The Bat by Jo Nesbo - Book review
Finally managed to grab a copy of the first book of the Harry Hole series. As I keep mentioning on the other book reviews of the series, there is a lingering sense of a drama series that grows and matures in front of our eyes as one ploughs through the lot. In a typical drama series turnaround where some of the mid-season storyline traces back to the “origins” and where it all started kind of a setup, reading “Bat” gives the exact same feel.
From what I understand, despite being the first book of the series, it was translated into English pretty late. But it’s probably the best translated of the lot and the smallest as well, running a shade over 340 pages in size. Not just the title for the book, even the chapter headings have weird titles across all the books in the series. In Bat its even funnier. Harry Hole is addressed as Harry Holy by everyone and even by himself as well !!! Somehow, the character who gets projected as a morbid, solemn, mature and arrogant across the rest of the series, comes across as a young and impulsive lad in this book. I can’t put a finger on what made me think like that, but somehow in the course of narration, this was the picture that emerged. As a highlighter to many such alcoholic binges, Harry gets drunk to his heart and liver’s content and makes a mess, of many more to follow on subsequent novels. Despite relatively shorter running span of under 350 pages, there are still so many sections and discussions, that could’ve been chopped off to make the book even lighter. The serial killer from this initial novel, finds mention on almost every single one of the subsequent books. But never felt worth the hype. Even the supposedly shocker of a twist on who the villain is felt watered down. What starts as a single murder investigation which drags Harry all the way to Australia, digresses as a plot across so many themes, ranging from cultural identity of Aborigines, LGBT demography of Sydney and how “white” Australians deals with such a potpourri of cultures and ethnicities.
As an investigative thriller, Bat is hardly inspiring. But as an origin story, it ticks all the right boxes of how Harry the famed detective of Oslo, started to grew into the “legend” that he is being addressed as. Moving on to the final book of the series for me, which is the second one in sequence from start – Cockroaches.
From what I understand, despite being the first book of the series, it was translated into English pretty late. But it’s probably the best translated of the lot and the smallest as well, running a shade over 340 pages in size. Not just the title for the book, even the chapter headings have weird titles across all the books in the series. In Bat its even funnier. Harry Hole is addressed as Harry Holy by everyone and even by himself as well !!! Somehow, the character who gets projected as a morbid, solemn, mature and arrogant across the rest of the series, comes across as a young and impulsive lad in this book. I can’t put a finger on what made me think like that, but somehow in the course of narration, this was the picture that emerged. As a highlighter to many such alcoholic binges, Harry gets drunk to his heart and liver’s content and makes a mess, of many more to follow on subsequent novels. Despite relatively shorter running span of under 350 pages, there are still so many sections and discussions, that could’ve been chopped off to make the book even lighter. The serial killer from this initial novel, finds mention on almost every single one of the subsequent books. But never felt worth the hype. Even the supposedly shocker of a twist on who the villain is felt watered down. What starts as a single murder investigation which drags Harry all the way to Australia, digresses as a plot across so many themes, ranging from cultural identity of Aborigines, LGBT demography of Sydney and how “white” Australians deals with such a potpourri of cultures and ethnicities.
As an investigative thriller, Bat is hardly inspiring. But as an origin story, it ticks all the right boxes of how Harry the famed detective of Oslo, started to grew into the “legend” that he is being addressed as. Moving on to the final book of the series for me, which is the second one in sequence from start – Cockroaches.
Comments
I will search in my library for this one. If its only 340 pages, it must be a decent read !