In the fall of 2017, the detective thriller "Snowman", shot based on the book by Yu Nesbe, appeared on the movie screens. This work is quite popular not only at home, but also abroad. Let's find out what this novel is about, how it was perceived by domestic readers, whether viewers liked its adaptation.
Popular Norwegian writer Yu Nesbe
First of all, you should find out a little information about the author of the book "Snowman" - Norwegian novelist Yu Nesba. After all, as they say, in every hero there lives a piece of the soul of its creator.
The writer was born in 1960 in the capital of Norway, Oslo, however, he spent his childhood in the commune city of Molde.
At birth, Nesba was given the name Jo, which is translated into Russian as "Yu."
From childhood, the future novelist was fond of sports (football) and literature. At the same time, he studied at Yu school poorly. Accordingly, the grades did not allow him to go to university, so the young man had to go into the army.
Having given his debt to his homeland, Nesbe studied to be an economist at the School of Economics and Business Administration, and began to work in his specialty. In parallel, he wrote articles for some publications, and also performed with the musical group Di Derre.
In 1997, the first book about detective Harry Hall was released - Bat. She was praised by critics and readers.
After such a successful debut, Yu Nesbe began to publish almost every year on the novel dedicated to the adventures of this detective, which became a kind of visiting card of the writer.
Who is Harry Hall?
Having learned about the author of the work, it’s worth talking about the main character of Nesba’s book “The Snowman”.
To date, Harry Hall has devoted 11 novels.
What is so special about this hero? It is noteworthy that many critics equate him with Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
According to many readers and literary critics, Hole is a fashionable in recent decades, asocial personality type. He is a heavy smoker and alcoholic. Does not respect the authorities and is not inclined to obey other people's orders. At the same time, Harry is a brilliant detective who was able to find more than one dangerous criminal and save many innocent lives. In general, by modern standards, cinema and literature is a typical brutal macho, from which many beauties lose their heads.
What is his biography? Hole was born in 1965. He has a sister, Cec, with Down Syndrome, their mother died of cancer when Harry was twenty years old. He never had a close relationship with his father. The hero has very few friends, but there are many enemies and their number is constantly growing.
Women, although they sympathize with him, however, Hole did not succeed in having a family. So what to become a closed alcoholic character from what.
Most Harry novels have to look for serial killers. And he does this not only in his homeland, but also in Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and other countries. Moreover, most often the events of the cycle occur in the author’s hometown - Oslo.
Nesbe's book "The Snowman"
This novel was first published in 2007. In Russia, the translation of the detective was released in 2010.
The Snowman (Snømannen) is the seventh part of the epic dedicated to Harry Hall. She is in the gap between the books "Savior" and "Leopard".
One of the features of this work is that it is dedicated to the capture of the first serial maniac in Norway.
Plot
Before you get feedback on Nesbe's The Snowman, it’s worth considering its contents.
The action in the work takes place in parallel in 1980 and 2004. The plot of the eighties tells about the formation of the character of a maniac. In the two thousandth, we are talking about trying to catch him.
The action begins with the fact that Harry Hole is trying to find the missing housewife a year ago.
Soon he is faced with the disappearance of another married woman - Birta Becker.
After looking at similar unsolved crimes, the inspector discovers that they are committed after the first snow falls in the city. In addition, not far from the home of the disappeared, someone sculpts snowmen.
Comparing these facts and conducting polls more diligently, Hole concludes that he is dealing with a serial maniac who has been operating in Norway for many years.
Soon, a new employee in their department, Katrina Bratt, joins Harry's investigation. She clearly sympathizes with the protagonist, and the inspector himself is fascinated by her. At the same time, Khol is in a difficult relationship with Raquel. They broke up a long time ago and the woman already has a respectable groom - Matias. However, all this does not prevent the loving beauty from visiting Harry.
In the process of investigation, the hero finds a pattern in the choice of victims - they were all not just married ladies, but cheated on their husbands. Because of what the fathers of their children were lovers.
Suspicion of the investigation falls on different people.
- To Dr. Idar Vetlesen.
- On one of the cuckolds - Professor Philip Becker.
- On the loving journalist Arve Step, who managed to direct the horns to more than one spouse.
- In addition to these suspects, police believe that the assassin may be Gert Rafto, a detective who investigated the first snowman crime many years ago.
- In addition, Harry enters Katrina’s apartment and finds there a lot of strange things, including a draft of the letter that the maniac sent her.
Who is the killer?
Those who want to make their own opinion, not based on reviews of the book "The Snowman", but after reading it, it is better to skip this section, because it will examine the main secret of the novel - who is the killer?
This is a man who in 1980 accidentally found a mother with a lover and, due to a special genetic anomaly (lack of nipples), realized that he was his real father. However, in addition to such a piquant detail, the boy inherited from a man a rare genetic disease. It means that his life will be short and painful.
Having realized this, the child blames the unfaithful mother for all his misfortunes and adjusts the car accident, deciding to die with her. But the unfortunate manages to survive. Now he decides to punish all traitors who force husbands to raise other people's children. And babies themselves are often "awarded" with incurable diseases.
After the first victim, the man draws close to Herth Rafto and kills him. The maniac hastily hides the body of the investigator, and for many years he is considered the killer.
However, Rafto’s daughter, Katrina, does not believe in the guilt of her father. She changes her last name and is transferred to Oslo. He finds Hole and, writing him a message on behalf of the Snowman, forces the inspector to take up the investigation.
However, her actions are misinterpreted by the police and the woman is arrested on suspicion of murder.
Meanwhile, the maniac continues his bloody business and Harry resumes the investigation. Evidence leads him to the groom Raquel - Matthias.
