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| Book reviews arrive for
The Man Who Smiled |
| Posted 26 October 2005 |
 Critics
have finished reading their copies of Henning
Mankell's fourth entry in the Kurt Wallander series,
The
Man Who Smiled.
Three reviews have been published recently,
beginning with
Marcel Berlins' short but reassuring review in The
Times:
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I have had my reservations about the last
few Henning Mankell novels, so it was with
pleasurable anticipation that I noticed that
The Man Who Smiled had
originally been published in 1994, but the
UK rights had been unavailable -- until now,
when it is published in its first English
translation (by Laurie Thompson). My faith
in the excellence of Mankell's earlier works
was not misplaced. The Man who Smiled
is one of his best. |
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Next, in
his review for the Independent, Paul Binding
writes:
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The Man Who Smiled has in its art
much in common with other Mankell novels.
Its opening chapter gives readers a
privileged but partial view of the seminal
event. We move over to Wallander at a point
before his professional (and personal)
enmeshment in the affair. This is, here as
elsewhere, just a bit of a cheat, since we
are given information that the methodology
of the novel proper - scrupulously following
both police procedure and Wallander's
arduous cerebrations - would otherwise
block. Yet without such knowledge our
emotional engagement would be the less, as
would our admiration for Wallander's
deductions. |
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Wallander and
his colleagues recognise that their country
has changed, yet in their working lives they
are still animated by that belief in
community which was a cornerstone of
Sweden's
folkhem. It is
this passion for a fair society, sometimes
proudly acknowledged, sometimes borne as a
private burden, which gives all of Mankell's
novels their depth. The last scenes of
The Man Who Smiled constitute a vivid
vindication of it. |
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And finally, Ian
Thomson writing for the Guardian, weighs in
with:
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Wallander's anger at the state of his
country lends this book an old-fashioned
moral force and sense of disquiet. 'What
used to be considered a crime 10 years ago
is now judged a non-crime', the detective
observes morosely. |
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In spite of its occasional black humour, The
Man Who Smiled is haunted by the murder in
1986 of Sweden's prime minister, Olof Palme.
The failure of the authorities to find
Palme's killer created, Mankell says, a
'dangerous scepticism' about the Swedish
justice system and state institutions. Most
of the guilty characters are brought to
book, but 'the dishonesty that seems to be
common nowadays in society' will, one
suspects, win out. Wallander, a sternly
pensive slogger who eats junk food, is one
of the most credible creations in
contemporary crime fiction, and The Man Who
Smiled is vintage Nordic storytelling. |
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Continue to the Guardian web site for the full
review, entitled
Good Cop, Sad Cop.
Thanks to everyone who sent in links to these
reviews.
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