Händelser vid vatten by Kerstin Ekman

December 21st, 2007

Händelser vid vatten
Kerstin Ekman
467 p.

Bonnier Pocket, 2000
(first published 1993)

Back cover blurb:

I början av sjuttiotalet är Svartvattnet en tynande norrländsk by bland många andra. Då händer något. Ett dubbelmord långt ute i väglöst land.
Det går arton år innan någon börja ana sanningen om det som skett. Och då blir det lika farligt igen därute i myrlandet. Händelsen har blivit en mörk kraft med verkan in i många människors liv. Det är dessa människor Kerstin Ekmans roman handlar om, deras försök att rädda minne och sammanhang fast de bor i den skugga av glömska som ligger över landsbygdens byar och små samhällen.
Men i lika hög grad är det en roman om ett landskap. Människan har farit illa fram med det. När de stora skogsbolagen drar sig tillbaka är det alltid förändrat av hyggen, vägnät och grustäkter. Kvar är de namnlösa platserna i starrens rike, gungande våta tuvor och sorlande vatten under marken. Vattnet viskar och jämrar, isande klart eller sugande svart. I sommarens bleka nattljus tycks händelser och platser sväva och vandra, lika svårgripbara och tvetydiga som människors minnen och handlingar.

If I had been given a free choice, I would not have read this book. The back cover blurb shows what an incredibly pretentious book this is. It has its good sides, of course, but I can’t say I really enjoyed it. Its language was hopelessly complex, seemingly only because it can be complicated. It belongs to a kind of books I dislike: the pretentious, self-content kind. These books give out philosophical questions as often as they describe how an older woman rapes a sixteen-year-old boy. There is a lot of sex in this book, and it is seldom I have read any sex-scene I have been so disgusted with. Ekman’s language may be beautiful, but it is too coarse and chopped to please me. Sometimes it is difficult to discern what it is about, all due to the language.

In fact, it is difficult to know what happens, full stop. Ekman claims the story is about a murder, but the murder is ignored for fifty pages atime, and when it is discussed, it is far from satisfactory. The characters are sometimes lost, sometimes found. Towards the end of the novel, some of the characters I would have thought were main characters are completely forgotten and we don’t get to know what happens to them, or why this happens. One of the characters, a man called Dan, is in the second half of the book constantly referred to as a bastard who did something horrible, but when it comes down to it, we never get to know what it is he has done. And seeing as he is one of the most important characters of the first half of the book, I think Ekman owes us an explanation.

At places, this book is lovely and it is a joy to read, but for the most of the time, it’s a drudge to read. If I hadn’t read it for school, I might even have put it down. If I hadn’t chosen this book (before I realised what kind of a book it was) for an extremely important individual oral presentation, I would have skimmed the pages instead of paying attention. That way, I wouyld have gotten rid of the misery quicker. Now, I didn’t, and now I know too much.

Entry Filed under: Crime, Fiction, School reads, Swedish