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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
*** minor spoilers ahead ***
This was handed to me by a coworker at the company where I currently do "temp" work, busting my ass day after day, getting paid pennies to the dollar I obviously feel that I should be making, worrying about the day when I actually fall sick and don't get paid and still can't go to the doctor... sigh. I can go on and on. I can blame the crappy economy or my university education that apparently didn't prepare me for the real world, but this is a book review and not a lamentation on my life.
But these are precisely the reasons that this book appealed to me. Like the cover says, who doesn't dream of leaving the real world to be free to wander where ever your little heart desires? Of course, it helps to be in good health, preferably a male (really, you wouldn't want those silly women doing something like this, would you?), and have some money to at least get you started.
The story follows Vatanen, a man who suddenly deserts his job, his wife and civilized society to roam the wilderness with an injured hare. He quickly finds himself happier than he has ever been. We watch as he and the hare get into silly situations and then smooth talk, or poop their way out of them. The hare is highly anthropomorphized, up to the point where it gets embarrassed being in the same room as Vatanen having sex with a lady cow herder. I rolled my eyes at this a bit, but Vatanen's story reminds me of how my father tells stories. There's always a grain of truth underneath everything my dad says, but chiseling the truth out of all the exaggerations and hyperbole can be somewhat difficult. And you always feel kind of bad for doubting his words, because the story is so much more interesting the way that is, that it is hard to imagine a more plausible telling of how it actually was. But luckily, Vatanen is not my father, so I can just say it. I don't trust this weaselly, slightly sinister man as a narrator (albeit not a first person narrator, but the story is still told from his point of view) OR as a human being.
The first half of the book is very light-hearted and fun. Vatanen seems fairly innocuous- he's just a bored middle aged man (I actually imagined him as in his mid- thirties, so middle aged is probably not the right descriptor) longing for some adventure and meaning in his life. He starts taking care of a wild hare, which is very endearing and makes the reader sympathetic to his cause. But things start to get weird after the first hundred pages or so. You feel sympathy for him because he has been trapped in a loveless marriage of seeming convenience for years, and I was hoping that he might find someone more to his liking on this journey. He did. But he also revealed himself to be a shallow, sexist jerk at the same time. Vatanen wakes up after a drunken week long binge to find himself engaged. This startles him, as he comes to realize all this over pint of beer a few mornings later. Trying to figure out what he has gotten himself into, he devises a plan to see what his new fiance is all about. I have no doubt if he had a pencil in his hand he would have dropped it on the floor and asked her to bend over to retrieve it in order to make sure her ass was young and firm enough for his liking. Satisfied that she was hot enough for him, he decides to roll with this engagement, never learning anything else about her. This is after another one night stand with a random girl, and some observations about how silly women in the wilderness can be. Strike one, Vatanen.
Vatanen, the purported nature lover, also has a cruel streak that occasionally arises. A certain crow starts annoying him by stealing food from his camp. Instead of taking it in stride, or outsmarting it, or moving to a cabin, Vatanen devises an evil plan to get rid of the damn thing. After the deed is done, there's a moment of remorse and but then Vatanen and his hare both take great joy in "laughing" over the poor bird's death. Strike two, Vatanen. Strike one, hare. Don't be such dicks!
I am not really sure what strike three is... I just generally disliked the main character. Maybe it was his laziness when, instead of helping fight the forest fire, he gets shitfaced with a moonshiner. Or his general disgust with city life and people from the city. I hate stories that glorify country life while vilifying urban life without any real reason. All this love for the wilderness seems hypocritical in Vatanen's case anyway. He only truly loves it when it leaves him alone or flows around him without directly getting in his way. The second a wild animal becomes a nuisance, Vatanen feels it is ok to hunt it down and kill it. By the end of the book, I was really hoping the bear would just eat Vatanen and get it over with.
Despite all my negatives, the book did make me want to go travel and abandon all my responsibilities. It was a fun escape from my life for the few hours I spent reading it- for the most part.
* I also think that some stuff just got lost in translation. Maybe some parts that I found offensive were meant to be funny... maybe this just doesn't translate well...
This was handed to me by a coworker at the company where I currently do "temp" work, busting my ass day after day, getting paid pennies to the dollar I obviously feel that I should be making, worrying about the day when I actually fall sick and don't get paid and still can't go to the doctor... sigh. I can go on and on. I can blame the crappy economy or my university education that apparently didn't prepare me for the real world, but this is a book review and not a lamentation on my life.
But these are precisely the reasons that this book appealed to me. Like the cover says, who doesn't dream of leaving the real world to be free to wander where ever your little heart desires? Of course, it helps to be in good health, preferably a male (really, you wouldn't want those silly women doing something like this, would you?), and have some money to at least get you started.
