Sofi Oksanen's bestselling novel Purge is a masterpiece, and I don't say that lightly - I don't think I've ever reviewed a book that gripped me quite so thoroughly, especially as this type of novel isn't my usual cup of tea. Puhdistus ("Purge") started out as a play and was staged at the Finnish National Theatre in 2007 - out of the play grew Oksanen's third literary novel Puhdistus (2008). It became a runaway success, ranked #1 on the bestseller list for fiction in Finland when it was published. She was awarded the prestigious Finlandia Prize (2008) and the Runeberg Prize (2009) for Puhdistus. Oksanen is the youngest author ever to win the prestigious Finlandia Prize, which comes with a prize sum of 30.000 and ensures wide recognition and boosted sales in Finland at least. The Finlandia Award, awarded in early December, was the peak of a prize-winning season for Oksanen; since Purge was published she has been appointed Cristina of the Year (an academic prize from the University of Helsinki), received The Mika Waltari Award 2008, The Great Finnish Book Club Prize 2008, The Kalevi Jäntti Award 2008, The Runeberg Award 2008 and The Varjo-Finlandia Award 2009. In addition, Purge is shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2010
(Updated March 30th 2010 - Sofi Oksanen has won the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2010 - quote from the news release "The Finnish author Sofi Oksanen has won the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2010 for her work "Puhdistus." Sofi Oksanen (born 1977) shows her full strength with her third novel 'Puhdistus'. In a rich and expressive language she weaves a specific historical event, the Soviet occupation of Estonia, with a burning topical global contemporary theme - trafficking around the Baltic Sea. The Adjudication Committee wrote:
"Sofi Oksanen's novel 'Puhdistus' ('Cleansing') takes place in two periods of time in Estonia, but its themes of love, treachery, power and powerlessness are timeless. 'Puhdistus' vibrates with tension: unspoken secrets and deeply shameful deeds stretch out across the book like a web and compel the reader to keep reading. With a rare precise and apposite language Oksanen describes what history does to individuals and history's pervasion in the present." The Literature Prize, worth DKK 350,000, will be presented to Sofi Oksanen at the beginning of November 2010 during the Nordic Council Session in Reykjavik. The Nordic Council Literature Prize has been awarded since 1962).
I've struggled through another of Oksanen's books, "Stalin's Cows", reading the Finnish-language version (it isn't available in English), which was a bit of a struggle, and really enjoyed it. I was really happy to see Puhdistus (Purge) available in English, bought it, read it and was thoroughly surprised and impressed by just how good it is. And speaking as one who has struggled through reading a few books in Finnish, the translation into English by Lola Rogers is really well done. If you want to read a recent novel (as opposed to older classics) by one of Finland's leading novelist's, this is one to start with, although it's set in Estonia. Sofi Oksanen herself (born January 7, 1977) is now a popular contemporary writer in Finland. She was born in Jyväskylä (Finland), of Estonian heritage. She is a former dramaturgy student of the Finnish Theatre Academy. Both the Finnish and Estonian press make a lot of her status as angry young woman regarding women's issues and the distortion of Soviet history as related to Finland and Estonia. But she does know her onions. Under the Gothic exterior lurks a knowledgeable person.
Personnally, I can't recommend Oksanen's writing highly enough.
To paraphrase a couple of the better literary reviews, Purge is a chilling and rather subtle drama of two generations of women, set in wartime 1940's Estonia during the Soviet occupation, and in the same country in the 90's as it grapples with the realities of a new Europe. Through the stories of two women, Sofi Oksanen shows us the history of Estonia, a small country that has been repeatedly violated by the Russians, by the West and by history itself, yet managed to stand strong and survive against all odds. As well as a skilfully crafted tale, Purge is also a stinging account of a chapter of Eastern European history that we are on the verge of forgetting. Or denying. In her hands, this story makes concrete the grisly events of recent Estonian history. Oksanen herself has publicly criticised the trendy nostalgia for the Soviet Union, those who put on a hammer and sickle t-shirt and stick a Lenin pin on their chest without a thought to what they are advertising. (my own comment - With Purge, Oksanen doesn't just rap these pin-wearers on the knuckles, she hits them over the head with a sledgehammer. Brutally!)
