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jessrock 's review for:
The Year of the Hare
by Arto Paasilinna
A charming if inconsequential book about a man who decides to walk out on his life and start over again. Told largely in vignettes, The Year of the Hare describes a year in the life of Vatanen, a journalist who has been unhappy in his job and relationship for a long time. When his car strikes a hare while out on assignment a few hours from home, Vatanen follows the injured hare into the woods, nurses it back to health, and makes it his constant companion as he wanders farther and farther from his life in Helsinki and into the northernmost parts of Finland. They stumble into all kinds of adventures, frequently unpleasant, and rarely Vatanen's fault, but he is at peace through it all, having "found himself" by leaving the city for nature.
I have to complain here, though, about the horrible translation job in the English edition of this book. While I realize it's possible that the original Finnish was this stilted and the translator was just being true to the text, I suspect that's not the case. The translator generally chooses very mundane English - short words and choppy sentences - but occasionally we get pretty obscure words thrown in, like his repeated use of "leveret" as an alternative word for "hare," and this gem of a sentence:
(Though I do have to admit "nous" is a pretty entertaining alternative for the gendered language that a native speaker would probably have chosen for that sentence.)
Overall, a charming enough story, but it makes me wish I knew Finnish so I could read it in the author's own voice. I'm not sure I can really recommend this English version very highly.
I have to complain here, though, about the horrible translation job in the English edition of this book. While I realize it's possible that the original Finnish was this stilted and the translator was just being true to the text, I suspect that's not the case. The translator generally chooses very mundane English - short words and choppy sentences - but occasionally we get pretty obscure words thrown in, like his repeated use of "leveret" as an alternative word for "hare," and this gem of a sentence:
Anyone could live this life, he reflected, provided they had the nous to give up the other way of life.
(Though I do have to admit "nous" is a pretty entertaining alternative for the gendered language that a native speaker would probably have chosen for that sentence.)
Overall, a charming enough story, but it makes me wish I knew Finnish so I could read it in the author's own voice. I'm not sure I can really recommend this English version very highly.