Vello Vikerkaar is one of Estonia's most controversial columnists. His insights into Estonian life both arouse praise from readers who are captivated by his honesty and raw sense of humor, as well as criticism from some for whom his tales are a little too forthcoming as they reveal an uglier side of Estonia they'd prefer was kept private. No matter which side you are on, you have to admit the style is inspiring. It is lean, up front, and spiced with smart dialog. Nobody complains that Vello isn't fun to read; they just can't help but fight over what he says.
A positive aspect of this book is that Vello moves pretty smoothly from a weekly column format to a book format. Although the columns here are largely reprinted as they first appeared, the appealing layout of the book, and perhaps even the way in which the columns, re-imagined as chapters, are ordered, made it easy for me as a reader to move from one topic to another. I easily finished half of the book in a few hours, and because this is not a novel, I could return the next day to where I had left off and not feel that I had lost any of the book's underlying rhythm.
In summary, as a reader, I recommend this book to you. So many writers get lost in the details and you can feel that you are drowning in a swamp of entertaining but ultimately useless information because, surprise, writers like to write, maybe too much. Vello's book is not a swamp. It's like the Lincoln Tunnel on a Sunday morning, you can drive right through and always be a little amazed by the experience.
My one criticism is that so many of Vello's characters are cashiers, government clerks, taxi drivers, bartenders, and other providers of services. While lackluster service in Estonia is a theme of the book, such characters commonly appear in works by other writers in the region. Do writers just not get out enough, or is society so atomized in northern Europe that most human interaction really does occur between rude waiters and hungry diners? I can't pretend I know the answer to this question. Maybe it's an idea for another scandalous Vello column.
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