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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful!!, September 2, 2001
This review is from: The Year of the Hare (Unesco Collection of Representative Works) (Paperback)
"The year of the hare", by finnish writer Arto Paasilinna, is a finger-licking good book, period! It's about a journalist who unintentionally runs over a young hare while being on an assignment. He gets out of the car to help the wounded animal, venturing into the surrounding forest and... well, doesn't come back. While attending the animal something happens in his mind and he suddenly realizes that he can't cope anymore with his life, his wife, the rhythms of modern society, his boss and everything. He therefore forswears everything in favour of a new life, with the hare as his sole companion through the small adventures he's about to experience. From a certain point of view he becomes a revolutionary because he proves that one can live happily outside society, in fact happier than ever before... I don't necessairly share his point of view but the tale is so imbued with happy feelings and lightness that one can's help but feel touched! As for the writing, Arto Paasilinna's is extremely minimalistic, without many frills and that adds to the impression that what you're reading is in fact a modern fable :-)
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction", June 1, 2005
This review is from: The Year of the Hare (Unesco Collection of Representative Works) (Paperback)
The cover of the book says that The Year of the Hare is "a picaresque novel with an ecological theme". I had a general idea what picaresque means, but to be on the safe side, I decided to look the word up.
According to the Google definition service, "Picaresque" means 1) "Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers". or 2)"Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society."
I think that the definition indeed sums the book up nicely, although I think that you could argue that Vatanen is not really of low social degree-- although he does become that for the sake of his hare.
In places, the Year of the Hare can become a little bit difficult to read. The Finnish politics went straight over my head as did (I suspect) much of the subtlety relating to Finnish life. Particularly at the beginning it is difficult to see where the book is going.
It is a measure of how-written the book is that despite the missing pieces I really enjoyed the read. Some absurdities are not at all cultural-specific and Paasilinna hits them quite nicely with his man and the hare.
Fans of the aforementioned Picaresque novels should like this little adventure. It has flavors of early Vonnegut and a little bit of Ionesco. Recommended for anyone with a taste for the gently absurd.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A fairy tale of sorts., April 18, 2011
After having read a "delightful" review, in a notable newspaper, a friend read Arto Paasilinna's "The Year of the Hare" and recommended it to me. I suppose because my friends life is more structured than my own and I'm viewed as "odd". Whatever, I felt compelled to read the book and, frankly, I came away surprised that, on the back cover, the story is said to have similar appeal as "Watership Down" and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". I fail to see that at all. I've read and enjoyed, immensely, both books and "Duncton Woods" as well. All three provide "similar appeal" to one another, however, not to this story. "The Year of the Hare" as written could define minimalism, it reminded me of reading a journal, or diary, of someone who came to the conclusion that his way of life wasn't working and strayed into one very odd adventure after another, all ending somewhat positively. It's, thankfully, a quick read of 194 pages and everything that happens to the protagonist, during his travels, seem an attempt by the author to exemplify and glorify the vagaries of fate. The readers patience, though, is rewarded by a nice ending.
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