Photography: (c) MariolaDCA
Jo Nesbø's books usually last me an average of between 7 and 10 days and, in several cases, it would have been less because you always want to prolong those little pleasures that life gives you. It was also the case of the last the jealous man, title of the 2nd of the 12 stories that compose it and the longest next to the island of rats. The rest vary between very short as The tail, short as London, and medium length. all make up about 600 pages, more or less, that demonstrate once again that this master of the blackest fiction does not put anything ahead of him and everything works out for him. This is my review.
the jealous man - Review
Go ahead that
obviously it is not objective for my more than known admiration for Nesbø. So he who warns is not a traitor. To read brainy or academic and highly professional reviews, because the Church has doctors and I am not one of them.
Having said that, I get to the point. It doesn't matter if he writes 12 stories, the series of Harry hole, independent novels like El reino, Blood sun, The heir, Blood in the snow, headhunters, versions of classics like Macbeth, children's books such as those of the Doctor proctor and even zarzuelas if he puts on, which is why he also has a band: Jo Nesbø does not fail.
Impossible to summarize or try to dissect everything that is in these 12 stories divided into two parts, jealousy and power. Actually, the main thing is that they revolve around these two concepts, but they are also reduced to those that are recurrent in his work and that he has pointed out many times: love and death, who since the Greek classics —and here their influence is seen again— are the ones who dominate the world with the help of the first two plus ambition.
To complete the task, make use of settings in cities as diverse as London, The greek kalymnos (the jealous man), nail dystopian Milan and El Alaiún (maculator) or our Pamplona and San Sebastian (cicadas) in some sanfermines literally fantastic. gets under the skin of abogados and post-apocalyptic gang kids (the island of rats), policemen, Immigrants, garbage cans (Trash), taxi drivers (The earpice), writers (Odd), psychopaths, medical researchers who seek cures for pandemics and end up crossing too many lines and erasing too many memories, or contract killers mercilessly as in London or marked for losses and forced to play diabolical chess games as in Black Horse.
And to finish it off, he introduces us to new universes with elements not just dystopian, but fantastic as in cicadas with its story of two friends who are actually time travelers. But no, they are not elements that surprise, not if you have read all of Nesbø's work.
Engraved
This is where one goes message for readers who have been left alone in Harry Hole because they have read someone else and they did not like it or they may consider it weaker. Yes, it's true, we all love Harry and it's true that he may have overshadowed the rest, but there is life beyond him. Of course, and fortunately, Nesbø has not been carried away more than by his desire to continue telling the stories he wants.
So it does not disappoint. At least not to whom we are fascinated by his style of narration and his uncompromising blackness and so macabre on several occasions—the dog moment of Black Horse it is to make him look at it. Not those of us who admire their ability to find and express with the same force a great humanity, tenderness and love in the deepest depths of that darkness. And not to those who continue to surprise and amaze us, no matter how much we know the trick, those script twists in the last pages or paragraphs, even lines. That masterful way to lead you to the deception which, however, has been warning you.
I prefer
It's difficult, because all the stories have touched me to a greater or lesser extent, because of the ingenuity and the plot, because of that rhythm. But I will put above the quoted Black Horse, which is the last. And above all Odd, a technical engineering work and a perfect portrait of who knows best: the a writer and his imagination. The smile of you-it-has-sneaked-but-well that I managed at the end I will not forget.
But I also emphasize the island of rats, which is rather a short novel, for its apocalyptic tone and atmosphere and that revenge —or justice, whatever you want to call it— at its end. Y cicadas, by the puzzle technique with the fantastic element of temporal paradoxes that, because of the black touch and the bold approach, is not absurd at all.
Ultimately
the jealous man es another sample more of Nesbø's signature ability to touch all genres and take them to their turf or give them their single tone.