The story follows Vatanen, a man who suddenly deserts his job, his wife and civilized society to roam the wilderness with an injured hare. He quickly finds himself happier than he has ever been. We watch as he and the hare get into silly situations and then smooth talk, or poop their way out of them. The hare is highly anthropomorphized, up to the point where it gets embarrassed being in the same room as Vatanen having sex with a lady cow herder. I rolled my eyes at this a bit, but Vatanen's story reminds me of how my father tells stories. There's always a grain of truth underneath everything my dad says, but chiseling the truth out of all the exaggerations and hyperbole can be somewhat difficult. And you always feel kind of bad for doubting his words, because the story is so much more interesting the way that is, that it is hard to imagine a more plausible telling of how it actually was. But luckily, Vatanen is not my father, so I can just say it. I don't trust this weaselly, slightly sinister man as a narrator (albeit not a first person narrator, but the story is still told from his point of view) OR as a human being.
The first half of the book is very light-hearted and fun. Vatanen seems fairly innocuous- he's just a bored middle aged man (I actually imagined him as in his mid- thirties, so middle aged is probably not the right descriptor) longing for some adventure and meaning in his life. He starts taking care of a wild hare, which is very endearing and makes the reader sympathetic to his cause. But things start to get weird after the first hundred pages or so. You feel sympathy for him because he has been trapped in a loveless marriage of seeming convenience for years, and I was hoping that he might find someone more to his liking on this journey. He did. But he also revealed himself to be a shallow, sexist jerk at the same time. Vatanen wakes up after a drunken week long binge to find himself engaged. This startles him, as he comes to realize all this over pint of beer a few mornings later. Trying to figure out what he has gotten himself into, he devises a plan to see what his new fiance is all about. I have no doubt if he had a pencil in his hand he would have dropped it on the floor and asked her to bend over to retrieve it in order to make sure her ass was young and firm enough for his liking. Satisfied that she was hot enough for him, he decides to roll with this engagement, never learning anything else about her. This is after another one night stand with a random girl, and some observations about how silly women in the wilderness can be. Strike one, Vatanen.
Vatanen, the purported nature lover, also has a cruel streak that occasionally arises. A certain crow starts annoying him by stealing food from his camp. Instead of taking it in stride, or outsmarting it, or moving to a cabin, Vatanen devises an evil plan to get rid of the damn thing. After the deed is done, there's a moment of remorse and but then Vatanen and his hare both take great joy in "laughing" over the poor bird's death. Strike two, Vatanen. Strike one, hare. Don't be such dicks!
I am not really sure what strike three is... I just generally disliked the main character. Maybe it was his laziness when, instead of helping fight the forest fire, he gets shitfaced with a moonshiner. Or his general disgust with city life and people from the city. I hate stories that glorify country life while vilifying urban life without any real reason. All this love for the wilderness seems hypocritical in Vatanen's case anyway. He only truly loves it when it leaves him alone or flows around him without directly getting in his way. The second a wild animal becomes a nuisance, Vatanen feels it is ok to hunt it down and kill it. By the end of the book, I was really hoping the bear would just eat Vatanen and get it over with.
Despite all my negatives, the book did make me want to go travel and abandon all my responsibilities. It was a fun escape from my life for the few hours I spent reading it- for the most part.
* I also think that some stuff just got lost in translation. Maybe some parts that I found offensive were meant to be funny... maybe this just doesn't translate well...
Le lièvre, c'est l'événement inattendu qui provoque la sortie de route, le début d'une nouvelle vie où on ne se sent plus prisonnier d'une situation, d'un chemin tout tracé. C'est une lecture rafraichissante, dépaysante et totalement déjanté.
Grāmatnīcā noreklamēta kā Vairas Vīķes Freibergas mīļākā grāmata.
Inčīga, pārspīlējumiem un absurdām situācijām pilna grāmata, bet arī gana reāla savā somu tautas un nacionālā kolorīta tēlojumā. Epizodes gan nebija vienmērīgi smieklīgas, bet mans somu literatūras eksperts arī saka, šī neesot Pāsilinnas labākā grāmata.
Inčīga, pārspīlējumiem un absurdām situācijām pilna grāmata, bet arī gana reāla savā somu tautas un nacionālā kolorīta tēlojumā. Epizodes gan nebija vienmērīgi smieklīgas, bet mans somu literatūras eksperts arī saka, šī neesot Pāsilinnas labākā grāmata.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book was so incredibly Finnish from start to end I cannot even start to describe it.
Witty, funny, definitely unpredictable and overall a very enjoyable bed time or commute read. The pages flow easily and each chapter has some sort of closing but without messing with the linearity of the book.
Quite wholesome and even more relatable when you know something about the Finnish wilderness
Witty, funny, definitely unpredictable and overall a very enjoyable bed time or commute read. The pages flow easily and each chapter has some sort of closing but without messing with the linearity of the book.
Quite wholesome and even more relatable when you know something about the Finnish wilderness
adventurous