Depths [Hardcover]

 

 

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It can be difficult when your favorite author (Mankell) leaves off writing about your favorite character (Kurt Wallender) but in The Depths, Mankell makes the leap of faith worthwhile, even exhilarating.

This is an amazing book by an amazing writer who continues to develop his craft with fearless forays into the unknown when he could quite successfully remain with his tried and true Wallender. Wallender is so popular that a series starring Kenneth Brannagh has been developed for television. I can only suppose that Mankell's exploration of the middle aged male archetype through the Wallender character has reached a standstill and, since Mankell MUST continue to explore this psyche, he requires a different genre and venue in which to do so. Hurray for Mankell. It is working. We too can now explore deeper into our own psyches thanks to this exceptional story that reveals the naked face of the secret heart as it struggles to learn who it is.

The depth of emotionalism that pervades The Depths is breathtaking. Just relax into the hands of the master and enjoy the intellectual and the surprisingly sensual ride!

It is October, 1914. The Great War between Germany and Britain has just begun. German and Russian warships have been spotted off the coast of Sweden by fishermen. Lars Tobiasson-Svartman boards the Swedish destroyer SVEA on a secret mission to measure the depths of the naval channels that approach Stockholm in the event that neutral Sweden becomes involved in the war. His mission is urgent and vital as the submarine now presents a danger that could potentially reach Stockholm undetected. Sweden is in a state of fear and uncertainty; wanting to "switch off all their lighthouses and creep down into our burrows". But they cannot.

Tobiasson-Svartman is a hydrographic engineer, not a military man, although he is given the rank of Commander for this mission. Tobiasson-Svartman is....well....... complicated. His wife, Kristina, feels more comfortable being naked in front of him than of crying in front of him and dotes on him like a mother in their apartment, filled with crystal figurines, in Gothenburg. He says he loves her but that he doesn't know what love is. He seldom laughs and constantly wonders if he has been made of "faulty clay".

This mission fulfills one of his greatest dreams. Years before, as a younger man, he charted the depths of these channels but now the urgency is real. This validates and justifies Tobiasson-Svartman's idiosyncratic and analytical nature and choice of career. But nothing yet in his experience has validated him as a man. What he anticipates even more than the task to come is the journey of discovery into something entirely more personal; discovering the greatest depth of all, his knowledge of his own nature.

Tobiasson-Svartman is soon transferred to the gunboat BLINDA where he is given the Captain's cabin. He conceals his nervousness by appearing strict and angry. Insecurity is the prevalent theme of his life. He cautiously observes and acts like he thinks he should while he measures himself against "real men", Captain Rake and Lt. Jakobsson. His genuine but secret surprise at being accorded acceptance and respect on board ship reflects a visceral, almost adolescent insecurity. His lack of genuine intimacy with his wife; his self imposed emotional distancing from his now dead father; his peeping tom behavior with a woman he discovers living on a rocky island and his subsequent sexual fascination with her- all portray an adolescent or young male without a formed identity and yet suffused with a deep intellect, purpose and a gripping need for sexual exploration. Tobiasson-Svartman feels like a phony or at best, invalidated as a man. He is not a freak but represents the fearful hollowness of many grown people, men and women, who find themselves grown up but subjected to unrelenting insecurity due to their lack of self knowledge. This is a result of Tobiasson-Svartman's family of origin and made worse by his high intellect and exacting analytical nature. He fears yet desires to find his own depth. This is the true essence of The Depths.

Unfortunately, what Tobiasson-Svartman discovers in this wild and uncensored environment; newly bestowed with an authority that he has not had time or experience to own; the exploration of his own depths will take him beyond his capacity to cope and lead to his own self-destruction and severe consequences for his wife and the object of his desire, the wild woman living alone in the Swedish archipelago.

This novel exudes atmosphere; from the rugged, wild coastline of the country; the anxiety and electrical energy of a people on the periphery of a world war; the graphic description of the playing out of one's basic nature in a wild environment that evokes the energy and dedication of a rural youth playing outside in the wilderness. This is a story unlike anything I have ever read and it is very highly recommended.

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