Missä kuljimme kerran : romaani eräästä kaupungista ja… (2006)

This is a beautiful book. The setting which is described is interesting enough: Helsinki during the first part of the 20th century, the first World War, the impact of the civil war between the Reds and the Whites, the gay twenties with the introduction of jazz, alcohol-prohibition, the introduction of modern age,...
Unlike many other books where characters are merely "results" of their time or upbringing who must "fit the story", Westö manages to create wonderful characters who not only have their own, complex personality, but he lets them grow up and evolve, influenced by the time they are living in, by interacting with the society they live in or oppose to, by confronting them with their friends and their family-background.
While you get a great insight in life in Helsinki, it's far more subtle and universal than a description of this society because the characters aren't placed there merely as metaphors, but they have their own psychological development as well: hope, fear, strenght, courage, weakness, despair, love, pride, ... it's all there. The beautiful and fluent writing-style of the author adds to the magic of this book.
With this book, Kjell Westö deservedly won the Finlandia Prize in 2006. It's a book you cannot help but fall in love with. It slightly reminded me of the atmosphere of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, but then a lot more intricate and subtle. Highly recommended and one of my best reads of 2010. ( )

review in my blog (in finnish):
http://tpi-reads.blogspot.com/2009/01/kjell-west-miss-kuljimme-kerran.html ( )

Se anmeldelse:

http://no.librarything.com/work/1970672/details/35936914 ( )