The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna
My rating: 3/5 cats
no moomins here!
so this is a book written in finnish, translated into french and then translated from that into american, so who knows what kind of stew i just read. whatever flavor it was, i liked it, but i can’t help but wonder how far removed it was from the original. to complicate things further, to me it feels very eastern european, in tone and subject matter—it just feels gombrowicz-y or like a somewhat wackier kundera or kafka. just in bits, though. and i usually ignore translator/tion issues simply because i have to. i figure there is no way i will ever learn every language, or even one language, really, but at my last book club meeting, we were reading a story by heinrich böll which i liked, but when i grabbed someone else’s book with a different translation, i liked theirs a lot more. (i have since ordered the “good” translation from abe.com you will no doubt all be pleased to know)
i liked this little book, although i am sure i did not grasp every ounce of import from it. i feel like it must have allegorical qualities that i am just reading right past, with my weak understanding of finnish mores.
however.
i personally love the word howl.
HOWL HOWL HOWL
and if i weren’t afraid of having the authorities called in to my home to remove me, i would give in to my primal howling urges always and howl whenever i was sad. like this miller. the one from the title, who howls.
and this is what would happen to me: they would take away my mill and make me live in the wilderness! and eat boiled bacon!! that is no way to treat bacon.
you want to root for the underdog, or i usually do, but this underdog is kind of a dick. he’s not a sweet man pushed outside of society like edward scissorhands or powder or whatever—he’s kind of an asshole. and sure, it could simply be the manifestation of some deeper psychological or chemical imbalance easily treatable with modern medicine, but i’m no analyst. to me, he is just kind of an asshole who when he feels frustrated, destroys the property of others. man, if he dumped my barley in the river, i would want him locked up too.but he lives in a town of assholes, too, so their singling him out seems hypocritical. but i guess it’s a case of containing the most obvious asshole and feeling a sense of accomplishment to the greater good of the community.
i liked this book, especially the ending, but maybe i will learn me some finnish in my spare time and read it in the original.
pause forever for laughter.
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