vergangener dienstag

Im Busbahnhof drängten sich die Leute bis an die Türen. Menschen aller Art warteten auf Busse oder standen einfach herum; es waren eine Menge Indianer da, die alles mit ihren steinernen Augen beobachteten. Das Mädchen befreite sich von meinem Geschwätz und fand ihren Seemann und die anderen. Slim döste auf einer Bank. Ich setzte mich. Die Fußböden der Busbahnhöfe sind überall im Land die gleichen, immer mit Kippen und Spucke übersät; sie vermitteln einem ein trauriges Gefühl, das es so nur auf Busbahnhöfen gibt. Einen Moment lang kam es mir nicht anders vor als in Newark, abgesehen von der gewaltigen Weite dort draußen, die ich so liebte. Jetzt bereute ich, daß ich die Reinheit meiner ganzen Fahrt zerstört hatte, daß ich nicht jeden Cent gespart und daß ich herumgetrödelt hatte, ohne recht vorwärts zu kommen, daß ich mit diesem mürrischen Ding rumgeblödelt und mein ganzes Geld ausgegeben hatte. Es machte mich krank. So lange hatte ich nicht geschlafen, daß ich zu müde war, um zu fluchen und Theater zu machen; ich wollte nur schlafen und rollte mich auf der Bank zusammen, mit meinem Seesack als Kopfkissen, und schlief bis acht Uhr morgens durch, mitten im träumerischen Gemurmel und Lärm des Bahnhofs und der hundert und aberhundert vorbeilaufenden Menschen.

Das passt ganz gut in die Stimmung: unterwegs von jack kerouac

bitte lesen!

was für ein herrlicher Sonntag. Lese die letzten Seiten des dritten Bandes und hoffe inständig, dass sich alles auflöst. Leider starb Larsson 2004 und die Geschichte war auf zehn Bände konzipiert. Selten einen so verwickelt, spannenden Krimi gelesen.

Die Millenium Trilogie von Stieg Larsson:

Verblendung
Was geschah mit Harriet Vanger? Während eines Familientreffens spurlos verschwunden, bleibt ihr Schicksal jahrzehntelang ungeklärt. Bis der Journalist Mikael Blomkvist und die Ermittlerin Lisbeth Salander recherchieren. Was sie zutage fördern, lässt alle Beteiligten wünschen, sie hätten sich nie mit diesem Fall beschäftigt.

An seinem 82. Geburtstag erhält der einflussreiche Industrielle Henrik Vanger per Post anonym ein Geschenk. Das Paket enthält eine gepresste Blüte hinter Glas, genau wie in den 43 Jahren zuvor. Vangers Lieblingsnichte Harriet hatte ihm 1958 zum ersten Mal dieses Geschenk gemacht, doch dann verschwand sie spurlos. Ihr Leichnam wurde nie gefunden. In einer letzten Anstrengung beschließt Vanger herauszufinden, was dem geliebten Mädchen tatsächlich zustieß ...

Verdammnis
Mikael Blomkvist recherchiert in einem besonders brisanten Fall von Mädchenhandel, die Hintermänner bekleiden höchste Regierungsämter. Als sein Informant tot aufgefunden wird, fällt der Verdacht auf Blomkvists Partnerin Lisbeth Salander. Eine mörderische Hetzjagd beginnt. Der neue große Roman des preisgekrönten Bestsellerautors Stieg Larsson.

Ein ehrgeiziger junger Journalist bietet Mikael Blomkvist für sein Magazin "Millennium" eine Story an, die skandalöser nicht sein könnte. Amts- und Würdenträger der schwedischen Gesellschaft vergehen sich an jungen russischen Frauen, die gewaltsam ins Land geschafft und zur Prostitution gezwungen werden. Als sich Lisbeth Salander in die Recherchen einschaltet, stößt sie auf ein besonders pikantes Detail ...

Vergebung
Die Ermittlerin Lisbeth Salander steht unter Mordverdacht. Ihr Partner Mikael Blomkvist schwört, ihre Unschuld zu beweisen. Er weiß, dass es um Salanders Leben geht. Als seine Ermittlungen die schwedische Regierung in ihren Grundfesten zu erschüttern drohen, setzt er alles auf eine Karte. Nach "Verblendung" und "Verdammnis" der grandiose Höhepunkt der Trilogie um das Ermittlerduo Blomkvist und Salander.

dreams of summer

drood - dan simmons - gelesen dezember 2009

In 'Drood,' Dan Simmons makes some difficult choices. He tells the oft-told story of Dickens' life from the perspective of Wilkie Collins, in Simmons' novel (and in actuality), that of a pain-addled opium addict. There's an excess of actuality to deal with; Dickens life was incredibly complex, not surprisingly, Dickensian. To that add the imaginative riffs of Collins' hallucinations, the constant pain from his gout, the even greater pains of jealousy and Collins' certainty that he was good enough a writer to know he could never measure up to Dickens stature.

