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tomleetang 's review for:
The Year of the Hare
by Arto Paasilinna
Very simply written, the story of journo Vatanen and the leveret he saves then adopts (and abandons his unhappy marriage to go traveling with) could almost be a children's story, if not for the adult frame of reference. Through a series of amusing episodes with eccentric characters - including a gun-toting pastor and a former police superintendent with a singular conspiracy theory - we get an introduction to different aspects of Finnish life and the Finnish mindset.
The Year of the Hare is filled with a dry sense of humour and farcical scenes, but it is also a rallying cry for a simpler way of life. It's an unpretentious Walden for our time.
Perhaps the most poignant point the author makes is on the violence man does to nature. Even a man like Vatanen who purports to love the wild still deals brutally with animals that he feels have wronged him. Though he has left behind the world of man, he brings that world with him wherever he goes - sometimes to the detriment of nature.
Mostly, though, the author doesn't bother to dig too deeply into any of the glancing points about modern life that he makes. This is just a diverting story of a man and his hare, hopping off on a jaunt into the wild.
The Year of the Hare is filled with a dry sense of humour and farcical scenes, but it is also a rallying cry for a simpler way of life. It's an unpretentious Walden for our time.
Perhaps the most poignant point the author makes is on the violence man does to nature. Even a man like Vatanen who purports to love the wild still deals brutally with animals that he feels have wronged him. Though he has left behind the world of man, he brings that world with him wherever he goes - sometimes to the detriment of nature.
Mostly, though, the author doesn't bother to dig too deeply into any of the glancing points about modern life that he makes. This is just a diverting story of a man and his hare, hopping off on a jaunt into the wild.