Book Review

By Derryll White

Fossum, Karin (2007).  The Water’s Edge.

Karin Fossum is a Norwegian writer with an impressive backlist of very strong novels. Her works lean toward quiet psychological introspection. She asks the reader to think about the world we all inhabit.

In ‘The Water’s Edge’ the author explores, with quiet sensitivity, what it is to be different.  She chooses paedophilia as the subject, and asks what forces form such a desire. Inspector Konrad Sejer and his partner Skarre explore the legal and moral aspects of this condition as they search for the suspected murderer of two young boys.

Fossum reflects on what makes people perform as they do. She challenges the reader to see the humanity in what many might reject as abnormal and disgusting lower forms of humanity.  She does not push religion but examines what might make the world turn as it does. She requires the reader to think about many things.

This is a story that deserves to be read.  If you live in a small town, such as Cranbrook or Fernie, you may very well see yourself in here.

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Excerpts from the novel:

CRIMINALS – “Why are you interested in criminals?”

    “It’s possible that somewhere deep inside I might be just a tad jealous of them,” Skarre said.

    “Jealous?  Of criminals?”

    “They do what they want.  They have no respect for authority: if they want something they just take it and they have nothing but contempt for us.  It’s a kind of protest, a deep an d profound disdain.”

PEDOPHILE – “They think they are smarter than most people.  They think they can jump the queue and help themselves, the rules don’t apply to them.  If anyone gets hurt, they’ve only got themselves to blame. So if you want to rehabilitate an offender, in other words, you have to change his entire mindset and that’s not easy.”

RULES – His mother’s warnings had been brushed aside, barely noticeable, like the trace of a feather across a cheek and Jonas had discarded his stick and got into a stranger’s car.  People are unpredictable creatures, they invent rules which they break incessantly and they follow impulses which they later cannot explain.

EVIL – “So why are you talking like this?” Skarre asked.

    “Because I need reassurance,” he said, “that pure evil is a rare event.”

    “Is it?”

    “I want it to be.”  He looked at Skarre and nodded.  “Yes,” he said, it’s rare.”

SECURITY – She adjusted the water temperature and stepped into the shower, she lifted her hand against the warm stream as she played a game.  She imagined she was covered by a layer of worries and now they were being washed away like dirt before disappearing down the drain.  She could hear Reinhardt pottering about, she heard the radio in the living room.  Security, she thought, that’s why I stay, that’s why I put up with it.  Dear God, I’m like a child.  What I have now isn’t what I dreamed of, but at least I know what each day will bring, I can see what the rest of my life will be like.  She jumped when the door in the bathroom was opened.  Reinhardt pushed the shower curtain to one side.

CONSEQUENCES – “There are many like Brein,” said Elfrid.

     “Yes,” he said.  “As long as adults make mistakes and as long as parents abuse, they will create new abusers.”

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org

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