Thursday, July 27, 2017

Paperback Reprint: "The Man on the Balcony" by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Paperback Reprint: "The Man on the Balcony" by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, 1968 from a 1993 reprint with 9780679745969. Translated by Alan Blair.

I am at Boy Scout camp all week. I will not try typing into my magic telephone box. I also cannot find an embed code using the youtube app.

3 comments:

JIM DOHERTY said...

Two points. Although they put themselves out as a married couple, Sjowall and Wahloo were not. From what I've heard (and this could be exaggerated), this backfired after Wahloo died, since the books were copyrighted under his name. Because they weren't legally married, Ms. Sjowall was left with not a leg to stand on in terms of rights. They all went to Wahloo's kids. So, she has neither control nor profit participation in the movies and TV shows based on the character.

Second, regarding your comparison of the Beck series to McBain's 87th Precinct series, you wre more spot-on then you realized. Sjowall & Wahloo became interested in writing Swedish-set police procedurals after translating several of McBain's 87th Precinct books into Swedish.

Ironically, McBain became interested in the sub-genre because he was a huge fan of the original DRAGNET, particularly its radio incarnation. Given that Webb was an arch-conservative and Sjowall & Wahloo ardent Mrxists, the fact that Martin Beck is an indirect descendant of Joe Friday seems rather paradoxical.

Gerard Saylor said...

Thanks, Doherty! I appreciate the news.

When I was first reading the BACK series 20 years ago I had not read any McCain novels. Recognizing the similarities this time aroundd was a surprise

Gerard Saylor said...

BECK not BACK.