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A review by f4iryj
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
3.0
A review of The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna.
I found this book in the box of books in my English class. I don’t usually read Finnish authors translated into English but the cover caught my interest. My cover is a blue and yellow one with a black drawn hare. Anyways, I usually either read Finnish books in Finnish or foreign books translated into Finnish so this is very odd. But the fact that this is translated from Finnish shows in the prose. It is super obvious. English is just a super different language, it just doesn’t work. Either that or the translator didn’t do enough to make the transition smoother. The past tense is janky and odd and I imagine makes much more sense in Finnish. The flavour is definitely lost in translation. I tried to make it not take away from my enjoyment of the book but I imagine it definitely did factor into my thoughts at the end.
The book starts with our protagonist named Vatanen, a journalist, and his companion, a photographer hitting a hare with a car and then Vatanen nursing it back to health. He leaves his wife and job to be with the rabbit because he is dissatisfied with his life. He sells his boat and gets the money to travel around Finland. This story is definitely about the journey instead of the destination as he goes through many places meeting interesting people. People are interested in the hare and they interact with him and his furry companion, helping him out in taking care of it. He goes from Helsinki to all around Finland doing odd forestry jobs and other things. I missed some things because this was set in the 70s and I don’t know anything further than Kehä 3. Also, the ending was wild like WHAT. This whole book sounded like something someone could only come up with if they were drunk.
3.5 stars but rounded down.
Fun facts:
Apparently, my maths teacher likes this author. Wow, you learn something new every day.
I found this book in the box of books in my English class. I don’t usually read Finnish authors translated into English but the cover caught my interest. My cover is a blue and yellow one with a black drawn hare. Anyways, I usually either read Finnish books in Finnish or foreign books translated into Finnish so this is very odd. But the fact that this is translated from Finnish shows in the prose. It is super obvious. English is just a super different language, it just doesn’t work. Either that or the translator didn’t do enough to make the transition smoother. The past tense is janky and odd and I imagine makes much more sense in Finnish. The flavour is definitely lost in translation. I tried to make it not take away from my enjoyment of the book but I imagine it definitely did factor into my thoughts at the end.
The book starts with our protagonist named Vatanen, a journalist, and his companion, a photographer hitting a hare with a car and then Vatanen nursing it back to health. He leaves his wife and job to be with the rabbit because he is dissatisfied with his life. He sells his boat and gets the money to travel around Finland. This story is definitely about the journey instead of the destination as he goes through many places meeting interesting people. People are interested in the hare and they interact with him and his furry companion, helping him out in taking care of it. He goes from Helsinki to all around Finland doing odd forestry jobs and other things. I missed some things because this was set in the 70s and I don’t know anything further than Kehä 3. Also, the ending was wild like WHAT. This whole book sounded like something someone could only come up with if they were drunk.
3.5 stars but rounded down.
Fun facts:
Apparently, my maths teacher likes this author. Wow, you learn something new every day.