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The officer looks as though he might be preparing a response, a long and complex response that’s going to require a lot of thought. I continue. You’re thinking she wasn’t the type to take her own life. And you’re absolutely right. Don’t ask me how, officer, but I know she was murdered.’ Not that things were so important for her when she was alive either. I’ve just been explaining all this to the officer. That she told me I could take anything I wanted when she threw me out – the stereo, the TV, books, kitchen equipment, you name it. She was ready for it. She’d decided this was going to be a civilised breakup. Simone loved chocolates. Especially Twist. Every Saturday when I did the shopping at Kiwi I used to buy a big bag of them. It was one of our few routines. It was a sort of anchor in a life based on opportunism, whims, the occasional evening meal together and, as a rule, waking up in the same bed. We blamed our jobs, and I believed that everything would be different once we had a child. That would bring us together. A child. I remember how shaken she was the first time I brought it up. This architect, Henrik Bakke, I don’t know how she met him. She always said she met him after I moved out, and at first I believed her. But friends have told me how naive I was, pointing out that the guy moved in almost immediately. Before my side of the bed was even cold, as one of my friends put it. And yet, officer – and I know this may sound strange – it’s actually a sort of comfort to know that it was her feelings for someone else that ruined everything for us. That what Simone and I had wasn’t the kind of thing that just burns itself out of its own accord. That it took love to conquer love.’
My absolute favorites were London, The Jealousy Man and The Line, which incidentally were all in Part One. Part Two had a more dystopian feel to the stories and that isn’t really my thing, though I did like Cicadas of all the stories in this section.Jo Nesbo is not a new-to-me author as I am slowly making my way through his Harry Hole series. I have also read a few of his stand-alones and really liked them, so when I heard he had a collection of short stories coming out, I knew I had to read them. I’ve really come to enjoy reading short stories recently and had to see what spin Nesbo would put on them. We loved each other, officer. We more than loved each other. We were the air each other breathed, we kept each other alive, do you understand? No, of course, why should you?’ I put Simone’s coffee cup down on the tablecloth on her coffee table. Her coffee cup. Her tablecloth. Her coffee table. Even the dish of chocolates in the middle of the table is hers. Things. Strange how little things mean once you’re dead. One way or another. Al fin y al cabo, la muerte no deja de ser lo más serio. Ese enemigo que siempre halla nuestro rastro y del que nos pasamos la vida hyyendo, pero que tarde o temprano nos encontrará, es solo cuestión de tiempo" And yet I’ve never been jealous of Henrik Bakke. Isn’t that funny? At least not in the sense of hating him or having a grudge against him. I think the way I looked at it was that he was just another guy same as me, he loved Simone more than anything else on earth. I actually thought of him more as someone in the same boat as me than as a rival.’
This collection of short stories by the talented Jo Nesbø is divided into two themes. The first centres on jealousy and part two around power. I enjoy the first group much better than the second as there’s a really good mix of stories and the theme is evident throughout. The first entitled London is outstanding and my favourite story as I love the clever twist at the end which makes me smile, albeit wryly. The second The Jealousy Man which gives the collection it’s title, has a great premise of sibling rivalry and how that manifests itself into jealousy. It is a bit on the long side with some digressions but it is a clever story of parallel lines. I also like The Line which is short and sharp with the perfect revenge for a line jumper. In Trash we have an angry and jealous refuse disposal officer who really cleans up after himself and The Confession has a particularly yummy Twist! The latter really appeals to my rather dark sense of humour!! I can feel the springs beneath the sofa cover against my thighs. An old rococo sofa, her style. Had he had her on this sofa, her new guy, the architect? He moved in just a few weeks after I moved out. For all I know he was screwing her on the sofa while I was still living in the house. The officer doesn’t ask me to explain what I mean when I say I know what they’re thinking, so I go ahead on my own initiative: The writing is typical Nesbø, which, for those who have read some of his work, will know is steeped in symbolism and a deeper analysis of the emotional being. Hidden meanings and ideas permeate the narrative, such that the reader may play close attention to get all that Nesbø presents in his writing. With stories that vary in length, it is even more important to pay attention, as there are times when a piece is over before it really begins, meaning the reader will miss what is being presented.
