New Member. Some thoughts and Speculations (Review)

For discussion of John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel Människohamn
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Johnny Old Hall
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Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2014 5:06 pm
Location: Philippines

New Member. Some thoughts and Speculations (Review)

Post by Johnny Old Hall » Sat Mar 29, 2014 5:31 pm

Hi, I'm new. I've been a big fan of John Ajvide Lindqvist for a while now and I just finished his book Harbor recently.

SPOILERS Ahead.

Spiritus
Not sure if this has been said before, but throughout the book it's always addressed that the Spiritus' power is to great for man. It think (aside from the stairs) he mentions that it wasn't made for humans (if my memory serves me right.) So what I thought is that the Spiritus may potentially be a part of the monster. The Spiritus needs man to survive. So does the "monster," which Anders says needs the sacrificed or taken people for power and life.

Ending
It's been addressed that the people taken by the sea were "horrible" people. So Maja was one of those people, which for some time Anders tries to deny, but eventually comes into terms with it. Despite all this, the flawed human side of Anders still sought to find her, which Anna-Greta says could be dangerous for everyone. He still does it and he succeeds. He finds her and brings her back, but once she's back she's still as stubborn and annoying as ever. (Not sure if it's because she's just a child or if she really is horrible) This has some consequences. Everyone he knows back at the island is presumably killed, for the sake of rescuing this "horrible" person. (Although he does go on about talking about loving his wife despite the separation, which could be the same with Maja. She may be a horrible person, but he loves her.)

This was pretty much my understanding of it.


Mini Review
Great book overall. I enjoyed it. However, not gonna lie, this was not a breeze through read for me. I was just a bit bummed out that we Simon is now probably dead. He was one of my favorite supporting characters. This is also similar with Little Star. JLA always leaves important supporting characters hanging in the final act.

Some people may find it annoying, but I like how JLA tries not to answer or resolve everything. Basically, Anders survive this situation, but the "monster" will continue to live on.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to slam in at anything. First read through so these are just initial thoughts.

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gattoparde59
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Re: New Member. Some thoughts and Speculations (Review)

Post by gattoparde59 » Sat Mar 29, 2014 7:54 pm

Johnny Old Hall wrote:Ending
It's been addressed that the people taken by the sea were "horrible" people. So Maja was one of those people, which for some time Anders tries to deny, but eventually comes into terms with it. Despite all this, the flawed human side of Anders still sought to find her, which Anna-Greta says could be dangerous for everyone. He still does it and he succeeds. He finds her and brings her back, but once she's back she's still as stubborn and annoying as ever. (Not sure if it's because she's just a child or if she really is horrible) This has some consequences. Everyone he knows back at the island is presumably killed, for the sake of rescuing this "horrible" person. (Although he does go on about talking about loving his wife despite the separation, which could be the same with Maja. She may be a horrible person, but he loves her.)
Hm :think: . My impression was that Maja was a difficult child. The people claimed by the monster were people that somebody or other wished would just disappear. That seemed to be the main requirement the way I read the story. Without speculating on the other victims, Anders most likely had many moments when he wished that he did not have Maja. When Maja disappeared Anders may have felt horribly guilty for just that reason. Hence the descent into alcoholism and the complete repression of his guilty desire to be rid of Maja. So he idealized her memory and filtered out all the negatives.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

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