It turns out that the symptoms of his incurable disease began to progress in recent years. To ensure his enchanting care, the killer decided to play with Hole in the end. A case brought him to Raquel, whose son Oleg fell ill. Upon learning that the woman also conceived the boy on the side, Matthias decided to make her the final victim, to annoy the inspector.
Fortunately, Harry Hall managed to stop the maniac and save Raquel. True, in the process of struggle, he deprives the detective of the middle finger on his hand.
Positive feedback on the book Nesbe "The Snowman"
Judging by the number of copies sold, this novel managed to interest readers. The overwhelming majority of them praise the work in their reviews of Yu Nesba's book “The Snowman”.
In addition to an intricate detective story in which it is not easy to understand who the real criminal is, readers speak well of the atmosphere of the novel. It is called "creepy", "mystical", "cooling blood in the veins." So, one of the readers admitted that while reading the detective, she was trembling with genuine horror.
In addition, in their reviews of the book "The Snowman", some said that her plot prompted them to further study data on Norway. As a result, it turned out that indeed in this country more than 10% of children in marriages were born from lovers (and these are only identified cases).
In addition, due to the unfavorable climate, few foreigners seek to emigrate to this country. Therefore, there is not enough updating of the genetic material and it turns out that most of the inhabitants of Norway are distant relatives of each other. This leads to the progression of hereditary diseases in the country, which currently number more than forty.
Thus, the most persistent readers of the novel (having carried out their own investigation) were convinced that Nesbe carefully prepared the plot basis for the novel, which they did not fail to write in their reviews.
Considering the reviews about the book "Snowman", you can notice an interesting feature. Most of those who leave positive comments about her are women. It’s hard to explain why. Perhaps they just have more time and desire to write reviews. And maybe, tired of everyday troubles, many of the fair sex are not averse to tickle your nerves and test your own observantness by reading a detective thriller.
By the way, many admitted that by the middle of the novel they suspected who was a maniac. But despite this, Nesba deftly managed to knock them off the trail. Moreover, for the ability to confuse the tracks, the author was praised especially often.
What did not like in the novel?
In fairness, it is worth recognizing that not all reviews of the book "Snowman" praise her. So, sometimes you can come across negative comments about her. True, the lion's share of their authors openly admits that the reason for their dissatisfaction with the novel was too high expectations.
In addition, some readers criticize too predictable (in their opinion) plot moves. For example, it could hardly be considered a coincidence that Katrina and Geert Rafto come from the same city.
Some of the negative reviews are devoted to the implausibility of the finale. So, in it, Harry had to hang over the abyss, handcuffed and holding the body of a killer. However, he did not even pull the ligament. Although, logically, I would have to break my arm from such a load.
Despite the shortcomings noted and a certain proportion of negative reviews, the overall mass of the novel was well received by Russian-speaking readers. For example, based on the reviews of the book “The Snowman” at LitMir, she was given a rather high rating of 9.24. This indicates that the majority of the reading population were satisfied with the Nesbe novel.
Reviews about the main character
In their reviews of The Snowman, many of its readers actively discussed the character of Harry Hall. However, he received not only praise and admiration, but also criticism.
So, some were indignant about the excessive attention of the author to the description of the degrees of intoxication of this hero.
Also in their reviews, many noted that Hole is not unique in its kind, but only corresponds to the modern fashion for asocial protagonists.
At the same time, even the most severe critics could not disagree that the character of Harry is spelled out very well. He looks like a real living person, with a bunch of flaws and weaknesses. And this attracts more than if he were an ideal law enforcement officer.
2017 film "The Snowman"
On October 20, 2017, Thomas Alfredson's The Snowman thriller was released. Despite the fact that he barely managed to justify the money spent on him, the picture interested many viewers. In this regard, some of them became interested in what book was shot "Snowman". So this tape has become a kind of new advertising campaign for the Nesbe novel.
The main roles in the project were played by Michael Fassbender (Harry Hole), Rebecca Ferguson (Katrina), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Raquel), Val Kilmer (Gert Rafto), J. K. Simmons (Arve Step) and Jonas Karlsson (Matias).
Reviews about the picture
It is worth noting that most critics negatively evaluated the project. So, on the Rotten Tomatoes website, the film received a rating of 3.1 out of 10, and on the Metacritic 23 out of 100.
What is the reason for such poor results? Let's try to find out.
So, almost everyone who wrote reviews about the film fall into two categories:
- Those who are well aware of the book "Snowman" was shot. They mainly evaluate not the tape itself, but its correspondence to the original novel.
- Those who did not read the work of Nesbe. They judge more about the movie itself as an original work.
The first category (which knows by which book "Snowman" was shot and may have even read it) basically left negative reviews about the project. The main claims on their part were presented to the loss of the atmosphere of the original novel. In addition, they spoke negatively about the selection of actors for the film. For example, Michael Fassbender, despite the excellent game, in their opinion, is absolutely not like a chronic alcoholic. He lacks the wisdom and certain detachment characteristic of his book prototype.
At the same time, some admirers of Yu Nesbe’s work, note that Fassbender looks quite similar to the writer himself and does not believe that this is a coincidence.
Among other artists, a lot of negativity was voiced towards Charlotte Gainsbourg. The audience agreed that in the film her character looks old and ugly. At the same time, the book describes not a young but sultry woman.
Some also noted the lack of chemistry between Fassbender and Gainsbourg, which made their joint scenes uninteresting.
Those of the audience who had not previously read the book “The Snowman” walked less actively in the film - they left more sparing reviews. So, many of them liked the picture and the respondents were at a loss why the critics rated it so low.
Among the main shortcomings of the project, according to this category, weak directing and excessive length of the narrative are noted.
From the foregoing, we can conclude that while the novel was received with a bang, its adaptation was unsuccessful. But as a separate film for people who are not familiar with the original - this is quite an acceptable sight.