Hey Dolly
Amanda Svensson
157 p.

Nordstedts, 2008.

Back cover blurb:

Dolly har en tråkig pojkvän och vänner som är seriöst psykiskt störda. Hennes familj består förutom en exemplarisk mamma av en död pappa och två syskon, som båda är döpta efter Astrid Lindgren-figurer. Själv är hon döpt efter en silikonfylld countrydiva. “Ni förstår att en relation är omöjlig”, säger Dolly. Alla hennes favoritfilmer är amerikanska produktioner, och det är hon mycket stolt över. Dolly associerar snabbt, driver iväg i fantasin, är elak, rolig och faktiskt ganska känslosam. Efter några timmar i hennes närhet är man sig inte riktigt lik.

This book is arguably the most discussed book in Sweden, possibly after Lars Norén’s diaries (which I, for the record, never intend to read). I was interested by this book, but I can’t really say why - it was not because of the author’s young age, which everyone else seems to be fawning over. I don’t see the interest in hounding someone because of their old or young age. Every review I read was ecstatic; this was the stuff!! What is interesting, is that every review has treated it as a novel for adults. If the reviews had not been so ecstatic, I bet they would have discarded it as a teenage novel. Because that is what it is, really.

And yes, it is a very good novel. At places, at least. I didn’t really like the whole subplot with the imaginary rockstar who is obviously imaginary, but they never really state it. That is, I guess, one of the problems with a novel written in the first person perspective. Fortunately, this subplot was… although quite important, not really the biggest part of the story. So I really liked it. It was well-written, funny at places, and so sad at others.

Right, there was another reason for me liking it. There were references to Morrissey. And quotes! And, well, any book which talks about Moz wins my heart directly. The first reference was after just ten-fifteen pages, so it made me one very happy camper. yaaaaay Moz. Admittedly, it was mainly There is a Light That Never Goes Out, but that is one bloody good song. And it fitted so nice in the plot. Oh, it was a good story. For those of you who know Swedish, you won’t lose anything reading it. So go and do!

School has ended, and book times begin! Or, I won’t have all that much time for reading, seeing as I’ll be travelling a fair bit and will be visiting lots of people, and writing a really important essay, but still! More time for books that usually! So, here they are, the novels I plan to read this summer.

1. Wynne Jones, Diana: Charmed Life (1977)
2. Williams, Tad: The War of the Flowers (2003)
3. Tolstoj, Leo: Anna Karenina (1877)
4. Svensson, Amanda: Hey Dolly (2008)
5. Stevenson, Robert Louis: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1886)
6. Smith, M.M: The Servants (2007)
7. Sayers, Dorothy L.: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928)
8. Sayers, Dorothy L.: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
9. Nilsson, Per: Svenne (2006)
10. Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita (1955)
11. Martin, George R.R.: A Game of Thrones (1996)
12. Marr, Melissa: Wicked Lovely (2007)
13. Lovecraft, H.P.: Omnibus 1 – At the Mountain of Madness (1966)
14. Kafka, Franz: Die Verwandlung (1915)
15. Hobb, Robin: Assassin’s Apprentice (1995)
16. Garner, Elizabeth: The Ingenious Edgar Jones (2007)
17. Connolly, John: The Book of Lost Things (2006)
18. Conan Doyle, Arthur: His Last Bow & The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1917/1927)
19. Christie, Agatha: Dolken från Tunis (1926)
20. Brontë, Jane: Jane Eyre (1847)
21. Bray, Libba: A Great And Terrible Beauty (2003)
22. Brandreth, Gyles: Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders (2007)
23. Barnes, Julian: Arthur & George (2005)
24. Austen, Jane: Sense & Sensibility (1811)
25. Abse, Dannie: The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glas (2002)

Biggles Sees It Through
(in Biggles’ Big Adventures)
Captain W.E. Jones
186 p.

For Decades ‘08.

Prion, 2007.
(first published 1941)

Back cover blurb:

none

Biggles and his boys are in Finland, trying to do away with intruding Russian troops. Then they meet a Polish scientist, who has made great scientific advances about the atom bomb or something like that (all I understood is that it is something Very Important, and after getting the mission they don’t care about what is in the papers, really.), who has hidden away these papers, but must be retrieved by the British, so the Russian or German troops can’t get to them. Biggles, Algy and Ginger jump onto this chance like a crocodile jumps onto its food. Unfortunately, they don’t do very well. In the end they get the papers and they even survive, but before that they have won and lost the papers a number of times, of course to the evil von Stahlhein. They lose an unbelievable amount of aircrafts, but that is part of the charm. While trekking through an icy lake, Algy exclaims ‘D’you know, [...], I remember the time whn I used to do this sort of thing for fun. We called it a picninc.’ (354-355) This quote more or less sums up what happens in this novel. It is a very failed picnic.

But it hilarious. We have double-agents, smoking, Ginger stealing food, planes being lost, Biggles being chased by a bear. Could it be better?! Alright, maybe it could. Sometimes, the story trudges on quite slowly, and I, as a reader, am impatient to get on with the story. It is maybe my impatience, or perhaps some flaw of W.E. Jones’. Despite this sometime slow language, it is a hell of a story.

Biggles in the Baltic
(in Biggles’ Big Adventures)
Captain W.E. Jones
211 p.

For Decades ‘08.

Prion, 2007.
(first published 1940.)

Back cover blurb:

none

Biggles! Biggles, Biggles, Biggles. When I was young, the only proper series of childrens’ books I read was the Nancy Drew novels, which admittedly weren’t the most fascinating things ever, but they managed to pull me in, at least. Having read Biggles now, I feel that I ought to have spent my childhood reading those books. Not only would it have suited me much better as a person, but also they are better novels, with more rounded and convincing characters. Biggles? Pretty cool. Algy? Hilarious. Ginger? So cute. And an evil Nazi! It felt so remniscent of all these modern films where there are evil Nazis, Communists, etc., except this was from the time where the Third Reich was actually going on! Oh, I haven’t read much Second World War fiction, but I feel that a childrens’ novel from that time is good enough.

And everything was so British! And no one swore, even though people smoked quite a lot. The only thing I can say against this novel is that they had so much plane terminology which I’m not familiar with, but seeing as they are about planes, it isn’t that strange. Hopefully I will learn.

Plotwise, this novel is hilarious. They are hiding in a rock and doing raids on German places now and then. I think they lose about five planes, and later they steal a German plane and people get stuck on the rock and everyone loses everyone else, and it is just brilliant. So over-the-top! When you think the novel should end, because everything is fixed, you realise there are another fifty pages, and something will go horribly awry before the novel ends. And, I think, because of all these crazy stuff that barely seems plausible, it is an extremely good story.