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The politics of the ten Beck novels by Sjöwall & Wahlöö tend to become more obvious as the series progresses. If you don’t feel like reading all ten in chronological order, but want to give them one more chance, I suggest you skip to ”The Abominable Man” (the 7th book, published in 1971). You could also search out the film based on this story, ”The Man on the Roof” (1976, directed by Sweden’s greatest director of the second half of the 20th century, Bo Widerberg). However, I do think that there is some exaggeration regarding the progressive character of the Beck novels. As is often the case with stories that focus a bit too narrowly on alienation, they tend to remain individualistic and can be read almost as easily as a conservative critique of modernism and the welfare state. > > I frankly expected more > obvious politics. The villain if he could be called that was a near 40 year > "deviated prevert". And the heroes were all servants of the state > apparatus. Moreover they didn't appear majorly alienated from that > apparatus. It worked very efficiently at state and national level to solve > the crime with one individualist aha moment - use of the photographs and > film. > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
