Sour on Swedes plus more on NoirCon
The wise and discerning keeper of the Crime Scraps Review blog, long a champion of Scandinavian crime fiction, asks after reading Autumn Killing by Mons Kallentoft: "Are we now getting the average Swedish crime novel translated simply because it is Swedish?"
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Back in Philadelphia, Jeremiah Healy is the latest NoirCon 2012 attendee to weigh in with his thoughts on the conference:
© Peter Rozovsky 2012"This will be my third NoirCon, and I attended the first two. I think my favorite story from the conference/convention was learning that David Goodis didn't just write noir: He also lived it, and probably more from desperation than enjoyment. ...
"NoirCon is different from most other conferences/conventions in that it is dedicated to a sub-genre of crime writing, something like the EyeCons (focusing on private-investigator fiction) sponsored by Gary Niebuhr and Ted Hertel in Milwaukee and Robert Randisi and Christine Matthews in St. Louis. As a result, it's like a wine-tasting dedicated to one varietal, say Pinot Noir (sorry), and therefore an event in which all the attendees have a common, if narrower, interest."
Labels: conventions, Crime Scraps, Jeremiah Healy, Mons Kallentoft, NoirCon, Noircon 2012, Sweden, Sweden crime fiction
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 1:17 AM
4 Comments:
I am new to Noir fiction but I love Noir films, so I need to add some of these to my to read list.
Also, great question about the Swedish novels. It is the question of more accessible literature versus quality accessible literature I suppose.
I'm dying to go to Noir Con. I thought this would be the year, but I ended up as PR person for an event happening around the same time. Maybe next year.
Becca, I always add new authors to my list when Noircon comes around. Most of my crime reading is from outside the U.S., so Noircon always a few exciting new names for me. My posts last week under the title "Why They're Coming to Noircon" might give you a few more suggestions.
As for the Swedish novels, I think the question is purely commercial. Publishers think Swedish and other Scandinavian crime novels sell, so Swedishness becomes a bigger consideration than quality when they decide what to publish.
In two years, Kelly. Noircon happens in alternate years, and I hope you're well-enough established in your job by this time in two years that you can take the time off.
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