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Editorial: On life and
death
This'n'that
Small is beautiful! Books from Finland
celebrates its 40th year; what you think —
results of our reader survey; Maria Antas
on poems old and new by Lars Huldén; Jarmo Papinniemi
on Markku Pääskynen's new novel; literary prizes; changes
in
the Editorial Board of Books from Finland
Lars Huldén
Cycling through a rainbow
Poems from Läsning för vandrare ('Reading for hikers',
1974) and Sommardikter (published in Utförlig beskrivning
av en bärplockares väg. Dikter från femtio år,
'A thorough description of a berry-picker's path. Poems from fifty
years', Schildts, 2006), translated by David McDuff
Lars Huldén (born 1926) treats love and death with both serious
philosophy and a light touch. In his epigrammatic fragments he memorialises
a chorus of the dead, not without humour; in his latest collection
love may be transmitted via a mobile phone
Markku Pääskynen
Childhood revisited
Extracts from the novel Tämän maailman tärkeimmät
asiat ('The most important things of this world', Tammi, 2005),
translated by Lola Rogers
In this one-day novel by Markku Pääskynen (born 1973)
an aspiring writer reminisces about his childhood while waiting
for his mother to arrive in town for a visit. What the boy understands
is different from how the young man sees his past, but his mother,
with her secrets, is still closest to him
Juhani Aho
L'Amour à la Moulin Rouge
Extracts from the novella Yksin ('Alone', 1890; latest edition:
Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura / Finnish Literature Society),
translated by Herbert Lomas
After reading Juhani Aho's slim volume Yksin in 1890, Jean
Sibelius wanted to challenge its author to a duel. The composer
was enraged, because the yearned-for loved one in the erotic novella,
set in Paris, resembled his fiancée Aino Järnefelt —
Aho had nursed an unrequited passion for her
This is the fourth part in a series of brief portraits of classic
Finnish authors. Juhani Aho (1861—1921)
is introduced by Jyrki Nummi
Pia Ingström
Food for thought
Crime fiction is enormously popular all over. Readers devour murders
by the tonne; thrillers bring loads of money to writers and publishers.
But as literature, are they art? Should crime fiction even be judged
as art? Pia Ingström takes a look at best-selling Finnish crime
writers: Matti Yrjänä Joensuu, Leena Lehtolainen, Ilkka
Remes and Matti Rönkä
Matti Rönkä
Down to business
An extract from the crime novel Ystävät kaukana
('Friends far away', Gummerus, 2005), translated by Jill G. Timbers
In his third crime story about Viktor Kärppä, a Finnish
businessman and fixer born in Russia, Matti Rönkä (born
1959) makes him deal with serious crooks —
the game gets rough, in both business and marriage
Michel Ekman
Life is too short
...at least for reading thrillers. Michel Ekman, a literary scholar
and critic, claims whodunits are linguistically mediocre and intellectually
stereotyped — so, since art is
absent, why bother to read them, far less write them?
Torsti Lehtinen
Till the day I die
The essay 'Kuolema on elämän suola' ('Death is the salt
of life'; published in Sinä kuolet ('You are going to
die', a collection of articles, edited by Ari Liimatainen, Tammi,
2005), translated by Owen Witesman
The writer and scholar Torsti Lehtinen (born 1942) considers thinking
about death as a hobby; in this essay he takes a look at both a
fictional hell of his own imagination and at how religion treats
the subject of having to shuffle off this mortal coil
Jyrki Lehtola
Concentration camp
The journalist Jyrki Lehtola (born 1963) takes a look at the novel
Kalavale by the late Arto Salminen (see Books from Finland
4/05, page 314), whose subject is reality TV. How far will people
go to see their own face on the television? Greed and stupidity
look us in the eye in the mirror, not just in reality TV, Lehtola
notes
This is the first in a series of articles called Journalist's
tales that deal with media criticism
Reviews
Hildi Hawkins
Nearest and dearest
Suomalaisten symbolit [The Finns' symbols]. Toim. [ed.
by] Tero Halonen & Laura Aro
Satu Gröndahl
Natives of the north
Kulonen-Seurujärvi-Kari-Pulkkinen:
Saami. A Cultural Encyclopaedia
Monica Fagerholm
Flower-power
Maija Isola. Life, art, marimekko. Edited by Marianne Aav
& Harri Kivilinna & Eeva Viljanen
New translations
Select bibliography
Jyrki Sepänmaa
My favourite thing
In this new series guest writers discuss Finnish things they adore.
In the first article, Yrjö Sepänmaa, specialist in Environmental
Aesthetics, gives reasons why he likes his chrome-coloured, retro-design
mobile phone, the Benefon Q
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