Definitely Done

Finished Henning Mankell's The Fifth Woman yesterday, and this is one I won't be reading again. I say this not because I didn't enjoy the novel, I most emphatically did, but because I can't see what would be gained from a re-reading. The text works as a one-time only experience, it seems to me, even though I know I'll forget the plot almost completely. I can't think of any straight thriller or detective story that would benefit from a second reading - but, then, I suppose that my implicit understanding of 'straight' here is based on a kind of circular argument: the straightness lies in the lack of those qualities that would make a re-reading valuable. And what are those? Tentatively, either qualities of style, beyond workmanlike prose, that make the act of simply reading rewarding in itself, or qualities of content that surpass the telling of a good tale. Of course I can imagine reading the novel one day as comfort reading (time spent with Kurt Wallander is always enjoyable somehow, for the reader if not the character), but then there's so much new stuff to read that gives immediate comfort that I can't see any real need ever being involved.

Actually on one level I thought the novel was overlong - easily cut-able by a couple of hundred pages. But the fans (self included) don't want the lean, mean novel that lurks within. They want to linger with their (flawed) hero. A good story told in workmanlike prose is always worth a read, but just the one. (And in case anyone thinks I'm implying it's somehow easy for a writer to churn out such material, I'm not.)