A review by littlemiao
Brobyggarna by Jan Guillou

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I chose this book to expand my Swedish language reading, which has been mostly confined to crime novels. The author is a big name in Sweden so it seemed a good choice for historical fiction. It is a choice I somewhat regret. It came across as colonialist, imperialist fanfic, told from the perspective of German-sympathizers. I’ll be the first to admit that I might be missing out on subtleties because, after all, Swedish is not my native language. However, I didn’t feel like I was missing much language-wise, just maybe zoning out from tedium.

The story follows two of three Norwegian brothers who become engineers at the close of the nineteenth century, one on a snowy mountain in Norway and the other in German East Africa. The brothers are heroic characters, as in larger-than-life doers of epic deeds. The tedium comes in part from the flatness of their characters, as paragons of ingenuity, morality, manliness (all by the author’s definitions, naturally). There is no tension - the two brothers overcome all setbacks with flying colors. 

A recurring theme is the superiority of German and Norwegian morals to other Europeans, English, and Americans. In some sections, it seems like every other sentence is the one brother Oskar patting himself on the back over the superiority of German colonialism, the German “civilizing mission,” and German morality. Readers are presented with grievance after grievance against other nations in an attempt to justify or even valorize German actions. It’s nauseating. Propaganda-esque.

The depiction of African characters is offensive, and offensive language is used throughout. The East Africa chapters seemed like the author’s own colonialist fantasy fulfillment - big game hunting, triumph over native superstitions, victory over cannibals, obtaining unimaginable riches, and of course, plenty of exotic sex rituals.

Sure, it is natural for the characters to think in terms of the prejudices of their times, but the recurring homophobic and racist language was tough to get through. There are ways of accurately portraying prejudice without being offensive to the reader. In this book, prejudices are echoed more or less uncritically.

The only reference to Jews that I caught was a prostitute who committed fraud being referred to as possibly Jewish. Rosa Luxembourg is also mentioned in passing. I am curious how Guillou handles the World War Two years, but that would mean reading several more of these relatively long books and I’m not sure I have the stomach for that.