Narrated through dual story lines and multiple points of view, Purge tells the suspenseful and dramatic story of Aliide Truu, an old Estonian women whose hands are soiled with the crimes she committed during the Soviet era, and Zara, a young sex trafficking victim who in the present has managed to escape and has come to seek shelter at Aliide's countryside home, as well as Zara's grandfather, Hans (who was one of the Forest Brothers who first fought the Soviet occupiers and then, after Estonia was once more occupied, was living for a long time in a concealed room in what is now Aliide's house). As the two women start to approach each other and the links between them are revealed bit by bit, a tragic and complex family drama of rivalry, lust, and loss that plays out during the worst years of the Soviet occupation of Estonia unfolds. In this way, Purge becomes an investigation into the female experience of the loss of freedom, and the cost of survival in a repressive system. The entire story is well-composed and multifaceted: the two women as alternating protagonists, pieces of a fugitive's diary, confidential surveillance reports, all supplemented with chapter titles that hint at what is happening. That the narrative is not chronological, but repeatedly retrieves storylines and circumstances from various earlier time periods only adds to the suspense...as do the emotions, jealousy and sexuality, and the terrible justification of murder.
In reading Purge, it helps to know a little about Estonian history, otherwise the motives of the characters may be misinterpreted. I noticed for example that a recent reviewer mentioned that Hans was a murderer. That's actually a question of interpretation - was Han's a murderer, or was he a hero who continued to fight for Estonia even when the cause was hopeless. There's so many multiple facets to this book that this type of question crops up everywhere. Anyhow, for those that know little about Estonia but are interested in the book, he's a brief summary that may help with some context:
1919 - Estonia becomes an independant state, breaking away from Tsarist Russia in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. The Estonian army fights of the Bolshevik Red Army's attempts to reconqour the newly independent state with the aid of the British Royal Navy and Finnish volunteers,
1940 - the Russians invaded. Estonia was absorbed into the Soviet Union and a Communist regime was imposed. The red terror began in June 1941, with many thousands of Estonians deported and / or executed. As a result, when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union, many Estonians saw them as liberators and supported the Germans, many joining the German Army (an Estonian soldier, Alfons Rebane - look him up in Wikipedia, incidentally, was one of only two non-Germans to be awarded the highest German military medal - the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves).
1944 - The Red Army again overran Estonia, dissolving an Estonian government that had assumed power after the German Army withdrew. The Russians then imposed a tyrannical regime and in 1949, thousands more Estonians were deported. Some Estonians fled to the forests and fought the Russians. They became known as Forest Brothers, with the last known soldier dying in 1978
So to help put the book in context, to most Estonians the Germans were liberators and their control was hardly a reign of terror, except to Estonian Jews. The Soviet Union was a far more murderous and oppresive ruler, and Purge illustrates this in literary form, as well as portraying the dilemma many Estonians such as Han's faced.
Anyhow, here's a bunch of quotes from reviews from the Salomonsson Agency website. You get the gist of what everyone thinks quite easily from these and personnally, I agree. It's a superb piece of writing and well worth reading.
"A sheer masterpiece... A marvel... I hope that everyone in the world who knows how to read, reads Purge."
--Nancy Huston, author of Fault Lines
"Purge is a truly stunning novel, both heartbreaking and optimistic. Through the stories of two women, Sofi Oksanen shows us the history of a country that has been repeatedly violated by the Russians, by the West, by history itself, yet managed to stand strong."
--Lara Vapnyar, author of There Are Jews in my House
"This wonderfully subtle thriller...captures both the tragic consequences of one of Europe's biggest conflicts and the universal horrors that war inflicts on women. With a tone somewhere between Ian McEwan's Atonement and the best of the current crop of European crime novelists, this bitter gem promises great things from the talented Oksanen."
Kirkus Reviews (US)
"Oksanen adeptly handles dual story lines and multiple points of view as she keeps us turning pages to reach the dramatic conclusion. Verdict: Highly recommended for fans of classic Russian writers like Tolstoy and Pasternak, as well as those who enjoy a contemporary tale of lust and betrayal.
Read more ›
