Ruumiin kulttuuri 3/2007: English SummaryNew York based British writer Lee Child’s rough and tough Jack Reacher novels are some of the best and best-selling action thrillers of the 21st century. Ex-pat Child visited the Harrogate crime writing festival in July and revealed that Reacher will come to a sorry end at the end of the series. ”A legend must always end. That’s why Reacher has to be sacrificed,” Child explained to this magazine’s interviewer Tiina Torppa. Luckily the lovable (or not) hero will survive for ten more books.
”You have to understand the character of this genre,” Child says to those who criticize the violence in crime fiction. He sees that the genre has a useful function: through these books people can air their own aggressions without any real violence. ”Reacher Reaching Out for Ten More Books”)
Juha Numminen is one of the big names in Finnish suspense fiction, the author of fast-paced and action-packed crime novels. This autumn’s new title Naskali is a milestone for him – crime story number 20. Numminen started writing crime fiction in the 1980s together with Eero J. Tikka, sharing the pseudonym Sulevi Manner. In 1986 the two were awarded the Clew of the Year for their novel Susi (The Wolf). The cooperation ended after four books, and Numminen continued walking the mean streets by himself.
With an outstanding career in journalism behind him, Numminen bases his novels on elements of public life and the media. In Heikki Ollikainen’s interview (”Juha Numminen Distils the Spirit of the Time”) the author tells us he’s far from happy with the current sensationalist media. ”You can write about anything, and of course there’s some good in that. But what is the effect on people? When all public morals and any feeling of shame are forgotten, the lurid headlines brutalize us. We lose respect, we condemn a public person without a trial.”
Vyborg-born Osmo Osva was a schoolboy when he began writing short stories for papers in the late 1930s, and his first two novels were published in 1943 when he turned 20. ”I penned them in the trenches when there was no fighting,” Osva says. Book two, Telakka tulessa (Dockyard in Flames) was a crime story, dealing with leftist saboteurs’ misdeeds in wartime Finland, as befitted the prevailing spirit. After the war Osva wrote another crime novel and worked as an editor and hack writer for pulp periodicals.
In the 1950s Osva developed an interest in the cinema, wrote about it in newspapers and magazines and took up stage designing. His greatest achievement in this field was The White Reindeer (1952), one of the most successful Finnish films ever – directed by Erik Blomberg and winning, among other awards, the International Prize at Cannes Film Festival. The decline of the film industry turned Osva into a freelance illustrator, layout man, cover artist and even a political cartoonist. Keijo Kettunen met this 84 years young writer and man of many talents who now lives in retirement in Kirkkonummi and still enjoys reading also crime and suspense. (”From Wartime Crime Novels to The White Reindeer”)
New Irish crime fiction is a major theme in this issue. Antti Tuomainen – himself a crime writer – examines Ken Bruen’s books, ”fierce and idiosyncratic noir”. Bruen has been especially applauded for his Jack Taylor series; the first novel (The Guards, 2001) received the Shamus award and an Edgar nomination. ”Jack Taylor is a bibliophile with a serious drug and alcohol problem, wrestling with salvation and ruination, preferring a book of modern poetry to a handgun. Despite this, or because of this, the books are furious, full of action and unexpected turns,” Tuomainen praises (”Dark Shadows of the Green Isle”).
Irish-born Americanized author Michael Collins came to Helsinki in the spring to celebrate the release in Finnish of his eighth book, The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton. ”The novel as a literary genre is static and dead,” Collins said to his interviewer Leena-Kaisa Laakso. ”The novel no longer challenges the reader. That’s why I write suspense. There’s a proper plot there, the reader is helped along. And one can talk about big issues like life and death.” (”Michael Collins – Man of Many Realities”)
Irish Benedictine monk Andrew Nugent, a former trial lawyer, has recently written two acclaimed crime novels with a Dublin location. Markus Ahonen visited the author at Glenstal Abbey near the town of Limerick, in western Ireland (”An Irish Monk Turns to Crime Writing”). And our Irish package is wrapped up with a report on the books by the green isle’s new female crime writers (”Ireland’s Women – Women with Zest”).
Other items
Iris Schwanck, Director of FILI (Finnish Literature Exhange), presents ten of her favourite mysteries over the years (”My Top Ten”). A Dish to Die For: juicy grilled steaks in the style of Inspector Kari Takamäki. The recipe comes directly from the creator of Takamäki, the great crime writer Jarkko Sipilä (”Kari Takamäki’s Ball Grill Pork”) A report from the annual Kouvola crime lit weekend where authors and hundreds of readers again met in a relaxed atmosphere. The ”young crime” competition had attracted more than fifty entries, and the winner was Ansu Kivekäs. (”Murderous Fun in Kouvola”) In the Movie Mania section: the third Jason Bourne thriller The Bourne Ultimatum, based on Robert Ludlum’s novel, and the bewildering serial killer drama Mr. Brooks where Kevin Costner plays the murdering husband and father. Et al. Capital Sentences: our incorruptible judges deal with 44 new crime titles.
Translated by Liisa Koskinen
Ruumiin kulttuuri 3/2007