The Year of the Hare

A classic, if slightly tongue-in-cheek, novel of rebellion against the conformity of organised society. A Helsinki journalist discovers the hollowness of the urban life he’s been leading when he gets the chance to bond with a wild animal, and he spends a mad but very fulfilling year getting back to nature. In the course of which he gets drunk numerous times (this is Finland, after all) and manages to commit no fewer than 22 crimes against the laws of bourgeois society, culminating in an unauthorised expedition into the Soviet Union. Some hard-hitting satirical points, an upbeat message about the power of expressing your individuality, and some endearing animal moments. What’s not to like?

The English translation, by the veteran poet show more and prolific Finnish translator Herbert Lomas (an unusual example of a translation being done by someone a generation older than the author) sometimes feels a little awkward, largely because of the way Lomas has translated the author’s informal language with 1940s-vintage British military slang. show less

Running after hares might change your life

I’ve enjoyed other books by Arto Paasilinna, but it’s been a while. This read was not part of the plan. I shouldn’t be surprised, when was “plan” part of any Paasilinna book?

Vatanen is a journalist who hates his job, hates his marriage, hates his life. Then one day he runs into a forest chasing a hare. The poor creature has been hit by car Vatanen was in… The man and the hare adopt each other and never look back. They travel all over Finland, jumping from one crazy situation into an even crazier one. I laughed in disbelief quite a few times! Vatanen meets conspiracy theorists, moonshine makers, crazy bulldozer drivers, foreign diplomats… On and on it goes. My favourite chapter was show more probably the one with the priest 😉

The ending felt abrupt, but I think it was the only way to finish this picaresque story.

It’s a pity this was an audiobook! I didn’t like the narrator at all. (Don’t take my word for it, though, this being my ca fourth audiobook ever.) The voice was so distracting, it kept pulling me out of the book. 1.5 speed worked wonders once I realized I could do that!

I had fun, just not as much fun as I expected. I have no way of knowing if the audiobook is to blame. show less

Vatanen es un periodista de mediana edad que mientras acompaña a su fotógrafo a un trabajo, atropella a una liebre, aprovecha este hecho para literalmente huir de su vida monótona, un trabajo que no le gusta y una esposa a la que no soporta.

Así Arto Paasalinna nos lleva a un viaje extraordinario, lleno de situaciones extrañas, donde Vatanen conoce a todo tipo de personajes y así, a través de esta aventura un tanto ecológica y con un mudo grito de reclamo social hacia el consumismo, la falta de valores sociales, repleto de un sarcasmo muy fino, la ironía y el humor negro acompañamos a Vatanen a este recorrido de aventuras casi oníricas y llenas de situaciones extrañas donde acompañado de su liebre vive todo tipo de show more aventuras, conoce todo tipo de personas desde buenas personas hasta las más crueles.

Me ha parecido un libro que con un sentido del humor muy pero que muy fino nos hace un reclamo bastante profundo de la sociedad, tal vez por la época en la que está escrito, he visto todo el tema hippie de amor y paz en todo el mensaje del libro. Maravillosamente escrito, entretenido y divertido, pero no en el sentido ordinario lo que lo hace a esta historia más especial, no es un humor que se vea a simple vista.

Me ha gustado mucho y además es un libro que se lee muy rápido,. Es mi primer libro de este autor y ahora que lo he encontrado le seguiré la pista. Me ha gustado mucho. show less

The standout moments of The Year of the Hare come when Paasilinna dwells on the absurd, the wry, the cynical, showing how small upsets in routine can upset even the most stolid and respectable-seeming person. Yet despite those moments, and despite the brisk pace of the prose, this slim novel didn't thrill me. Telling the tale of a middle-aged Finnish man who becomes fed up with his life after a chance encounter with a wild hare, throws in his job as a journalist in Helsinki and heads off into the forest to earn a living through honest labour, Paasilinna's work is sort of an archetypal white male hetero fantasy. There are some dodgy gender politics afoot (the main character, Vatanen, attracts beautiful young women for no discernible show more reason) and some hilariously dated geopolitics (it was written in the mid 70s, and there's a scene towards the end set in the Soviet Union that was clearly conceived through very rose-tinted spectacles). The end redeems the book somewhat—Vatanen saves the hare but destroys many other things, intentionally and otherwise—but I don't think this is a novel to which I will be returning. show less

When the car in which he's traveling injures a baby hare, Kaarlo Vatanen abandons his former life as a journalist and goes to live in nature with his new boon companion. This is a fairly short, but strangely intense picaresque which involves pretty much every stereotypical issue you can think of when it comes to Finnish people (the drink, the melancholy, the violence, the contemplation) and also describes the Finnish landscape in hard but loving terms and in great detail (Vatanen and the hare's trip can easily be traced on a map). Vatanen's return-to-nature odyssey lands him in a series of sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and sometimes absurd situations that aren't quite possible, but not entirely impossible either. I'd suggest arming show more yourself with an extremely dry sense of humor (Finnish-style) before picking this up or you'll be wondering what on earth is going on. show less

The Year of the Hare - Paasilinna
Audio performance by Simon Vance
3 stars

This is a comic novel written more than 40 years ago by the Finnish author Arto Paasilinna. The hapless hero Vatanen, leaves his divisive marriage and his pointless journalism job to rescue and befriend an injured hare. He adopts a somewhat nomadic existence that takes him back to the land in various menial jobs. This results in a series of farcical encounters that are told with a dry humor that pokes a satirical finger toward contemporary life and politics.

I enjoyed this book. It gave me a few giggles. I was reminded of Jimmy Stewart and Harvey, one of my favorite classic movies. However, I think some of the humor may have been lost in the translation and with show more the passage of time. show less

An odd little book. Vatanen goes back and takes care of a hare that he and his coworker hit by accident while driving. That action starts him on a new course. He leaves his job, his wife, his position to wander the country and take care of the hare. He meets odd ball characters, helps fight a forest fire. Than begins an obsession with getting revenge on a bear.