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ivellon's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
psr's review
3.0
This is the second novel I've read by Marani, an Italian Eurocrat with an apparent love of all things Finnish... It's seven years now since I read 'New Finnish Grammar' but it made enough of an impression on me that I wanted to read another of the author's books. When I found out what this one was about, I couldn't wait for the postman to deliver it.
And 'The Last of the Vostyachs' starts brilliantly. It evokes all the melancholy that ought to be associated with a dying language and culture. I'm not quite sure why, but I was put in mind of Ismail Kadare's superb 'The File on H'. Thereafter, for this reader at least, Marani's novel didn't live up to its promise. It develops a number of interweaving plot lines, becoming over complicated and not very credible in the process. As a result, it resembled a farce, and one that wasn't always funny. Individually, these different strands worked quite well. The scenes in the seedy Helsinki district of Kallio, for instance, were quite convincing and the descriptions of the professor's dog, abandoned by his master to his ex-wife, were touching. It ended well too. Overall though, this short novel was just too busy and didn't really hang together. The story of the titular Vostyach became one of the "noble savage" in the city and thus distinctly unoriginal.
For all that, I still feel compelled to read the third of his novels on language and identity, 'The Interpreter'. Hopefully, that novel will be as good as the first of them. 'The Last of the Vostyachs' felt like something of a missed opportunity.
And 'The Last of the Vostyachs' starts brilliantly. It evokes all the melancholy that ought to be associated with a dying language and culture. I'm not quite sure why, but I was put in mind of Ismail Kadare's superb 'The File on H'. Thereafter, for this reader at least, Marani's novel didn't live up to its promise. It develops a number of interweaving plot lines, becoming over complicated and not very credible in the process. As a result, it resembled a farce, and one that wasn't always funny. Individually, these different strands worked quite well. The scenes in the seedy Helsinki district of Kallio, for instance, were quite convincing and the descriptions of the professor's dog, abandoned by his master to his ex-wife, were touching. It ended well too. Overall though, this short novel was just too busy and didn't really hang together. The story of the titular Vostyach became one of the "noble savage" in the city and thus distinctly unoriginal.
For all that, I still feel compelled to read the third of his novels on language and identity, 'The Interpreter'. Hopefully, that novel will be as good as the first of them. 'The Last of the Vostyachs' felt like something of a missed opportunity.
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