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The Purity of Vengeance a great read
Book Review
By Derryll White
Adler-Olsen, Jussi (2013). The Purity of Vengeance.
After a break of a year or so, I am glad to be back in Department Q with Detective Carl MÇżrck.
Jussi Adler-Olsen continues his cutting analysis of Danish society, offering a social and political critique that is seldom heard in North American popular literature. This novel is a “mystery” maybe, but also a vehicle to look deep into what threatens social democracy in Denmark today.
Detective Carl Mǿrck, head of a three-person unit devoted to solving old, cold homicide cases for the Danish police, comes up against a plot by “men of means” – doctors, lawyers, politicians – to purge Danish society of socially unacceptable people. This is The Cause, an intricate construct of social engineering growing out of World War Two and a desire for a “pure race” or society.
The Purity Party highlighted in this novel was in reality known as the National Socialist Movement of Denmark, the largest Nazi party in that country during the Second World War.
In 1929 Denmark implemented legal sterilization whereby “mentally retarded” women could be interred against their will if there existed immediate danger that they would have children. It is estimated that about 11,000 Danish women were sterilized between 1929 and 1960. Compulsory sterilization remained legal in Denmark until 1967.
After finishing this intriguing novel I looked at some reviews that had already been written on it. I was amazed to see that the work was being faulted for not being funny enough. This story is an exposé of Denmark’s policies from 1923 to 1967 whereby women deemed to be socially unacceptable for whatever reason could be forcibly detained and sterilized, being aborted at the same time. I quite honestly do not think this is a laughing matter.
I really enjoyed this novel. It made me think a lot about how we as Canadians interact with government, and how government sometimes doesn’t always act in the best interests of the people. This will make a great summer read.
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Excerpts from the novel:
CELL PHONES – He sighed and began to text. The technology of mobile keypads was seemingly the work of Pygmies with macaroni for fingers, and the average northern European male who needed to operate such a contraption could only feel like a hippopotamus trying to play the flute.
DANISH REMEDY – “Lie down on a bed that’s got two bedposts,” he always said. “Hang a hat on one post and reach for the bottle of booze you should always keep on your bedside table. Keep drinking until you see a hat on both posts. I promise you, you’ll be right as rain the next day. And if you’re not, you won’t care.”
PURITY PARTY – It was all a matter of genes, and people with slanting eyes or brown skin had no part in the idealized narrative of flaxen-haired girls and boys with strong, muscular frames. Tamils, Pakistanis, Turks, Afghans, Vietnamese, all had to be stopped in the manner of any other invasive purity. Effectively and without hesitation.
EUGENICS – “It’s a theory that divides people up according to their origin and environment. And do you know what? I hate it very much,” he said solemnly. “I hate how some people think they are better humans than others. Racial superiority, you know? The idea that some people are worth more than others.”
POLITICS – “And since when has being stupid been a crime in Denmark? If it was, there wouldn’t be many of our politicians walking around on the loose today, would there?”
PERSPECTIVE – “Imagine being deported to an island and left there to rot. We Danes are no fucking better than those we claim to despise,” she hissed. “We’re as bad as those who stone unfaithful women or the Nazis who murdered anyone who was mentally or physically disabled. As far as I can see, what happened out there on Sprogǿ was the same as what happened to dissidents in the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. We’re no fucking better at all, I’m telling you!”
DANISH ECONOMY – With the property market bottomed out, everyone knew someone these days who’d suddenly found themselves stuck with two homes on their hands and a pressing need for cash. The heady days of finance ministers using their bollocks for brains and banks lining their pockets at ordinary people’s expense weren’t over yet by a long shot.
AFFIRMATION – Then he softly whispered the words that from that moment on baished from her life all the malice she had ever known.
“You’re good enough, Nete. Remember it always: you’re good enough.”
– 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.
