.
As with most works in translation, there are certain cultural references that can be hard to grasp unless you know the country in question. As they grew older, for instance, we are told that Lisbeth's punk friends began to buy clothes "more often from the H&M boutiques rather than from funky Myrorna." A check of the Swedish version shows that the translator added the modifier "funky." Swedes would know that Myrorna is a not a hip clothing shop but a thrift store akin to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. I would probably have written "rather than from the secondhand store."
In the translator's defense, Goldberg quoted the following note on his blog: "Sorry you didn't like the translation. I originally translated it into American English, but then the book was bought in the UK, and the Scottish editor really did a number on it -- hence my pseudonym. [NB: he chose not to use his real name on the book's cover.] I'm hoping Knopf's edition of books 2 & 3 will come out better." I don't know how much improved it would have been, but why the U.S. publisher (Knopf) didn't restore the original translation is a mystery to me. I have read some of the translator's other work and it flowed much better. The Mankell translations in particular are excellent.
I would say that Larsson, who wrote three books before dropping dead of a heart attack at the age of 50, is not a particularly great writer -- the paragraphs I quoted above aren't really any better in Swedish. He reminds me a little of Andrew Vachss, who has claimed that he "wouldn't write novels at all" were it not for the fact that he can use them to push his agenda (anti-child abuse, in his case). Larsson was an activist against racism and neo-Nazi movements in Sweden who lived under constant death threats; indeed, there was initial speculation that he was murdered. (In truth, his three-pack-a-day cigarette habit and workaholism were most likely what did him in; "he was warned again and again that he should look after himself," said his U.K. publisher.) The crusading, highly moral journalist Blomkvist is perhaps a bit of an alter ego. Amidst all of the "men who hate women" in the book, Blomkvist is a genuine good guy. And so, it seems, was Larsson.
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Now that Joe is a bit more mobile, we've finally started getting out a tad. Last night we went to the brand new Freight & Salvage. It's super-fancy compared to the old Freight, with a big lobby, gorgeous auditorium and -- praise be -- comfortable seats! It still "feels" like the Freight, though. They did a very nice job.
We've seen Cheryl Wheeler a bunch of times, but I always find her shows so comfortable and enjoyable. She tours with piano accompanist Kenny White, who opens for her, and he's a fabulous singer/songwriter in his own right. Knowing that the opening act is going to be as entertaining as the main attraction is a big plus with me.
Here are a couple of my favorite Cheryl songs. (She is a very successful songwriter, by the way, who has been covered by the likes of Bette Midler, Garth Brooks and Peter, Paul & Mary, but her fans know that no one sings 'em like Cheryl.) This is Wheeler at her most poignant:
And here's the wacky side of Cheryl, also showcasing her love of animals. (Many of her songs are about cats & dogs.) I wish I could have found a YouTube clip showing the introduction she did last night, where she talks about catash, the unusual percussion instrument that was used on the recording of the song.
Cheryl's new album Pointing at the Sun features her Cat Trilogy -- "White Cat," "Cat Accountant" and "My Cat's Birthday." Dog fanciers should check out "Howl at the Moon" from Mrs. Pinocci's Guitar.
Most of my pals know that I've been stuck at home in the taking-care-of-an-invalid business for the past couple of weeks, so I haven't had a chance to get out and do exciting things that I can then write about. The only thing I've done outside the home that doesn't involve errands or volunteer work is seeing Meshuggah Beach Party at the local mall's free summer concert series: I do love me some Meshuggah Beach Party.
Anyway, for the benefit of shut-ins and bored people everywhere who have nothing better to do over Labor Day weekend, here is a list of the 10 Movies From the 2000s That You've Never Seen, But Should Have. I would be very surprised if even the most ardent cinephiles are familiar with more than a couple of these films, because they are all box office underachievers (two of them weren't even released theatrically in the U.S., but are available on DVD). Add them to your Netflix queue and enjoy!
1. "Murderball" (2005). U.S. gross: $1.5 million. I think people avoided this film because it's about quadriplegics, and that sounds depressing. Trust me, it's not. This is an amazingly entertaining documentary.
2. "The Puffy Chair" (2005). U.S. gross: $192,000. The story of a boy, his girl, his brother... and a La-Z-Boy recliner, this seriocomic road trip film plays a little like a lo-fi version of "Sideways."
3. "The Lookout" (2007). U.S. gross: $4.5 million. Perhaps now that star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is getting raves for his appealing turn as the lovelorn swain in "(500) Days of Summer," this thoughtful and suspenseful heist movie will get a second life on DVD.
4. "He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not" (2002). U.S. gross: $1 million. You loved her in "Amelie," so check out another side of Audrey Tautou in Laetitia Colombani's romantic thriller. This is one of those surprise-filled films where the less you know, the more you'll enjoy it.
5. "Slim Susie" (2003). U.S. gross: not available. Swedes are notoriously critical of their own country's cinematic output, so the fact that this Tarantino-esque action comedy gets raves from Swedish movie fans in online forums tells you that this is a film that can stand toe to toe with American releases.
6. "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" (2006). U.S. gross: $300,000. If you've ever wondered why torture porn movies like "Saw" are rated R while one too many "f" words or a glimpse of a penis means an instant NC-17 (a.k.a. the kiss of death), check out Kirby Dick's documentary, which puts some dogged, hilarious and charismatic female investigators on the case.
7. "Sweet Land" (2005). U.S. gross: $1.7 million. For anyone who ever complained "they don't make 'em like that anymore," check out this sweet and moving romance about a young German woman who travels to Minnesota in the 1920s to marry a Norwegian farmer -- only to find that the townspeople won't accept her because of her ethnic heritage.
8. "The Deal" (2003). U.S. gross: not available. If you thought Michael Sheen was a dead ringer for Tony Blair in "The Queen," don't miss this film (made for British TV and scripted by "Queen" writer Peter Morgan) about the relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown during the 1980s and early '90s.
9. "The King of Kong" (2007). U.S. gross: $675,000. Obviously this riveting doc about two grown men battling for a video game championship never found its audience theatrically, perhaps because a movie about rival Donkey Kong players sounds unappealing. See it and believe it -- you'll be on the edge of your seat.
10. "The Hammer" (2007). U.S. gross: $443,000. This is another tough sell, as it stars and was written by former "Man Show" host and DJ Adam Carolla, and it's about boxing. But it's funny and heartwarming, just the sort of film that begs to be discovered by home viewers.
