Saturday, May 30, 2009

Maj Sjöwall Interview

After nattering on at length about Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's excellent Martin Beck novels in recent posts (here and here), I would be remiss not to provide you with a link to a recent interview of Sjöwall in the Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt:

Back then, Ms. Sjöwall writes by email from Sweden, "Swedish crime-writers wrote Agatha Christie-like books and seldom had policemen as main characters. Crime novels were considered pulp-literature in those days. Intellectuals rarely admitted to reading those kinds of books. We wanted to contribute to improving the linguistic quality, and to changing the way media treated that type of literature." The couple were writing entertainment, "but our intention was also to describe and criticize certain changes in our society and the politics of that decade."

For the rest, click here.

(Thanks to Maxine at Petrona for the link.)

1 comment:

Suko said...

Hi, Kate. I keep coming back to this excellent post to leave a comment, but then I have not been sure of what to say in response to your post (which already seems so complete).

I'm still struggling to put my thoughts into words, but I think that writers, of most genres perhaps, take on the task of being social and political critics (as well as artists), and have the ability and responsibility to change and shape society.