The sheer literary delight of Arto Paasilinna's comic novels is one of the best-kept secrets in Finland. Until now the only evidence of this in English translation has been the superb novel The Howling Miller and, like it, The Year of the Hare is a spare narrative about a social misfit that builds with an unexpected cumulative impact. These are tall tales that are halfway between fairy tales and fables, yet decidedly realistic in all their details and their depictions of the human race. Paasilinna puts his money on the outsider, the rule-breaker, the good man outside of society who is condemned for listening to a different drummer.
Kaarlo Vatanen, his Everyman hero in this newest novel in translation, is trapped in a loveless marriage and has a job as a journalist for which he feels contempt. Arguing with his grumpy photographer as they drive through a forest, the sight of a hare trying to get out of the way of their car comes too late, the hare is hit and runs injured into the trees. Vatanen gets out of the car and runs after it, and is never seen again.
That's how the story is launched, and it just keeps getting better. Once he's splinted the rabbit's leg and two of them have become inseparable, Vatanen leaves his unhappy life behind and keeps on going into the forest, encountering one adventure after another--a raging forest fire, a cow stuck in a marsh, a robber crow, an angry bear, a beautiful lawyer and an old man who has discovered evidence that the president of Finland is really two different people. His hare is never far behind, and as they break one petty law after another, they make their way across Finland into the snowbound reaches of the Soviet Union for a climactic showdown on the ice.
Paasilinna not only sees the ugliness of social conventions, but portrays all the animal life in the book with an exhilarating compassion. "Loving animals can be a heavy load," says Vatanen as he risks his life to save the cow in the swamp. These animals aren't anthropomorphized. They're utterly true to their natures, endearingly so. Vatanen's faithfulness to the hare is never in doubt. They even share the same jail cell. When this hero returns home, he shatters the macho mold by rushing to sweep his rabbit into his arms.
Here's a unique novel for readers who think they've read everything, a story that goes in one unexpected direction after another, perpetually unpredictable, constantly heartwarming, as the reader willingly goes along with Vatanen, just like the rabbit hopping along beside him, from a bear's lair to the frozen wastes of the White Sea. For reading in the heart of winter, there couldn't be a more enjoyable antidote, but the book is lamentably short and over before you know it. So read it slowly. You'll want to laugh out loud at all the good parts, and savor every lean, simple, honest sentence.--Nick DiMartino
Shelf Talker: A spare narrative about a social misfit and a hare, halfway between fairy tale and fable, that builds with an unexpected cumulative impact. Perpetually unpredictable and constantly heartwarming, it's a book to read slowly and savor.