Tuesday, November 13, 2018

An Elderly Lady Is up to No Good

An Elderly Lady Is up to No Good: Stories / Helene Tursten, trans. by Marlaine Delargy, 171 p.

Maud lives alone in a spacious apartment in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is 88, and, after a life of hard work teaching and acting as caretaker for her mentally ill sister, she lives exactly how she pleases.  And I do mean exactly.  That is to say that if someone - anyone - disturbs her pleasant routine, they may be in for an unpleasant surprise.  Written in the dry, no-nonsense style I've come to expect from a lot of Scandinavian writers, these little stories almost operate on the realm of moral fantasy.  What would it be like to live with no regard whatsoever for others?   I suppose I should say I was shocked and appalled.  I suspect Maud appeals because most readers have at least a little bit of her inside. 

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