Popular Music from Vittula

This is one of those gems that would never have been published in the US unless it came in with some momentum and buzz from afar. It describes adolesence, dipping deeply into the well, stringing together a series of vignettes that are well tied together. I'm a 54-year old businessman, parts of the book were agonizing and I actually found myself squinting through my fingers in raw embarassment. The wedding chapter was tremendous. jk

Usually, it's my husband who keeps me awake laughing at whatever book he's reading in bed. This time, it's my turn! This is the first book in years that has made me laugh out loud over and over again. Yes, it's crude in spots -- but that shouldn't surprise anyone who has spent time with teenage boys. The amusing stories are just part of the author's arsenal of techniques for conveying the sense of living on the very scary edge of reality that comes with growing up. I'd give a special award to the translator for the freshness of the language. I put this book in a class with the works of Tom Robbins and John Barth and will be looking for more from Mikael Niemi.

I never stopped laughing while reading this funny yet tender coming of age book set in the Swedish backwater of Pajala in Tornedalen Sweden. North of the Arctic circle on the border of Finland and Sweden lies this small community of survivors in a harsh climate. In a social milieu that rewards heavy manual labor like hunting and logging, there is little room for a young man whose greatest interest is listening to and playing rock and roll music. From descriptions of his six fingered guitar playing music teacher to the limited ability of these northeners to express their feelings, this is a marvelous window on the soul of Pajala. So limited are their communication skills that most social interaction takes place in the context of manly physical contests like arm wrestling or moose hunting. These occassions are liberally lubricated with alcohol of dubious quality. Often they end in alcoholic stupors. Obviously, the dark northern winters take their toll on the residents' psyches. The narrator and main charcter, Matti, has a best fiend whose family is a member of a fundamentalist christian sect. As such Niila is even further deprived of human warmth and conversation. His family would be aghast at their son's interest in rock music. Thus, this interest is secreted in Matti's cellar where they play at being musicians with homemade semblances of instruments. Not until a new music teacher comes from skane to teach at their school do they have the advantage of real instruments. Matti and Niila assume that the music teacher plays authentic american blues because he is from Skane in southern Sweden and therefore familiar with authentic southern american music. Such is their cultural deprivation. Yet in spite of the bareness of their youth in this landscape, they maintain their interest in what the Pajala menfolk would consider women's work. That anyone in this dismal backwater could maintain an interest in the arts is a testament to the main charcter's inner strength. One wonders if this book is at least drawn in part from the author's interest and career in writing and teaching Swedish. The villagers who speak a Finish dialect view the standard Swedish taught in the school as a snob's language. Normally I don't care for translations, but this one is excellent. The only word(s) the translator confuses is "pry" and its conjugations with "prize."I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and recommend it highly. It is both technically well done and a quick, easy, enjoyable read.

Don't be discouraged by this book's jacket, which makes it look kind of dark and serious. It's _hilarious_--as well as humane, moving, and gorgeously written/translated. I kept thinking as I read it, "Wow! Is the original this good or is the translator just really brilliant?" I think the answer has got to be both: gifted author, gifted translator. I'm planning to give a lot of copies as gifts this winter.

When Matti's lips freeze onto a rock on top of the Shangri La Pass in Nepal, he has to use his own warm urine to free them before he can tell the story of his youth. This hilarious event sets the tone for this remarkable book.Matti grows up in Vittula (freely translated as "Cunt-village"), a neighbourhood in a small town in northern Sweden. Life consists of short, warm summers and long, cold and dark winters and is filled with grown-ups filling themselves with moonshine alcohol. When they are drunk they start to brag about the extraordinary feats performed by family members until they get unconscious from the alcohol. It is the beginning of the sixties and Matti and his friend Niila discover pop music. They build their own guitars and start practicing the songs they here on the record player of Matti's sister (with artrocious and very funny Swedish-English lyrics).These are only a few of the host of stories that are described very vividly in this enormously funny and readable book. Regularly I burst out in laughter, which is about as good a recommendation as one can give for a book.