Rating: 5/5
Review:
A very good read
I thought American By Day was very good in the end. It is very well written, witty, engaging and
thoughtful.
Be warned that this is the sequel to Norwegian By Night and
the first 50 pages or so form a very extensive spoiler, so I'd recommend
reading Norwegian By Night first. In
fact, I found the opening rather a struggle, with a lot of slightly
unconvincing recapping and scene-setting.
However, when the protagonist Sigrid arrives in the USA
from Norway to
find out what has happened to her brother, things really begin to take
off. This is largely because of Sheriff
Irv Wylie, who is an absolutely brilliant character; a Divinity scholar turned
policeman he is wise, erudite and very funny.
Sigrid's very Norwegian, down-to-earth analytical approach makes a great
contrast, and the result is a delight.
A good, engaging crime story evolves, but the real meat of
this book is a thoughtful, humane but unsparing look at aspects of US
society. Set in the run-up to the 2008
Presidential elections, there is some really fine analysis of race relations
especially, but some shrewd observations on all sorts of other aspects of
American life, too; food, gun control, the meaning of "freedom" and
so on. There are some very familiar
tropes of political interference, media misrepresentation causing serious
community problems, and others, but they are handled with such insight and lack
of cliché that it all felt very fresh.
American By Day developed into a very good book indeed and
despite an unpromising beginning, it deserves five stars. Warmly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment