I hear Grandma Knutson rolling in her grave

Stieg Larsson - Per Petterson

It was mere coincidence that the last two novels I've read were written by Norski commies. Its no coincidence that both of them stunk. One of the authors was a commie, the other is a commie and a librarian.

The first one was loaned to me by someone who said I didn't need to return it. That should have been a clue. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was at least interesting. It was a bit macabre, but I suppose that the Swedish national psyche is so screwed up by Marxist thought that only an extremely bizarre character can be made to stand out in a murder mystery. Think Dr. H. H. Holmes. The otherwise mediocre read is capped off with a truly disappointing ending.

The second, and by far the worst of the two, Out Stealing Horses by Norwegian writer Per Petterson was so bad I could hardly finish it. The book drips with childish style, all of it badly affected. Maybe its just a lousy translation, but I doubt it. There is some semblance of a plot, but even that is weak and uninteresting. The only good thing about the way the book ends is that one can finally quit reading it.

You just can't trust book reviews any more. I tried to read the highly reviewed My Name is Red by Turkish Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. It was one of the few books I have started and then dropped unfinished. I guess it makes sense. If Barack Obama can get a Nobel Peace Prize, then Orhan Pamuk must be a great writer.

I must find a good book to read before we start out for New Mexico.