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A good opening salvo
Book Review
By Derryll White
Adler-Olsen, Jussi (2012). The Keeper of Lost Causes
I don’t like approaching novels from a negative perspective. But when the liner notes inform me that this book is designed to be appreciated by Stieg Larrsen fans my defenses go up. That three-volume trilogy from Sweden featuring the girl with the dragon tattoo is a very high peak to simply assume.
Adler-Olsen does take the time and care to build a strong and quirky character in Detective Carl Morck. The man is singular, at odds with Copenhagen’s department of homicide, and tenacious. He has political opinions and expresses them. That is one thing I decidedly enjoy in the works of the better Scandinavian authors. They have political interests and opinions that they invest their characters with. In North America we are polite and accept mediocrity in the political sphere as our due. Adler-Olsen’s willingness to put his biases, his cultural losses, on the page is one stellar reason that I read the Scandinavians.
Don’t get me wrong. ‘The Keeper of Lost Causes’ is not a political diatribe. It is, however, an honest look at how systems fall apart. Dressed in the disguise of yet another murder mystery or police procedural, Adler-Olsen takes some very clear shots at how western democracy is strangling itself with laziness, political ineptness and the failure of citizens to make the systems responsible for their inactions and inadequacies.
I think this is a good opening salvo in what promises to be a long campaign. Carl Morck and his partner Assad seem destined to grow in stature as more volumes follow from Adler-Olsen. This is a good, thoughtful read.
Excerpts from the novel:
SENSE OF A WOMAN – There was a special aura about Merete during the interview. She exhibited a surplus of that incredibly strong appeal that almost all women are capable of emanating whenever things are going especially well for them.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS – Carl noticed Assad’s confused expression when the man said “my husband,” but a quick glance was enough to wipe the look off his face. Assad obviously still had a lot to learn about the diversity of Danish living arrangements.
POLITICS – At least at police headquarters you knew what you were dealing with, where friends and enemies weren’t afraid to show their true colors, and yet everyone was able to work side by side toward a common goal. Here it was just the opposite. Everybody pretended to be the best of friends, but they were all thinking only of themselves when it came to settling scores. Everything was based on kroner and ore and power, not so much on results. A big man in this place was someone who made the others seem small.
DANISH SENSIBILITIES – Bille Antvorskov had just turned seventy and was a regular guest on TV2’s Good Morning Denmark and other talk shows. He was a so-called expert, and was therefore presumed to know something about everything between heaven and Earth. That’s how it works when Danes took someone seriously; they went all out.
CHANGE – Concrete boxes camouflaged as luxury apartments were already towering over the Kvickly supermarket, and soon even the snug, old one-story houses on the other side of the road would be gone. What had previously been a picturesque feast for the eyes had now turned into a tunnel of dolled-up concrete. A few years ago he wouldn’t have thought it possible, but now it had reached his own town. Thanks to politicians like Erhard Jakobsen in Bagsvaerd, Urban Hansen in Copenhagen and God only knew who in Charlottenlund. Homey, precious townscapes shattered. An abundance of mayors and town councils with no taste. These hideous new buildings were clear proof of that.
POLITICAL REALITY – Down at Social Services we spend more time filling out stupid forms than helping citizens. Did you know that, Carl? Let those smug government ministers give it a try. If they had to fill out forms to get their free dinners and free chauffeurs and free rent and their enormous salaries and free junkets and free secretaries and all that other shit, they wouldn’t have any time left for eating or sleeping or driving or anything else.
GOVERNMENT – Now it was an excessively self-satisfied populace that came out to protest. The government had given them their opium: cheap cigarettes, cheap booze and all kinds of other shit. If these people sitting on the grass disagreed with the government, the problem was only temporary. Their average life-span was decreasing fast, and soon there wouldn’t be anybody left to get upset over having to watch healthier people’s sporting feats on Danish TV.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
