The Man Who Left Too Soon
The Biography of Stieg Larsson
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- ¥850
発行者による作品情報
In the Man Who Left Too Soon, top crime fiction journalist Barry Forshaw gives us a fascinating insight into the life and works of this difficult, brilliant and multifaceted man. His best-selling books are violent, terrifying, brilliantly written and have sold millions of copies around the world, but Stieg Larsson was not there to witness any of their international success. That his fame is entirely posthumous demonstrates the dizzying speed with which his star has risen. However, when one looks a little deeper at the man behind these phenomenal novels, it becomes clear that Larsson's life would have been remembered as extraordinary even if his Millennium Trilogy had never been published. Larsson was a workacholic: a keen politcal activist, photographer, graphic desinger, a respected journalist and editor of numerous science fiction magazines...and at night, to relax after work, he wrote thrillers. As the world now knows, he had completed his third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by the time of his death at just 50 years of age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edinburgh Insp. John Rebus is far and away the greatest creation of best-selling author Ian Rankin, but neither the brooding, dogged detective nor his creator is well-served by this amateurish book. Cabell begins with an interesting premise: "I'm simply interested in the man and his creation here and the parallels between them." There are parallels, and Cabell strives mightily to unearth how Rankin developed his popular character (Rebus was "retired" in the 2007 novel Exit Music) through a combination of close reading of the books and interviews. But the results are rarely satisfactory. The writing is sloppy, and the insight isn't insightful enough to really "explain" the riddle that is John Rebus. Some of the best observations come from Rankin himself ("I think Rebus joined the Police Force because it allowed him to be a voyeur it allowed him to look into other people's lives rather than look into his own."). Cabell is better when he explores Rankin's other main character, Scotland, and, in particular, Edinburgh and the stark contrast between its public, tourist-friendly face and its background of crime and corruption. (He also provides some literary insight, pointing out the connections between Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Rankin novels Knots and Crosses and Hide and Seek.) The volume includes nice photos of Rankin and Rebus's Edinburgh haunts as well as summaries of Rankin TV shows and a Rankin bibliography.
