The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 28 February 2022
by Arto Paasilinna
From the time we become aware as children of the greater world around us, we begin to fantasize about running away from home, out to join the circus, ride the rails with the hoboes. This fantasy doesn't really fade with age. Some of us allow ourselves to go off the rails and go ride the rails. The rest of us try to become productive citizens, or to chase other dreams by staying on the well-trodden paths. Escape, though, always seems to remain an option, even if we rarely take advantage of it. Life is short. Shouldn't we run away when we know our happiness lies elsewhere? In the eternal arc of the universe, what difference does it make if we were deliberate, cautious, careful to stay within social norms? It's the call of the wild, the yearning to escape our strictures, be they personal, relationships, or career. Could you do it? What would it take to break the web of relative security? Finnish author Arto Paasilinna asked this question in this breezy, quixotic, quirky and humorous 1975 novel that became a best-seller in Europe before finally finding its way into English years later.
Vatanen is a working journalist from Helsinki, returning from a posting covering a story when his car strikes a small rabbit (hare) running across the road. When he jumps out of the car to follow the injured hare into the woods, Vatanen begins a journey away from his predictable life and toward a wandering existence across the northern reaches of Finland. Taking the hare with him, forming a bond with the wounded and fragile creature, he wanders the landscape, taking odd jobs, sleeping in attics and unused villas, and he encounters the paradoxes of Finnish life at the beginning of the 1970s. (After all, Finland held a fragile balance with the belligerence of its next-door neighbor Soviet Union.) There are gentle critiques of authority throughout the book, and a rejection of the noise and conformity of urban life. Vatanen prefers the wintry northern reaches of Lapland to the security of his job and home (along with a wife he does not love). All along the way, the hare follows. Vatanen feels responsible for this creature, and while we might assume this makes him an animal lover, we are to be shocked by some of the cruelty he perpetrates against wildlife as he, himself, grows more feral as the year goes on. The book's ambiguous ending takes Vatanen into the realm of folk tale. His struggle is easy to sympathise with in our ever more chaotic world, but the reality is that such escape is rarely achievable, too. The book is a fantasy and a critique. There are hidden layers in its meaning and intent, both personal and political. But, all in all, it fits into the iconoclastic literature of its era.