Millenium Matters
Born in Sweden in 1962, David Lagercrantz started as a journalist. In 1997 he began publishing books. He wrote three bios, followed by five novels and another bio. He then took on the daunting task of continuing the wildly popular Millenium saga of the late Stieg Larsson, whose three novels were published posthumously. I did not read any of those, preferring the short cut of the Swedish films starring the riveting Noomi Rapace as the fascinating Lisbeth Salander. Recently, a copy of the second of the three Lagercrantz installments came my way, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, published in 2017. The main story is the discovery of a secret program involving the separation of twins, pairing one with an affluent family, the other with those of humble means in order to study the nature/nurture argument. Lisbeth has an evil twin who is mentioned, not seen in the narrative. The focus is two brothers. I was rapt. There actually was such a study. The program was appalling but not on the level of what the Nazis did. Lagercrantz used fictitious names. For me the book is worth it simply for a nugget I don’t recall having ever heard, confirmed by a Google search: “Identical twins Jack Yufe and Oskar Stohr first encountered each other at a railway station in West Germany in 1954. Jack Yufe had lived on a Kibbutz and been a soldier in the Israeli army. Oskar Stohr had been active in the Hitler Youth.” There is a subplot involving the insanity of Muslim honor killings that pales in comparison to the twins angle. Lisbeth is much more involved in that, although she contributes to the other. The writing is solid. One aspect was annoying — the constant use of tongue-twisting Swedish locations when “the street” or “the area” would have sufficed. Maybe natives get a kick out of it. Lagercrantz should have given the translator, George Goulding, if he desired, license to edit 95% of that nonsense. 9900+ users at Amazon have rated The Girl…, forging to a consensus of 4.3 on a scale of five. I’m not a fan of mysteries, so I’ll go with 3.5. I’ve added the previous installment, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, to my Netflix list.
The immigration battle continues, headline from nypost.com: “Ron DeSantis ships 2 planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard: report.” Touche`. I hope the next load is dropped off on the “Hahvad” front lawn.
Opening line of an NYP editorial: “A UN report just found 50 million people are enslaved worldwide…” Most of it occurs in China and Africa. Unfortunately, nothing is done. Many would rather focus on past slavery.
More PC madness, headline from newsmax.com: “Harvard in Mandatory Title IX Training: Using Wrong Pronouns Is Abuse.” They crazy.
Another gorgeous day, and business was good at the floating book shop. My thanks to all the buyers and donors, especially the woman who delivered a bunch of her late husband’s books, a third of it sexual content that had me laughing as I sorted it out. She wasn’t that old and it had me wondering if her husband had worn himself out. I kept those titles semi-hidden. Here’s what sold: three books in Russian, two volumes on English grammar; House Rules by Jodi Picoult; Sacred Sins by Nora Roberts; Almost Paradise by Susan Isaacs; Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; a collection of poetry by Alexander Pope; Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith; Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi. I am blessed.
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