Have you ever come across a fictional protagonist that you just can't stand?

[scarletwoman]

16. Great question! I'm not quite sure how to explain it.

Each author is different, of course, but there tends to be a general spareness about the genre. The protagonists tend to be no-nonsense (save the character that inspired this thread), the Scandinavian ethnic character tends to be somewhat stoic, and lends itself to understatement, to a realist view of the world, to keeping emotions private and contained (save the character that inspired this thread), and to intellectual rigor. There are also nuggets of very dry humor - typically Scandinavian - which I also love.

Many of these books have detailed descriptions of place, of cultural traditions, history, as well as food and drink - all fascinating to a Scandanaviophile like myself. I love to mentally explore the streets of Oslo and Stockholm, the forests and mountains, the sea coasts and islands of a part of the world I would dearly love to visit - but may never have the opportunity to do so outside of books.

My paternal great-gandparents were Norwegian immigrants, so I've always been interested in that part of my heritage. Growing up with a big Norwegian extended family, I feel like I get the characters who people these books.

In a nutshell, I just really enjoy hanging out in that part of the world.

As for Henning Mankell - my personal opinion is that the Wallander series is one of the best I've ever read. If you want to try it, I suggest you start at the beginning and work your way through in order. Wallender evolves and grows older, and when you get to the final book of the series, you'll feel like you're bidding farewell to a longtime friend whom you've come to care about very much. I've never seen the TV series, so I have no idea how well they follow the books.