Welcome to the sixth of my 'Reading the Rainbow' posts (halfway through!), in which I take the books I received in my 2023 book advent - each cover representing a different colour - and review them for you!
June is ORANGE and the book is Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd by Jonas Jonasson.
Read on to find out more...
Blurb: The brand-new adventure from the beloved author of The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.
Victor Alderheim has a lot to answer for. Not only has he heartlessly tricked his young ex-wife, Jenny, out of her art gallery inheritance, but he has also abandoned his son, Kevin, to die in the middle of the Kenyan savanna.
It doesn't occur to Victor that Kevin might be rescued and adopted by a Maasai medicine man, or that he might be expected to undergo the rituals expected of all new Maasai warriors – which have him running back to Stockholm as fast as you can say circumcision without anaesthetic.
Back in Stockholm, Kevin's path crosses with Jenny's – and they have an awful lot to talk about, not least a shared desire to get even with Victor. So it's convenient when they run into a man selling revenge services, who has an ingenious idea involving Victor's cellar, a goat, some forged paintings, four large boxes of sex toys, and a kilo of flour …
Review: I haven't read any of Jonas Jonasson's novels before so wasn't sure what to expect from this story - maybe some sort of comic crime caper, judging by the cover and blurb?
While this technically is what I got, the book is more reminiscent of a stage farce, with characters popping on and off from the wings, conveniently missing each other by minutes and constantly mucking up each other's plans, more by accident than design.
The tone of the book is one of dry, sarcastic humour - which I would normally love - but the narrative voice is strangely detached and, when combined with a cast of either extremely or somewhat unlikable characters, this makes it hard to really immerse yourself in the story and get invested in the outcome.
There is lots of loving discussion about art, artists and the valuation of art works which I found very interesting but between that and the detailed character (and there are LOTS of characters!) backstories, the pace of the story is rather slow, long-winded and meandering.
Despite this, it's still quite a fun bit of escapism and I do love the idea of a revenge bureau, even if this book shows it doesn't quite work, even on paper!
Amaryllis grew everywhere except where Ole happened to be looking on this particular day. But it was a beautiful morning and the birds were welcoming it at full volume. There was something religious about the whole experience. Ole Mbatian had great faith in God. Thanks to his faith, he wasn't frightened, only happy, when a nearly full-grown man fell from the heavens and landed at his feet.
'Thank you, Lord,' he said, picking up the black-and-blue boy.
- Jonas Jonasson, Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd
About the author:
Jonas Jonasson was a journalist for the Expressen newspaper for many years. He became a media consultant and later on set up a company producing sports and events for Swedish television. He sold his company and moved abroad to work on his first novel. Jonasson now lives on the Swedish island Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Website: https://jonasjonasson.com/
X/Twitter: https://x.com/jonasjonasson
No comments:
Post a Comment