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laedyred's review
I wanted to read some older Finnish literature and this is one of the great authors. However, I just lost interest. It's been sitting in my "currently reading" for months and I never pick it back up. Maybe I'll try again in the future.
susannam's review against another edition
4.0
I am becoming a fan of Sillanpää, but I hesitated as I rated this book. The edition I got, unfortunately, was one that seems to have been printed on demand, and no one at the source of publication seems to have noticed that there were format changes when it was transferred into print form. Sentences break in strange places forming new paragraphs, sometimes whole sections get repeated, and, hilariously, every time there should be a double "c", as in "accident" or "occur", it is eliminated, leaving "aident" and "ourrence". Once I figured out the quirks, it was possible to read but the sloppiness involved was just annoying.
Having said that, I am once again taken by Silanpää's development of a character who is hobbled by his limitations, placing him in the historical setting of Finland around the turn of the last century. We see Jussi Toivola (later called Juha or Janne as his circumstances change) struggle with poor beginnings and a crippling lack of imagination and agency as he stumbles from one living situation to the next, enjoying a brief rise in status, and finally being executed for his bumbling involvement with the communist side of Finland's internal war in 1918. That's not a spoiler. Silanpää lays out the whole sorry history at the outset. Is it nature or nurture that makes Jussi so benighted?
I find the description of country life and the historical period fascinating. And despite the publication errors, I find Silanpää's writing (with great credit to the translator, Alexandor Matson) once again seductively simple and capable of capturing the reader. I would have given the book a higher rating, based on that. It's a shame that the publication source has done such a disservice to the author and translator. It's still worth a read.
Having said that, I am once again taken by Silanpää's development of a character who is hobbled by his limitations, placing him in the historical setting of Finland around the turn of the last century. We see Jussi Toivola (later called Juha or Janne as his circumstances change) struggle with poor beginnings and a crippling lack of imagination and agency as he stumbles from one living situation to the next, enjoying a brief rise in status, and finally being executed for his bumbling involvement with the communist side of Finland's internal war in 1918. That's not a spoiler. Silanpää lays out the whole sorry history at the outset. Is it nature or nurture that makes Jussi so benighted?
I find the description of country life and the historical period fascinating. And despite the publication errors, I find Silanpää's writing (with great credit to the translator, Alexandor Matson) once again seductively simple and capable of capturing the reader. I would have given the book a higher rating, based on that. It's a shame that the publication source has done such a disservice to the author and translator. It's still worth a read.
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