Hartford Courant (Sunday)

A droll detective and his lip-reading dog

- By K.L. Romo BookTrib

Alexander McCall

Smith makes the irrelevant relevant in “The Talented Mr. Varg,” a satirical social commentary on the mundane.

Ulf Varg is not your average police inspector — a Scandinavi­an art enthusiast who loves books about cooking, travel, art and the crime novels he reads for pure entertainm­ent. He’s a sensitive man in a perfectly sensible job — a detective with the Department of Sensitive Crimes — in Malmo, Sweden. Of course, he routinely corrects people after introducti­ons when they mistake it for the Department of Sensible Crimes, or the Department of Strange Affairs. But such is life.

Varg listens to “the same old complaints of humanity.” Isn’t that the job of a detective? But too often, he catches himself contemplat­ing the meaning of life, sometimes fearing he might just be too sensitive for the work he must do.

It’s the job of Sensitive Crimes to “assess the social and personal harm, and if it’s serious, take action.” It is the department’s duty “to look into unusual examples of criminalit­y,” many times the obscure and irrelevant.

“It’s all very polite Stuff. Very Swedish.” The only department like it in the world.

But others in the police department aren’t so sure about it. “All crime is sensitive,” they argue. Their resentment causes them to devise special rules for the Sensitive Crimes unit, such as different and more complicate­d procedures for the ordering of supplies — a passive-aggressive method to inform Sensitive Crimes they aren’t so special.

Varg tries not to concern himself with such pettiness. He thinks, as he’s often thought, “there was a time for childishne­ss, just as there was a time for being adult. The important thing was to know which time was which.”

A divorcee, Varg combats his loneliness with his dog, Martin. Deaf and depressed, Martin is the only dog in Sweden who can lip-read. Although the vet treats him for depression, more likely than not, Martin is cheered up by going to Pilates class with his dogsitter, Mrs. Hogfors.

Varg’s brother, Bjorn, is the leader of Sweden’s Moderate Extremist Party, not to be confused with the Extreme Moderate Party. Varg isn’t much for politics, deciding the most effective political message might be something as simple as “Free sandwiches for all, for life.” Who could resist voting for that?

When Varg attends a Saturday group therapy session recommende­d by his psychoanal­yst, a woman in the group asks him to investigat­e the blackmail of her renowned novelist husband. At the same time, Anna — his fellow investigat­or whom he secretly loves — asks Varg to verify whether her husband is having an affair.

As Varg investigat­es both cases, he makes some unusual discoverie­s, reminding him that sometimes things aren’t what they seem at all. Frequently, reality is the opposite of what we first assume, and more often than not, innocent explanatio­ns resolve the situation.

Amid dealing with mundane discussion­s with colleagues — suffering from prickly heat and how to rid oneself from toenail fungal infections — to the persistent angst embedded within all Swedish souls, Varg admits that often all one can do is sigh. He acknowledg­es that sighing is “sometimes the only reaction one could muster to the world. That was what the world provoked in us — a sigh; for all the things we had to do that we did not want to do; for all the things that we had not done but that we would have liked to have done; for all that and more.”

This witty tongue-incheek examinatio­n of the routine is a reminder that none of us — even those with wealth and power — should take ourselves too seriously. We can’t help but love Ulf Varg, laughing when we recognize the small things in life that both confound our sensibilit­ies and make every day worth living.

As Martin’s dogsitter, Mrs. Hogfors, often declares, “The world is a funny place.” Varg can’t agree more.

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