about himself
about Gunnar Staalesen
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Gunnar Staalesen's position in Norwegian literature is virtually unparalleled. This productive author's books are top sellers and through translation into sundry languages have transcended the country's borders. Using poetic realism he highlights contemporary life, most often from a critical perspective, and sketches a cross-section of the social relations within which we operate. As a vehicle he has chosen the crime novel, not as a goal, but as a method. Consequently, he has contributed to making the genre respectable in this country. Furthermore, the fact that it reaches a larger public than most other literary forms is hardly considered a shortcoming by the author.
It didn't begin with crime, but rather a kind of lyrical modernism colored by beat-literary modes of expression. The narrator of his 1969 debut novel, Uskyldstider ("Times of innocence"), a budding poet in his late teens, recounts and reexperiences his childhood innocence while undergoing a period of disintegration, distance, questioning and longing. Also the 1971 Fortellingen om Barbara ("Barbara's story") treats lost innocence and a search for identity, yet the depiction seems more reserved, more intentionally literary, and moreover demonstrates a concern with contemporary politics. The main character in Uskyldstider prophesies that one day he will write a crime novel about "a women's disappearing act". One refusal and six years later, Gunnar Staalesen has taken him at his word. Rygg i rand, to i span ("Side by side, two in a bind") from 1975 wins second prize in Gyldendal's crime competition, and Bergen is on the way to becoming Norway's most important arena for fictional offenses. With great skill Staalesen exploits the city's unique topography and social divisions, its damp midnight streets and narrow twisting alleys, the distinctive character of the city's various districts and the "rain city's" climactic peculiarity. Better staging than the contrasts offered by Bergen can't be found for an author wishing to transplant hard-boiled American crime to Norwegian soil. For this was Staalesen's driving ambition. That he begins with police novels is a consequence of a demand for local verisimilitude. A more proximate model can be found in Swedish Sjöwall and Wahlöö's ten volume strong "Roman om ett brott" (Story of a crime). But it was in New York's Harlem and Chester Himes that the crime-writing debutant found models for Dumbo and Maskface and first lieutenants Henrik Abel Olsen and Kristian Jensen. The 1970's were a golden epoch and the crime novel an ideal medium for writers desirous of exposing social inequities. Police officers and detectives frequent all social strata and milieus without seeming conspicuous, something nigh impossible for most protagonists. Yet a plainly ironic distance to the genre marks the early books, as if Staalesen doesn't quite dare believe in his own experiment. The Dumbo-Maskface team appears in three novels. They undoubtedly experience more action and drama than Bergen's police were exposed to at that time, yet not more than is believable. Clever intrigues, skillful staging, strong local color, linguistic freshness and a solid portion of situation comedy and verbal humor gave the books a unique identity. The mysteries are based more on classic Agatha Christie than on an American model, and for the moment the social criticism is less prominent. Nevertheless, Staalesen distinguishes himself as an exciting, unusual and metaphor-keen voice in our domestic crime choir. The police novel, however, has its limitations. The investigations can seem routine, moreover the story must begin with the crime, since the police cannot step in before it has taken place. Staalesen, who emphasizes emotional relations, wanted to come in closer to his characters. The solution lay in a first person narrator, and thereby were the foundations laid for the private detective. Varg Veum makes his debut in Bukken til havresekken (1977), which opens thus: "In the beginning was the office, and in the office I sat." The prototype is Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, with whom is also shared a proclivity for female murderers. Yet where Chandler's novels resolve in individual anguish, social chaos and the triumph of evil, with his Bergen colleague cases are cracked and criminals punished. Staalesen lays greater emphasis than his role model on intrigue development based on clear and logical cause and reaction, and in Veum he has created a fast-talking spokesman for his own social criticism, which now becomes more perceptible. Veum is a petty-bourgeois idealist, a divorced, slightly alcoholic ex-social worker well versed in life's darker side. Behind his rough exterior and sharp verbal sallies, both typical genre markers, hides a warm-hearted and sensitive person with a strongly developed social conscience and an unflagging solidarity with the common people. In contrast with many series figures he is in constant development, aging and changing in step with his originator. Disillusioned and lonely already in his first novel, his condition deteriorates throughout the authorship. The private detective with the office at Strandkaien 2, 4th floor, is in many ways an outsider; he lives in, but not with society. Bergen is his stomping ground, with occasional forays to neighboring locales. Two times he has operated on strange turf - Stavanger in Kvinnen I kjøleskapet ("The woman in the icebox") and Oslo in Begravde hunder biter ikke ("Buried dogs don't bite") - but he seems to be at his best between the seven mountains. Already in his second Veum book Staalesen demonstrates