In an attempt to broaden my reading horizons again, I picked up a detective/thriller novel. The backcover made it sound interesting enough and I kind of liked the Finnish title. Unfortunately it ended up being so offensive that I read only about 50 pages and then leafed through the rest just to see if it got any worse.
Of course it did.
I'm talking about Jean-Christophe Grangè's Miserere. I don't know if it's been translated into English and frankly, I don't care enough to check. The Finnish translation is called Viattomien veljeskunta, literally The Brotherhood of the Innocents. Apparently Grangè is very popular both in France and internationally, and this isn't the first novel that has been translated into Finnish. I will not under any circumstances check out to see if his other books are better than this one: even if they were, I couldn't stop thinking that he's a homophobic ass.
Miserere's main characters are two cops, Kasdan and Volokine. Kasdan is old and your typical big'n tough cop. Also very homophobic. I didn't mind this as such when it was revealed because yes indeed, there are people like that and it's not like Kasdan's the only character in the book. Then it turns out that Volokine, who's younger but at least as badass as Kasdan & some kind of a computer guru, admires Kasdan for being, and this is an almost word-to-word quote, "a real cop, not one of those fags who play violin or [something apparently not manly enough] in their free time".
In addition, the characters make very clear, both individually and together, that all gays are promiscuous cheaters. One suspect is a gay prostitute who was a stereotypically offensive caricature of a gay man. Kasdan hated him right away, and without any reason or authority took away his important papers (passport etc., he was a filthy immigrant too). The victim was a closeted gay man, partner of said prostitute (and very jealous, but it's not like the prostitute could help himself because he's so gay), masochist and a leader of a boys choir which, as you might have guessed, made the cops think that he must be a pedophile. I leafed through a hundred or so pages and surprisingly, the victim wasn't a pedophile. He'd been a cruel torturer in Chile instead!
D:
I rate this book as AAAC, Avoid At All Costs.
Of course it did.
I'm talking about Jean-Christophe Grangè's Miserere. I don't know if it's been translated into English and frankly, I don't care enough to check. The Finnish translation is called Viattomien veljeskunta, literally The Brotherhood of the Innocents. Apparently Grangè is very popular both in France and internationally, and this isn't the first novel that has been translated into Finnish. I will not under any circumstances check out to see if his other books are better than this one: even if they were, I couldn't stop thinking that he's a homophobic ass.
Miserere's main characters are two cops, Kasdan and Volokine. Kasdan is old and your typical big'n tough cop. Also very homophobic. I didn't mind this as such when it was revealed because yes indeed, there are people like that and it's not like Kasdan's the only character in the book. Then it turns out that Volokine, who's younger but at least as badass as Kasdan & some kind of a computer guru, admires Kasdan for being, and this is an almost word-to-word quote, "a real cop, not one of those fags who play violin or [something apparently not manly enough] in their free time".
In addition, the characters make very clear, both individually and together, that all gays are promiscuous cheaters. One suspect is a gay prostitute who was a stereotypically offensive caricature of a gay man. Kasdan hated him right away, and without any reason or authority took away his important papers (passport etc., he was a filthy immigrant too). The victim was a closeted gay man, partner of said prostitute (and very jealous, but it's not like the prostitute could help himself because he's so gay), masochist and a leader of a boys choir which, as you might have guessed, made the cops think that he must be a pedophile. I leafed through a hundred or so pages and surprisingly, the victim wasn't a pedophile. He'd been a cruel torturer in Chile instead!
D:
I rate this book as AAAC, Avoid At All Costs.