Forty-year-old Finnish journalist
Vatanen, oppressed by a job which doesn't satisfy him and by a less
than happy marriage, one day decides to leave it all behind, cut any
connection with the life he used to live and start wandering around
Finland, to release himself from life's hectic pace and worries and
regain his bearings.
Vatanen gets the
opportunity to run away on a late afternoon, during a car trip with a
colleague from Helsinki to Heinola: the driver involuntarily hits a
small hare which suddenly crossed the road. Vatanen gets off the
car, takes the hare with him and heads for the woods, careless of the
consequences that this decision of his might bear.
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| Vatanen's journey as it looks on Google Maps |
The hare will be the loyal
companion of Vatanen's adventures, which will lead him to travel the
country far and wide. The two come across all kinds of characters
along the road: from the police commissar suspecting a conspiracy
regarding the then-president of Finland Kekkonen (the book was first
published in Finland in 1975), to the old drunken man who joins
Vatanen in the hypothetical discovery of war relics in the Ounasjoki,
the river flowing through Rovaniemi, to peasants, soldiers and
government officers.
Vatanen's journey ends in
the Soviet Union, after the breath-taking pursuit of a bear.
The book leaves and open
ending: sentenced to jail for a number of crimes (listed in the book)
he has committed during his peregrinations, Vatanen can't resist his
need for freedom and manages to escape, venturing towards new,
unknown destinations.
What strikes about
Paasilinna's work, in my opinion, is the author's strong feeling for
nature and all that belongs to it. Accurate descriptions of the
landscape are to be found in the book, a landscape that is dear to
the author and surely well-known to those who have visited Finland.
It's a landscape made of majestic forests, rivers and lakes under the
dome of a sky capable of a thousand colour shades. This stunning
natural environment is home to numerous animals, which the authors
depicts with surprisingly humanizing traits, signifying a sense of
respect and devotion on part of the author towards the small (and
big) creatures dwelling the Finnish forests and woods. So we're told
about a cow in labour whose shrieks one would never imagine to be
able to come out of a cow's throat, and about Vatanen promptly
picking up the newborn veal and carrying it on his shoulders to save
it from a forest fire. The journalist will also have to cope with a
crow, the meanest animal of the forest in the author's words, whom
will be punished bitterly for having taken advantage of Vatanen's
provisions. To end with, Vatanen's journey terminates with the pursue
and killing of a bear, guilty of having plundered Vatanen's hut and
of having attacked and injured him, although not severely.
Beside the adventurous and
engaging plot, a sharply ironic style makes the reading pleasant and
amusing.
Title: The Year of the Hare (original title: Jäniksen vuosi)
Author: Arto Paasilinna
Title: The Year of the Hare (original title: Jäniksen vuosi)
Author: Arto Paasilinna
