Jens Lapidus

snabba cash, aldrig fucka upp. Jag tyckte andra delen Aldrig Fucka Upp inte var lika bra som Snabba Cash men Livet Deluxe håller måttet och är i klass med första delen. Vi får åter träffa chilenare Jorge Royale alias J-boy som är mitt i att planera en sista stött och sedan ska han kunna dra sig tillbaka med väskor fyllda av cash. JW, den svenska killen som sålde koks till Stockholms överklass elit och levde dubbelrum, de finaste salongerna i Stockholm jetset folk och körde taxi show more på kvällarna för att finansiera sitt överklass livsstil. Nu sitter JW inne efter den misslyckade rånet från Snabba Cash men muck dagen närmar sig och JW verkar ha något nytt på gång.
I denna sista del får vi träffa nya förmågor Natalie , Bossen Radovan dotter får en ny karriär när hon tvingas att ta över sin fars verksamhet och ett krig bland de kriminella undre världen är på väg att blåsa upp.
Högerström har jobbat inom polisen i många år och blir erbjuden att bli under cover, officiellt får han sparken och tar jobbet som plit på anstalten , inofficiellt ta reda på vad JW planerar.
Livet Deluxe är en fulländad avslutning ! show less

JW: 20-something young student desperate to fit in with the young Stockholm elite of rich hard-partying kids who dress to impress, date all the beautiful girls, and are treated like royalty at the hippest night-clubs, when not hosting their own parties featuring strippers and mounds of coke. In other words, a really good kid. Not. He secretly drives cab at night to pay for his designer duds and clubbing, and has an older sister who mysteriously disappeared 4 years before and was never heard show more from again.

Jorge: known as Jorgelito and J-Boy, which are names he uses when talking to himself about himself and telling himself how clever he is. He's also a latino drug dealer who was caught and put in prison but has big escape plans. Has delusions of grandeur. Another adorable fellow.

Mrado: A giant thug, Serbian mafia member and juiced up bodybuilder who is used by the big boss to generally hurt and kill people. He's a nasty piece of work, but thinks he's the world's greatest dad. Surely he must be, since he gets all broken up about having to stand up his little girl for their bi-montly visits when he has to do last-minute torture and maiming jobs when his boss commands him to.

What do these three guys have in common? One word: Cocaine. Also, they have very few redeeming qualities and take turns occupying roughly one-third of the novel each. Of course, they all end up being inter-connected somehow, but it's going to take well over 500 pages of really badly translated Swedish to find out how that goes down. Why I wasted so many precious hours in hopes that I'd end up liking some part of this book is beyond me. I'm still trying to figure out what's supposed to makes this story Noir, but nope, I just don't see it. Some passages seemed to have been written by a guy who might have done too much coke himself and couldn't seem to get over how clever he was being. I was going to give this one two stars to be generous and because I figured I might as well since I did force myself to finish it, but that's just not fair to the books out there that deserve to be thought of as "just ok" when this one just deserves to be put out of it's misery. Nothing, and I mean nothing in this story seemed new or fresh in any way. show less

Wow! I had no idea a Swede could write like this. Way better than any American thriller - and there aren't even any cops in it. OK, so the writer is really an attorney and has therefore some special insight into the darker parts of the criminal world, but still. The jargon and the accents are spot on and the characters are absolutely captivating. The big key here is that none of them are Evil but rather human - they have kids and stomachaches and make falukorv och makaroner for lunch. And show more they're funny! Of course, as the plot unravels, we get to see the monster part of them and it's with a bit of reluctance that we have to admit that the characters we've come to kind of love are vicious torturers and murderers. Lapidus wins us over by not passing judgment on any of them, but calmly exposes the traumas that have made them the creeps that they are, without pity or excuses. Apparently it's getting translated into English, but I wonder if "juggemaffian" translates well... :) show less

Oma arvio: Teos on todenmukainen kuvaus Tukholman alamaailmasta. Teoksessa on käytetty myös hienosti kieltä: alamaailman kasvatit ja yläluokan jetset puhuvat molemmat omaa slangia. Tästä kuuluu toki kiitos myös kääntäjälle. Tarinassa on kolme päähenkilöä: Tukholmaan opiskelemaan tuleva ja kadonnutta sisartaan etsivä Johan Westlund eli JW, vankilasta karannut Jorge ja rikollisjengiin kuuluva Mrado. JW joutuu mukaan rikollisjengiin ja seuraukset voi jokainen itse arvata. Jorgen show more elämäntehtävänä on kosto ja Mrado haluaa laajentaa bisneksiään. Mrado on toisaalta myös pienen tytön isä ja kirjassa kuvataan myös hänen pehmeämpää puoltaan koskettavasti. Isyyden ja rikosten sovittaminen yhteen ei kuitenkaan ole helppoa. Lapidus kuvaa tätä kaikkea erittäin raadollisesti ja asiantuntevasti. Vaikka kirja on raju ja väkivaltainen se on myös viihdyttävä ja hyvin jaksotettu. show less