Ha. As always with books from overseas, it occurred to me while I was reading this one that some of the cultural context may have been lost on me.

The flat affect you describe may be part of it. Your comment was also a good reminder for me of how different the Scandinavian-influenced parts of the Midwest are from Cleveland, where I worked for 11 years and where many people descend instead from Eastern European immigrants. Its residents tend to be more, shall we say, "expressive" :).