RE: RARA-AVIS: The Laughing Policeman

From: Anders Engwall ( anders.engwall@comhem.se)
Date: 30 Apr 2008


Some comments about the Sjö·¡¬l-Wahlö¶ ³eries.

 

It should really be read in order, this is one series where the development of the various characters really is important.

 

About the overall quality, I'm not so sure. The so-called social commentary really gets in the way, at least in the later half of the series. While there might some grain of truth here and there, basically all of it is just gross exaggerations and pompous demagoguery. And the nonsense ratio increased as the series went on - I found the last entry to be basically unreadable. This series was once the subject of some very vicious parodies, and it deserved it too. And I'm saying that as someone who is politically
(very) left-wing - these books are politically counter-productive.

That said, if you filter out the deceptive polemics, it's a pretty damn good series. You REALLY want to know what the hell is gonna happen. These novels are usually total page-turners (the last one one possibly excepted - I have not read it for three decades)

 

The one movie adaption you want to see is THE MAN ON THE ROOF (based on THE ABOMINABLE MAN) which just happens to be the only Swedish action movie worth bothering about and also totally pisses all over the novel it is based on. The murder scene at the beginning is by far the most gruesome one you never saw - but you'll HEAR it… Trivia: a few of my cousins were extras at the scene of the helicopter crash.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 30 Apr 2008 EDT