The title story, “The Jealousy Man,” is an above-average novella. Here, Inspector Nikos Balli has flown to a small Greek isle called Kalymnos. There he meets up with a colleague, George Kostopoulos, where they discuss the case that Balli has been assigned --- the disappearance of Julian Schmid. The prime suspect, and probably the last person to see him alive, is his twin brother, Franz. Una vez más voy a diferir de las corriente generalizada de opiniones sobre este libro: a mi me ha parecido una puñetera maravilla.
Balli knows this because he has lived through the jealousy cycle: disbelief, despair, rage, self-contempt and, finally, depression. He discusses a particular situation in which a woman he loved put him through this and believes she made him what he has become in his professional life --- the self-proclaimed Jealousy Man. The case, in Balli’s mind, comes down to the twin brothers battling over a woman. He maintains that the rage of jealousy is like love; it’s a madness that can make people do things they normally would never dream of doing. Ejecutarte no sería en ningún caso una venganza suficiente. Porque, sí, quiero que te arrepientas. Quiero que sientas el mismo dolor que yo al perder a uno de tus seres más queridos. Y quiero que sientas la misma culpa que yo por no haber protegido lo bastante a tu familia. No soy mejor persona por eso. Pero los seres humanos tenemos la capacidad única de renunciar a aquello que nos proporciona una satisfacción a corto plazo en aras de algo que tiene una finalidad superior" Is that a smile I see curling the officer’s lips? He doesn’t respond. Of course not, he’s under an oath of silence as regards anything to do with the investigation. All the same, at the thought of Henrik Bakke being a suspect I can’t help but smile as well. I don’t even try to hide it. We smile.This collection of short stories by the talented Jo Nesbø is divided into two themes. The first centres on JEALOUSY and part two around POWER. I enjoyed the first group much better than the second as there’s a really good mix of stories and the theme is evident throughout. The first entitled "London" is outstanding and one of my favourite stories as I love the clever twist at the end which makes me smile wryly. The second "The Jealousy Man" which gives the collection it’s title, has a great premise of sibling rivalry and how that manifests itself into jealousy. It is a bit on the long side with some digressions, but it is still a clever story. I didn't much care for "The Line" which is short and sharp which focuses on the nasty revenge for a someone who jumps the queue in a shop. In "Trash" we have an angry and jealous bin lorry driver who really cleans up after himself and "The Confession" has a particularly delicious Twist! The Confession really appeals to my rather dark sense of humour!! "Odd" was about a writer who is fed up with fame or is he? "The Earring" was really fun with a dark twist to it too...That reminds me, I better get my car serviced soon 🤔 Anyway, he turned out to be a really nice person – polite without being servile, intelligent but in a discreet way, and with a humorous appreciation of the comical aspect of our situation. We drank a couple of beers, and when he began after a while to talk about Simone it didn’t take long for me to realise that he was having exactly the same trouble with her as I had had. She was a cat. She came and went as she pleased, she was spoiled and moody, and loyalty was not her most outstanding quality. If I can put it like that. He complained of all the men friends she had and wondered why she couldn’t have female friends like other women. Talked about the nights she’d come home drunk after he’d gone to bed, and all the new and exciting people she’d met who she was so keen to tell him about. In a sort of aside he asked if I’d seen her since we’d split up and I’d moved out, and with a smile I had to tell him no. The smile was because I had realised that he was probably more jealous of me than I was of him. Isn’t that something of a paradox, officer?’ Prve dvije priče ovdje ostavile su na mene možda nešto slabiji dojam, ali zato je ostatak zbirke u potpunosti taj dojam popravio. Ne mogu odrediti koja mi je od ostalih priča sadržanih u ovoj zbirci bila baš najbolja (možda Odd?), jer me se svaka dojmila na malo drugačiji način. No u svima sam njima pronašla ono što i inače tražim u kratkim pričama: jezgrovitost, efektnost i snagu emocija koje su u njima prikazane. Također, sve su me iznenadile načinom na koji se radnja u njima odvila.
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