50 Book Challenge: book 23
Missing – Karin Alvtegen
This is a book to fling at the heads of those people who insist that thrillers are about escapism, implausibility and shallowly-drawn characters whose motivations appear to have been roughly sketched out on the back of a napkin by way of authorial preparation. It is a study of a 30-something homeless woman and the actions and events that have led her to lead the existence that she does – psychological abuse and neglect at the hands of her parents, the need to conform to others’ expectations, the injustices perpetrated by the mental health establishment. In order for the character to progress, however, something needs to shake her out of the precarious equilibrium she has managed to win for herself. It comes when, in a bid to get a free night’s food and sleep at a hotel, she manages to get herself accused of serial murder.
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The novel’s beautifully constructed – the heroine’s story is woven into the narrative so that by the time she’s ready to fight back you know all the backstory you need to. But, by God, it’s hard-going. I read a large chunk of it on the train home from work on a rainy Friday after an exceptionally hard week and, by the time I got to my destination, I felt ready to lie down on the tracks. If it wasn’t such an obvious, cliched, cheap and shallow thing to say I would have to remark that it’s books like this that give Scandinavians their reputation for being gloomy. Part of this is about expectation – anyone thinking they were going to get off with a bog-standard psychological thriller would certainly have their work cut out with this.
Here’s what the author has to say about it on her website:
The idea for Saknad (Missing) I got one early morning in October on a platform in a tube station. A woman in my own age, barefooted, with a plastic bag in her hand came jostling her way through the crowd of stressed early morning commuters, begging for money. I saw her urge through the crowd, amongst lowered eyes and disturbed headshakes. Still, she carried her presence with dignity. I couldn’t let go of my thoughts of that woman. I started to wonder about how a human being can grow into such extreme loneliness, that there was no one around to catch her when she started to loose her grip. And I became fulfilled by a deep respect for this woman, and for all these characters that just don’t give up, instead choosing to keep on fighting their battle.
(http://www.karinalvtegen.com/index_eng.htm)
The murder mystery, when it starts up, is simple, elegant and imaginative and the denouement gives the heroine the hope of a future that you have known was coming for most of the book. This is an accomplished and extremely well-written novel with some very important points to make – just not one to be taken on lightly.