Book Review: Cell 8

Cell 8 was a very good read.
Recommended to me by my mom, who had read it before, it is more than a simple thriller, or some work of fiction. It also delves into many important topics, and explores the different attitudes between Sweden, and perhaps the European Union nations overall, versus the United States on jails, punishment, and particularly capital punishment. That is to say, of course, the death penalty. But it also asks important and piercing, critical questions about the overall attitudes and different approaches towards crime and punishment in the United States and Sweden.
We all know that prisons are growing in the United States, that there are more and more prisons, and that means, of course, more and more prisoners. Also, of course, the death sentence, which used to be illegal in the United States, and which still is illegal in European Union countries, such as Sweden, was reinstated some decades ago, and remains a soar and divisive topic for many. Like much else, people hold strong opinions about these things, and the different approaches are argued equally vehemently on both sides of the debate.
It was noted, and judged harshly by many on this side of the Atlantic, that in another Scandinavian country, Norway, the police took a long time to respond to a massive shooting on an island some distance from Oslo, which took place on the same day as a bombing in the capital, in what was a two-part attack by a native Norwegian hoping to make a political statement. Indeed, the response time raised eyebrows, but in defense of Norway, it is a quiet country, and not at all used to that kind of thing. In fact, many Norwegians seemed to suggest that that kind of incident you expect in the United States, but not in quiet Norway. Which, perhaps, is more than a veiled criticism of the United States, and the high rate of crime and inexplicable, violent episodes and shootings.
What also received a lot of publicity and raised eyebrows was that the perpetrator, Anders Behring Breivik, could only receive the maximum sentence of a few decades, as opposed to a life sentence, much less the death penalty, like the United States likely would have pursued (at least in some states, anyway).
Although they do not really talk about this particular shooting incident, they do engage in a kind of ongoing debate throughout the book about the merits, or the lack thereof, on both sides – the Swedish and the American models of legal punishment. They address the overcrowded prisons and the sense of security that Americans get out of their system, as well as the huge costs of maintaining such a massive, and growing, prison system. They also in particular talk about the death penalty and Europe's opposition to it, in theory as well as in fact.
But Cell 8 is not just about the questions, moral or legal, surrounding the death penalty. Far from it. It also takes an honest look at intellectually dishonest politics, about "legalese" speak, if you will. Although Sweden and the United States may speak different languages, the BS underneath much of the language of the law, which we have all seen before, becomes magnificently in evidence and is used to very strong effect as you read this book.
For that matter, another interesting point that is addressed is the apparent need of an abusive state to subjugate people at times to the will of the state; to humiliate them. The prisoner in question is at some point made to feel dehumanized once he is under the control of certain authorities, and the systematic message of making sure it is understood to one and all that they state can, and will, do whatever the hell it wants to one of it's own, is indeed troubling. That these are men and women who go to and from work everyday and otherwise lead normal lives, but who's very job description seems to entail a disturbing psychosis, is itself troubling.
After all, it is, in theory, the state that is supposed to contain people who's violent tendencies do harm to others, but what happens when it is the state itself, an allegedly civilized nation, that exhibits violent tendencies?
There are many layers to this book, including how regular people, powerless to really throw a monkey wrench into the machinery or effect change on a massive scale, can cope with the reality of these horrors. The authors make a compelling argument about the radically different ideas and notions of crime and punishment between the United States and Sweden in particular, and perhaps more of the European Union in general. It also exposes the weakness, the chink in the armor if you will, of the theory that the death penalty serves as a strong deterrent, versus the actual facts and statistics that seem to illustrate a different story, and that perhaps Americans are believing in a fallacy, in a myth, when they make this claim to justify their continued support of capital punishment. Though this is a work of fiction, the authors certainly do not shy away from seriously debating a topic that is all too real. .
With these debates clearly underlying the story throughout, the authors go on about a fictional character on death row in Ohio, who managed to escape, ultimately, and then is discovered in Sweden after being taken in for a violent incident. The story itself is intriguing, as are the details about how this fictional escape took place. The fictional diplomatic crisis that the potential extradition of this American back to the States, where he would surely face the death penalty again to a revenge minded voting base back home, echoes some real political realities in the present day, and serves as the backdrop for further rich debate and arguments that the authors engage in.
Cell 8 itself is written by the Swedish writing duo of Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom. The duo also wrote “Three Seconds”, and have been compared to Stieg Larsson, the author of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”. Cell 8 is an exciting read, and keeps you wanting to read more and more, on many levels, and find out whether the fictional government of Sweden in the book will actually yield the American and bow down to political pressures, thus in effect sentencing this man to death, or whether it will safeguard the American, who's major crimes, after all, took place on foreign shores. It also makes you wonder about the resolve in reality on both sides of the Atlantic regarding this all-important topic. Recommended reading!