'When I Forgot' by Elina Hirvonen

I'm not sure I would have carried on reading this book had I not promised you, my faithful few blog readers, to review it.

At the beginning I was both confused and yes, frankly bored, with the narrative. English readers who don't like foreign literature often tell me it's because 'It reads like a translation'. I've always taken this to be a sign of certain kind of small-mindedness, even snobbery, thinking the speaker is lazy or unwilling to accept a different culture. So I've dismissed these kinds of comments, not ever considering that a foreign book could simply be badly translated.

Until I read 'When I Forgot'. Had I not grown up in Finland with Finnish as my mother tongue, I could not have made head nor tale of the first 20 pages of this book. The English prose in the beginning is very clipped and clunky. The plot is vague to the point that one feels the reader is kept in suspense for the sake of it. The action takes place in several time spans, while the protagonist sits in a cafe, whiling away her time, smoking and drinking coffee. (If there hadn't been the blurb at the back of the book, I'd not been able to deduce even this little piece of information from the text.)

Suddenly at page 23 the reader is taken into an action scene which happens in the narrator's childhood. This is dramatic stuff and when we come back to the cafe, we begin to understand what's going on. It's the second part of a scene, one that as a whole works brilliantly to draw the reader in. In my humble opinion the author should have started the novel with this scene, and not cut it in half.

Because from this point the simple language and short sentences start to work. I began to sympathise with the narrator, and wanted to know what happens next.

The story takes place in Helsinki in 2001 with the Nine Eleven attacks in America as a backdrop. Anna's lover is a lecturer from New York with his own dramatic childhood experiences to deal with. Anna struggles to find happiness between him, her dysfunctional family and the impeding war against Iraq. Both the reaction in Finland to the world events, with street demonstrations and individual aggression against an American citizen, as well as the mundane every day Helsinki life is skilfully portrayed. Elina Hirvonen is also brilliant at working with several points of views, without compromising the single-narrator plot. Her ability to juxtapose the ordinary with the extraordinary is simply unique.

The author is also extremely adept at describing the few characters of the novel. The mentally-ill brother, strict father and long-suffering mother as well as the American lover are skilfully portrayed. The reader is sometimes almost too aware of their individual sufferings.

In other words I heartily recommend you persevere with this book past the 20 or so pages. It's well worth it.

'When I Forgot' by Elina Hirvonen is published by Portobello Books, London.

Bitter Bitch by Maria Sveland

This novel by the Swedish author, Maria Sveland, is to be published in English on 25 February 2010, but came out in Sweden in its original title, Bitterfittan, already in 2007.

According to The Bookseller, Constable and Robinson bought the rights to the book during the London Bookfair in April with 'a substantial five-figure sum'. It has sold over 200,000 copies in Sweden. The German translation sold 20,000 copies in its first three weeks after publication earlier this year.

The book tells a story of a frustrated journalist mother of one, Sara, who's overwhelmed by motherhood and finds herself growing more and more bitter.

The Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, called the book, 'A political novel about cohabitation and equality' and its English-language publishers, 'A wonderfully honest and open account of a woman querying the values of motherhood and family life.'

While reading it, I had to pinch and remind myself that this was 2009 and that women burning their bras had occurred a decade or three earlier. And that Sweden had been at the forefront of the feminist movement.

But I guess that's her point. Life between the sexes by now should be equal. Men should equally have to, not just take responsibility, but also feel the weight of responsibility we women do for our children. But, all the same, in a country where 20% of men actually take paternity leave and where women have the most equal opportunities at the workplace in the world, what you might say has she to complain about? That life is not perfect? Wow, that's a really revolutionary observation.

I felt sorry for the men in the book. I felt Sveland didn't go any deeper into any of the relationships she internally investigates, including her parents' unhappy marriage or the connection between couples she observes in Teneriffe, where she's gone alone for a week long holiday 'to sleep'. Everything that is wrong in the world is men's fault. And women are perfect in every way.

And she misses her young son, a fact she resents. In fact she resents motherhood.

But the biggest problem with Bitterfittan is a total lack of a plot. What we get instead is a memoir of how this thirty-year-old had got to where she is, a Bitter Bitch. There's always a problem with a narrator going back in her life, especially if we know her present situation, as this takes away any form of suspense. Instead the reader is asked to sit in on her internal journey from an angry young mother to...well I won't spoil the little in a way of a twist that the book provides.

The title of the of the novel in Swedish is much more offensive than its English translation. Sufficient to say that instead of 'Bitch', it includes a word beginning with 'C'. Could it be that this has something to do with the novel's popularity in Sweden and Germany?

'Seinää Vasten' (Against the Wall) by Jarkko Sipilä

This crime thriller won the 2009 Johtolanka-prize in Finland. It's the 8th in a series of novels following a police department in Helsinki, headed by Chief Inspector Takamäki. The main character is an under cover policeman, Suhonen, who infiltrates a gang of criminals, run from his prison cell by a violent offender, Larsson.

I have not read the previous seven books in the series and found the characters unconvincing and one-dimensional. The author himself admits that he does not wish to burden the reader with the details of the policemen’s private lives. ‘Personal details would make the characters deeper, but if they don’t move the plot forward…’ http://www.dekkariseura.fi/

But the plot didn't keep me awake either. The novel starts with a prologue, a sure sign that the reader needs some extra help. The story is told from the point of view of all the policemen as well as all the villains. This slows down the action and confuses the reader. As a Finn who left her native country some 25 years ago, I also found the many characters’ names unnecessarily long and similar, adding to my confusion. I also spotted an interesting detail: the three truly nasty characters all had Swedish names. Oh to be a Finnish Man!

‘Against the Wall’ has been acclaimed for its authenticity. I have no doubt about this. The dialogue with modern street language is impressive (and I can only assume realistic) and I enjoyed the new phrases. Both the policemen and the criminals use complicated technical equipment and their function is explained well by the writer without affecting the fluency of the story. The rest of the narrative is sometimes clumsy. Whether it’s explaining the routines of the Helsinki serious crimes police department, or the habits of the prisoners, I got the impression that the production of the book was hurried.

In Finland the theme of the book, the limits of what an undercover policeman can do, has been topical after revelations of some police officers’ dealings with drug traffickers. Sipilä claims his plot was charted well before these revelations, but it made me wonder whether ‘Against the Wall’ was rushed into to the printers to mirror the more serious goings-on in the real Finnish police force?