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A review by thisotherbookaccount
The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag
1.0
Note to self: next time, read the labels.
With The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt Och Dag, I thought I was getting into a historical crime fiction about a grisly murder in 18th century Sweden. What it is instead is a gratuitous showcase of blood and gore, with not much else beneath the surface. I should have known, if I had read the label of this book, because it's been compared 'favourably' to one of my most detested book from last year, Perfume, a book that's similarly depraved and almost gleeful about the sex and violence it depicts. The descriptions feel juvenile almost, like a high schooler trying to come up with the most offensive or repulsing thing on paper. Like, it wasn't enough that the body that our protagonists find at the beginning of the book was dismembered. Niklas, the author, had to also include the fact that the body was without eyes and tongue, and that, in a different section of the book, the victim ate its own shit to stay alive — you get the point.
The book is also poorly sectioned and paced. The entire book is basically split into four sections.
Parts 1 and 4 form the same narrative and involve the same characters. In these parts, our protagonists find the body and thus have to investigate the identity of the victim and those responsible for his death. It operates like a conventional crime novel, essentially.
The problem with this arrangement is that none of the sections are particularly book. Although parts 1 and 4 are supposed to be about how our protagonist find clues to solve crimes, this is 18th century Sweden we are talking about here. Forensic science hadn't yet been invented yet, so a lot of revelations in this book were either based on coincidences or conveniences. None of the detective work feel particularly smart or earned. These flat, non characters spot clues to the victims and the perpetrators because they mostly just happen to be in the right place at the right time. As a crime novel, parts 1 and 4 already fail miserably.
Part 2 is just pure torture porn. The story is told from the perspective of the person forced to dismember this poor bastard over the course of days, and you basically get a beat by beat narration of his 'process'. Again, it's just misery porn cranked up to its limits. There is nothing redeemable about this section whatsoever. It feels like it was written by a teenager trying to twirl his nonexistent moustache at the back of a classroom. "Hee hee! I wonder what perverse shit I can come up with," he seems to be saying.
Part 3 is actually the most interesting, in a way. The story is about a woman who's been wrongfully accused of being a prostitute, and has to serve out her time in a mill. She then has to plot a way to escape the mill, thus making this a bit like a prison break story. The problem with this section is two-folds. One, it is irrelevant to the larger story by the time you reach the end. You can literally skip this section and still understand what the hell is going on; two, the violence against women is on full display here and, again, for no reason other than to make characters suffer. It's gratuitous, egregious and just downright offensive.
Again, I should have known, going into this book. If your book is mentioned along the same lines as Perfume, then I really shouldn't be surprised that it turned out just as hollow and meaningless at the end of it all. And if this — THIS — is the crown jewel of so-called Swedish crime fiction, it's almost become a parody of itself.
With The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt Och Dag, I thought I was getting into a historical crime fiction about a grisly murder in 18th century Sweden. What it is instead is a gratuitous showcase of blood and gore, with not much else beneath the surface. I should have known, if I had read the label of this book, because it's been compared 'favourably' to one of my most detested book from last year, Perfume, a book that's similarly depraved and almost gleeful about the sex and violence it depicts. The descriptions feel juvenile almost, like a high schooler trying to come up with the most offensive or repulsing thing on paper. Like, it wasn't enough that the body that our protagonists find at the beginning of the book was dismembered. Niklas, the author, had to also include the fact that the body was without eyes and tongue, and that, in a different section of the book, the victim ate its own shit to stay alive — you get the point.
The book is also poorly sectioned and paced. The entire book is basically split into four sections.
Parts 1 and 4 form the same narrative and involve the same characters. In these parts, our protagonists find the body and thus have to investigate the identity of the victim and those responsible for his death. It operates like a conventional crime novel, essentially.
The problem with this arrangement is that none of the sections are particularly book. Although parts 1 and 4 are supposed to be about how our protagonist find clues to solve crimes, this is 18th century Sweden we are talking about here. Forensic science hadn't yet been invented yet, so a lot of revelations in this book were either based on coincidences or conveniences. None of the detective work feel particularly smart or earned. These flat, non characters spot clues to the victims and the perpetrators because they mostly just happen to be in the right place at the right time. As a crime novel, parts 1 and 4 already fail miserably.
Part 2 is just pure torture porn. The story is told from the perspective of the person forced to dismember this poor bastard over the course of days, and you basically get a beat by beat narration of his 'process'. Again, it's just misery porn cranked up to its limits. There is nothing redeemable about this section whatsoever. It feels like it was written by a teenager trying to twirl his nonexistent moustache at the back of a classroom. "Hee hee! I wonder what perverse shit I can come up with," he seems to be saying.
Part 3 is actually the most interesting, in a way. The story is about a woman who's been wrongfully accused of being a prostitute, and has to serve out her time in a mill. She then has to plot a way to escape the mill, thus making this a bit like a prison break story. The problem with this section is two-folds. One, it is irrelevant to the larger story by the time you reach the end. You can literally skip this section and still understand what the hell is going on; two, the violence against women is on full display here and, again, for no reason other than to make characters suffer. It's gratuitous, egregious and just downright offensive.
Again, I should have known, going into this book. If your book is mentioned along the same lines as Perfume, then I really shouldn't be surprised that it turned out just as hollow and meaningless at the end of it all. And if this — THIS — is the crown jewel of so-called Swedish crime fiction, it's almost become a parody of itself.