Yay yay yay! It's finally here! Time for my first book review to be born!
So we got Purge, by Sofi Oksanen. Here's one of those books where I saw the cover and went, "ooooooh, prettyyyyy," and plus, my heritage is Swedish and Oksanen's is Finnish so woot woot, we're neighbors, hey. Had to read it. Also, it was translated by someone who went to the same Scandinavian department as me (shout out to UW) so double had to read it. And after the rather slow first ten-ish pages, I'm definitely glad I did.
The Haps, Paps: Zara has shown up, rumpled, messy, and freaking out, outside of Aliide's house in Estonia. She (Zara) is claiming to be on the run from her husband, the Incredibly Evil Bastard (IEB for short, mayhaps?) Pasha, which Aliide hesitantly believes, though she is suspicious of Zara's story. The novel tells each woman's story in alternating chapters: Zara's struggle with being forced into the sex trade industry by the IEB Pasha, and Aliide's duplicitous actions during World War II. Oksanen does a good job of making you feel one way and then slowly spinning you in a circle so that you feel quite the opposite by the end of the novel (you'll see what I mean). The writing is beautiful, though I did at times feel held at a distance. I think this is in part due to the fact that it was translated into English, and in part due to the mentioning of things that I am perhaps just not privy to:
"Would you rather have the Russians here? Would you rather have the floor of your home covered with sunflower seeds so it sounds like you're treading on beetles?" (203).
Errr...are Russians known for that?
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