This is where 'Drood' begins, with an opening right out of the most ripping of yarns, a dramatic grabber that makes the reader question not Collins' sanity, but Dickens, followed by a spectacular set-piece right out of the Dickens bios. On June 9, 1865, Charles Dickens was on a train with the woman who may have been his paramour and her mother, when it ran off the rails and plunged into an abyss. Dickens was left hanging over the edge, and readers will be as well in this cleverly plotted and cunningly composed novel. Sure, at 784 pages, there are really two or three "normal" books stuffed into this cabinet of wonders. But each of them is a one hell of a gripping tale, and Simmons' architectural skill manages to get all the rooms under one tin-plated, roof replete with chimneys belching smoke into the skies and underground labyrinths that lead straight to hell.

Readers will know pretty much right off the bat if they're going to enjoy the novel because the tale is told in the consistently unreliable voice of Wilkie Collins. He's a hoot to be around, even if he's constantly in pain, and a good enough writer to make you feel his pain and that of everyone him. The conceit is that this manuscript has been withheld at Collins' request for 125 years. Now the true lies behind the last unfinished novel by Dickens, 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood,' can be told. It seems that Dickens met Drood in the pit beneath the Staplehurst disaster, as he tried to help victim. Drood, described as looking something like the figure of Edward Munch's The Scream brought to life may or may not still be human or actually alive, but he is according to Dickens' and Collins' real-life police contact, Charles Frederick Field, the nastiest serial murderer London has never heard of. And now he is in the lives of both Dickens and Collins; and that;'s just the Spook story aspect of 'Drood.' Threaded through 'Drood' as well are a superbly entertaining Dickens biography and a portrait of literary competition and innovation at the dawn of genre fiction as we know it today.

Simmons' nails Collins' voice in the opening sentence and keeps the high-wire act up for another 783 pages. It's his funniest book to date, with a generous sense of humor that keeps the tone light even when the going gets pretty heavy — and in a book this size, you can bet there are more than a few dire moments. Simmons has set himself a very difficult task and it wasn't until the moment I began to write this review that I realized just how successful he is. On one hand, he's got to set a seriously Victorian tone to his prose. But he's an American writer, and he has to be careful not to seem too contrived or arcane. By choosing Collins — a thoroughly modern man even by our 21st-century standards — as his tale-teller, he gets to steep his readers in the atmosphere while keeping the language accessible. There are lots of parts of this book that readers will want to read aloud, and not just the fairly significant number of quotes, letters and speeches straight out of history.

The characters, and as you might expect, there are lots of them, are nonetheless easy enough to keep track of. Moreover, they're all a joy to be around, especially with Wilkie as your guide. Charles Frederick Field, the real-life inspiration for Dickens' Inspector Bucket from 'Bleak House' and Collins' Sergeant Cuff, from 'The Moonstone' is a gruff but complicated figure. Women didn't fare very well in those times and they don’t do so hot in this novel either, but they live, breathe and often scheme with some success. Collins points out that the name "Drood" sound a lot liker the word "dread" and Simmons, a skilled horror writer, ensures he lives up to his implications.

Given that 'Drood' will function as many readers' first Dickens biography, Simmons is to be congratulated on his integration of history and fantasy. There's certainly a good deal of history to be found here. It's entertainingly written and cunningly researched. Readers who pick up 'Drood' should do so with the knowledge that they're getting more than just a single story, more than just a single, straightforward novel. One probably shouldn’t make too much of the fact that Dickens' life was positively Dickensian; but it's not to be ignored either. If you're the sort of reader who enjoys a good digression, this is your banquet, because in 'Drood,' the digressions are served up with a good deal more than a soupcon of surreal imagery mixed with out-and-out obvious lies and hallucinations. The plot takes a crooked path, but also lots of drugs, and that makes the getting there a lot of fun.

As 'Drood' lurches forth across a tortured landscape, Simmons doesn't just bury the knife, he twists it early and often. Fiction is, after all, lies and pain and illusion. The cost is great. In these times, it will require quite a bit of time to read 'Drood,' even if the pages turn very fast, and they do indeed. But how to value new dreams and old nightmares? How to count the cost of creation, how do we assess literary innovation then and now? Read the book; then go back and visit the landscapes that unfold in your mind. The lives you have lived are real. Pages, ages and price; what are they compared to memory?