Lindqvist writes atmospheric,
moody, and mildly cerebral horror set in Sweden. After his excellent work, Let
the Right One In, I was eager to read more. I read Harbor in early summer,
mostly while sitting beside the ocean in a place where the population has
exactly the kind of abusive loving relationship with the sea that the residents
of “The Harbor” enjoy.
The remote village of wherever
in Sweden sits on an isolated island, far from the bustle of Stockholm. The
residents are mostly fisherman, Coast Guard, lighthouse keepers, or smugglers,
all of whom make their living from the sea in one way or another. And it seems
that the sea is extracting a toll for its bounty…
The characters are less sordid
than those in Let the Right One In, but no less tragic, brokedown shells. The
writing is breezy, even in translation, though I cannot recall anything particularly
inspired in Lindqvist’s language.
I like the Swedish darkness and
the superb way in which Lindqvist uses setting to establish a consistent tone
and theme. I’m eager to read more of what he writes, and I need to remember to
ask my new friend, The Viking, about how Swedes perceive his work.
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