bluegargantua (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bluegargantua) wrote2015-01-27 12:39 pm
bluegargantua) wrote2015-01-27 12:39 pm
Entry tags:
I'm hunting Weviews
Hi,
So I breezed through The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen and translated by Lola M. Rogers. As you might guess, Mr. Jääskeläinen is Finnish and so the reviews are filtereed through the lens of the translator as much as anything. Luckily, Ms. Rogers does a very nice job. The book had a good flow and nothing seemed terribly clunky or out-of-place.
Anyway, Rabbit Back (which I kept reading as Rabbit Black or Black Rabbit or Back Rabbit for some reason) is a small Finnish town. Its main claim to fame is that it's the home of famed children's author Laura White. Shortly after she became famous she began picking a select number of local school children to join her Rabbit Back Literature Society. She chose nine students in all and groomed them to become writers -- all of whom have gone on to a fair amount of success.
Ella is an academic researcher working as a teacher in her hometown of Rabbit Back. One of her short story pieces appears in the local paper and Ms. White takes notice. After many years, Ella is to be the newest, and tenth member of the Society. There's a gala party to celebrate, but in the midst of it, Ms. White disappears in a sudden blizzard.
So Ella is left on her own to meet up with the reclusive members of the Society and in trying to work out what happened to Ms. White, she stumbles upon other mysteries. Odd, unusual things start cropping up, Ella learns about a mysterious Game played by the other Society members, and things take a turn for the weird.
I suppose the book most easily falls under magical realism. There are a lot of loose, dangling plot threads that never really get resolved and the book has no interest in explaining them. It answers enough of the more mundane mysteries that you can let the more mystical ones alone. Overall it was a fairly quiet, low-key kind of book, but certainly enjoyable reading.
later
Tom
So I breezed through The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen and translated by Lola M. Rogers. As you might guess, Mr. Jääskeläinen is Finnish and so the reviews are filtereed through the lens of the translator as much as anything. Luckily, Ms. Rogers does a very nice job. The book had a good flow and nothing seemed terribly clunky or out-of-place.
Anyway, Rabbit Back (which I kept reading as Rabbit Black or Black Rabbit or Back Rabbit for some reason) is a small Finnish town. Its main claim to fame is that it's the home of famed children's author Laura White. Shortly after she became famous she began picking a select number of local school children to join her Rabbit Back Literature Society. She chose nine students in all and groomed them to become writers -- all of whom have gone on to a fair amount of success.
Ella is an academic researcher working as a teacher in her hometown of Rabbit Back. One of her short story pieces appears in the local paper and Ms. White takes notice. After many years, Ella is to be the newest, and tenth member of the Society. There's a gala party to celebrate, but in the midst of it, Ms. White disappears in a sudden blizzard.
So Ella is left on her own to meet up with the reclusive members of the Society and in trying to work out what happened to Ms. White, she stumbles upon other mysteries. Odd, unusual things start cropping up, Ella learns about a mysterious Game played by the other Society members, and things take a turn for the weird.
I suppose the book most easily falls under magical realism. There are a lot of loose, dangling plot threads that never really get resolved and the book has no interest in explaining them. It answers enough of the more mundane mysteries that you can let the more mystical ones alone. Overall it was a fairly quiet, low-key kind of book, but certainly enjoyable reading.
later
Tom