the potential for the hard-cooked genre in our own latitudes. The 1979 Din til døden ("Yours until Death") is one of the most superb examples of Norwegian crime literature ever written; as much a story of love and betrayal as of alienation and angst. As the two planes in the book are intimately interwoven and combined with proficient milieu portrayals, the depiction acquires a singular but credible tone. Romance and contact-seeking Veum is blinded this time by his feelings, so intensely involved in some of the characters that he becomes indirectly responsible for a murder. However, in contrast to Marlowe, none of the culpable goes free. With I mørket er alle ulver grå ("At Night All Wolves are Grey") from 1983, Staalesen goes a step further in his attempt to expunge the division between crime and "serious" literature. In this complex plot three cases from contrasting epochs are sifted together, the tempo is muted and long paragraphs appear which have no direct connection with the intrigue. The social perspective is broadened, and some of Veum's comments seem more frankly political than before. After 13 years as information secretary for Den Nationale Scene, in 1987 Staalesen became a full-time author. Behind him he had his first theatrical works, the crime-musical Knut Gribb tar Bergenstoget ("Knut Gribb takes the Bergen train"), and the lively comedy Vaskerelvens Rose. Later followed Fredag den trettende ("Friday the thirteenth"), in which a crime author unravels a murder case in best Agatha Christie style. Radio plays there have also been, both independent and based on the novels. His most forceful stage work, however, is his dramatization of Amalie Skram's celebrated novel Hellemyrsfolket. Furthermore, together with composer Ketil Hvoslef Staalesen has penned a chamber opera, Døde sardiner ("Dead sardines"). With colleague Fredrik Skagen he created Dødelig Madonna (1993) in which Morten Martens and Veum team up to take care of business on Hurtigruten (the Norwegian coastal ship line). In collaboration with Willy Dahl and Erling T. Gjelsvik he completed "Bergens Mysterier", begun by the young Bernhard Roggen in 1845. He had lured his readers with the promise "To be continued", something it didn't do until 150 years later when this trio pooled their talents. As editor for J.W.Eide's crime and suspense series and later Gyldendal's Svart Serie ("Black Series"), this diligent author has also contributed to spreading interest for other crime writers. Not even youth literature has been left untried by Staalesen. During the nineties he created a "robber novel" trilogy, inspired by the adventurous boys' books he himself had grown up with. Two Bergen teenagers are sent on an exotic search for lost Viking treasure. Pursued by a gang of dangerous bandits, they land in a situation as exciting as it is improbable. This is no attempt at modernization of the genre; the narratives bear an undeniably traditional character. All of these are nevertheless only deviations from the Veum-project, which with a certain degree of regularity has steered the author's life. The ambitious 1989 Falne engler ("Fallen angels") broke new ground. The moral and existential perspectives begin to push the social one into the background. The detective with whom we have become acquainted book by book is here equipped with a childhood, for from now on Veum becomes increasingly interesting as a person - to a certain extent at the expense of the cases he takes on. We are taken deeper into his world and made participants in his reflections over everyday existence. Characteristic - and problematic - for this turn is that crime is increasingly separated from society and allotted individual, moral explanations. Veum-novels of the nineties confirm this tendency, yet even so themes such as environmental crime, shady financial manipulations and child prostitution indicate that the social engagement and critique have by no means withered. Regardless, Veum has aged, is more tired and pessimistic, is no longer the same rebel as before, nor as hard-hitting. Ten novels and two story collections have no doubt taken their toll on both our "hero" and his creator. In light of the Veum-series' development, the leap over to the expansive 1900's chronicle is less dramatic than might initially be thought. 1900. Morgenrød ("1900. Sunrise"), 1950. High Noon and the still-in-progress finale cast up an immense screen on which Bergen and its inhabitants are followed throughout the entire 19th century. With social pathos, impressive detail and considerable narrative enthusiasm a plethora of destinies are painted. The cast of characters in this city-family portrait is ample and has been recruited from all strata of the populace, and Staalesen is adept in his ability to play on local idiosyncrasies as much as dramatic events in the life of the city. Also in these collective novels the action is carried forward and a structural function provided by one or more crime-mysteries. Varg Veum makes an appearance, no doubt so that in the final volume he might solve the introductory New Year murder. However, the emphasis clearly rests upon the historical, social and existential elements, and it must be said that the crime aspects are not the most intriguing in this saga. When Varg Veum turned 42, Gunnar Staalesen expressed in an interview that, theoretically, the anti-hero should manage to tough it out until he was 60. October 15, 2002 the weary private eye in Telthussmuget reaches retirement age … Jan H. Landro cultural journalist of Bergens Tidende, specialising in literature. Formerly chief editor of a publishing company. Translated by Deborah Miller
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