Nordic Noir: Dr. Jerry Holt on Crime Fiction in Bergen
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Join us for a journey into Nordic crime fiction or noir with Dr. Jerry Holt as our guide. Fiction has the ability to transport us into worlds, cultures, geography, and the thoughts of heroes and villains that non-fiction just can’t touch. And we are changed by those stories. At a time when we are home-bound due to social distancing, catching up on your reading has never been better. In Norway, this is the time of påskekrim, that spate of dedicated crime fiction reading that occurs around Easter. Really, it’s a thing.
Dr. Holt is a professor at Purdue University NW who led a trip of Norwegian noir readers to Bergen, Norway, where they had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk the streets and visit the crime scenes with the authors who created private detective Varg Veum, and Inspector Konrad Sejer, among others. What would it be like to meet your favorite authors and pick their brain about what the characters were really thinking? What life experiences did these authors draw upon? What is special about certain parts of the city and surrounding areas? For myself, I would love to visit Restaurant Schroder in Oslo, the favorite hangout of Jo Nesbø’s famous police detective, Harry Hole.
To wrap up, we catch a “driveway concert” by a trio in a neighborhood of Mukilteo, Washington. They decided to perform for the neighborhood at large during this time of quarantine, and they’ve cleverly named themselves Six Feet Back.
We also have some Nordic noir reading recommendations for you, as does the April 3rd edition (2020) of the Norwegian-American News at norwegianamerican.com. Check them out!
Links
Nordic Noir: Scandinavian Crime Fiction website with bios on Gunnar Staalesen, Karin Fossum, Trude Teige, and Alex Dahl among many others (I’m a Jo Nesbø fan, myself).
“Crime time: Norwegian Easter equals brutal murders” (sounds grim, but it’s tongue in cheek) the Visit Norway website’s explanation for this extremely popular pastime.
The Noir Connection, article by Jerry Holt in the Norwegian American News, about Dr. Holt’s class that travelled to Bergen to meet local authors. You may be invited to subscribe if you viewed other articles already.
Jerry Holt’s Nordic Nordic noir picks for winter reading, in the Norwegian American News. You may be invited to subscribe if you viewed other articles already.
A Journey into Norwegian Noir, by Jerry Holt, (Norwegian American News) also describes Bergen’s noir scene.
The Youtube channel of the Six Feet Back Band from Mukilteo, WA, with Nick Ericson, Jared McFarlane (at left) on toreador button accordion and fiddle, and with others on flute and bass. These are the great folks who played in this Nordic on Tap podcast.
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