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A review by april_does_feral_sometimes
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø
5.0
The best general review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/410026591 - IMHO
The best plot and writing examination review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/543197908 - IMHO
Keep in mind I read about twenty or so reviews out of thousands, but regardless. I liked these two best out of the few I read. Apologies to those who also wrote great reviews.
GR is not listing the Audible audiobook I actually used to 'read' this book, so I selected this edition. Although I enjoyed it very much, I have the usual difficulties of not knowing how to spell names or make direct quotes of sections I liked. On the other hand, it is an excellent book to listen to. However, when excellent reviews are available such as James Thane's, there isn't much more I can add anyway.
I have comments, though. The book uses the background of WWII to explore issues of identity, loyalty and authenticity. We get to know a group of Norwegians in an extended flashback to 1944 who feel such loyalty to their country and a sense of patriotic fervor they fight - for the Nazis, rather than the Resistance. The war grinds down their minds and bodies until whatever their reasons for becoming soldiers and nurses are forgotten or distorted; at least temporarily, for some, and in particular, for a killer our hero, Harry Hole, in present time (2000) must catch before the body count includes figures of national importance. Along the way, he yet again suffers a devastating personal loss of such enormous dimensions he is drunk for almost a month in response. Harry also discovers he is in love again - but she, Raquel, has sorrows beyond his imaginings. She had married a Russian Bolshevik and they had a child, a boy. Leaving the husband and Russia, she now had a good job and a good life. Unfortunately, her beauty and immigration status makes her vulnerable to blackmail.
Identity politics, personal and social, has never been explored with more dexterity. Beyond the genre tale of murder and mystery, the author has linked the plot through extraordinary characters to inner psychological twists and turns regarding national and personal identification. It reminded me that calling ourselves German, American or Norwegian is not artificial or unimportant - and yet, it is. Not only are the boundaries of understanding fuzzy, but the importance to the self of identity is far more conceptual and contextual than we allow.
Dear reader, Harry does have some happiness in this third novel of the series. For about one minute, I think.
The best plot and writing examination review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/543197908 - IMHO
Keep in mind I read about twenty or so reviews out of thousands, but regardless. I liked these two best out of the few I read. Apologies to those who also wrote great reviews.
GR is not listing the Audible audiobook I actually used to 'read' this book, so I selected this edition. Although I enjoyed it very much, I have the usual difficulties of not knowing how to spell names or make direct quotes of sections I liked. On the other hand, it is an excellent book to listen to. However, when excellent reviews are available such as James Thane's, there isn't much more I can add anyway.
I have comments, though. The book uses the background of WWII to explore issues of identity, loyalty and authenticity. We get to know a group of Norwegians in an extended flashback to 1944 who feel such loyalty to their country and a sense of patriotic fervor they fight - for the Nazis, rather than the Resistance. The war grinds down their minds and bodies until whatever their reasons for becoming soldiers and nurses are forgotten or distorted; at least temporarily, for some, and in particular, for a killer our hero, Harry Hole, in present time (2000) must catch before the body count includes figures of national importance. Along the way, he yet again suffers a devastating personal loss of such enormous dimensions he is drunk for almost a month in response. Harry also discovers he is in love again - but she, Raquel, has sorrows beyond his imaginings. She had married a Russian Bolshevik and they had a child, a boy. Leaving the husband and Russia, she now had a good job and a good life. Unfortunately, her beauty and immigration status makes her vulnerable to blackmail.
Identity politics, personal and social, has never been explored with more dexterity. Beyond the genre tale of murder and mystery, the author has linked the plot through extraordinary characters to inner psychological twists and turns regarding national and personal identification. It reminded me that calling ourselves German, American or Norwegian is not artificial or unimportant - and yet, it is. Not only are the boundaries of understanding fuzzy, but the importance to the self of identity is far more conceptual and contextual than we allow.
Dear reader, Harry does have some happiness in this third novel of the series. For about one minute, I think.