Johanna SinisaloRezensionen

I liked this strange book that examined the effects of a dystopia that required strict gender roles. The plot was slow and translation felt a bit dry, but the overall effect was interesting and I liked the chili pepper woowoo.

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/giants-at-the-end-of-the-world-a-showcase-of-fin...

This was given as a freebie to all attenders of Worldcon 75 in Helsinki back in 2017, to boost the visibility of Finnish writers among attendees. To be honest the stories are skewed a little more towards horror than is my usual taste, but I really enjoyed the first one, “The Haunted House on Rockville Street” by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, and one in the very middle, “The Bearer of the Bone Harp”, by Emmi Itäranta.

Hey guys. This book was like riding a rollercoaster and it's nice and smooth at first so you get overconfident about how not fucked up you're going to get on that first drop - and then suddenly it hits, your ass leaves the seat, you're clawing at the harness, and swearing you will NEVER ride another coaster again. And when it's done you're like HOLY FUCK THAT WAS COOL.

So yeah. I liked it. There were moments where I was like "this could be more interesting" and in other places I thought the translation maybe seemed lacking although it's hard to tell, but once I finished I think I would've been less stunned after being punched in the face.

I'd definitely recommend for people that like modern dystopian settings mixed with a bit of the unbelievable.

Ending spoilers ahead:

I loved how the end was open to interpretation. If you think the spirit possession was real you can attribute this idea into how spiritualism/ritualism is discriminated against by "polite" society and that the chilis here represent other means of trance inducement from other cultures, such as peyote.

And if you don't believe that the spirit possession was real it can be explained by the fact that Vera is a very intelligent woman and once she had the background information on Harri and his gambling, plus the information he told her in the bathroom, that she could've deduced the human trafficking scenario and hallucinated that she saved Mira's spirit and keeps it safe inside her mind, either to ease her own guilt or a way to keep Mira in her thoughts always etc.

In the end I do like how the message is that humans will always corrupt - no matter how strict, well meaning, and kind those in power are (even though the Authority here really is NOT), there will always be others that take advantage of the unseen places and gouge out 'seedy underbellies'.

Interesting premise, but the characters didn’t hold me and the epistolary structure annoyed me.

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3821173.html

This is a really intense and complex (and short) novel, which it would be slightly unfair to call urban fantasy even though it's about a troll taking up residence in a contemporary Helsinki apartment block. Mikael, who finds and cares for the troll, is a gay photographer who lives upstairs from a Filipina mail-order bride. The troll's pheromones cause massive sexual confusion for everyone, sparsely recounted in that very Finnish way. The narrative is bolstered by a history of humanity's coexistence with trolls over the centuries and millennia. Helsinki is a sober nineteenth century city which has undergone some occasionally brutal twentieth century development; but it's not difficult to feel older forces tugging at you when you are there, and Johanna Sinisalo has captured that, as well as exploring some important human issues.

"The little bee--such an insignificant creature. You've suffered through environmental degradation, climate change, genetically manipulated plants, mobile phone masts, air pollution, the carelessness of humans, and slave labor and parisitic infestation through neglect.
Now you're leaving."

I've liked the other two novels by Finnish author Sinisalo I've read (Troll and Birdbrain), but this one became a bit of a polemic rather than a novel, and I cared less for it. It's set in the near future. Several areas of the world have experienced the mass disappearance of bees. As a result, crops have failed, and there is rampant famine and starvation.
The main character is Orvo, a Finnish beekeeper (and undertaker), who is devastated to find the queen bee of one of his hives dead and the hive deserted. At the same time, we follow the story of Orvo's son Eero who is an environmental and animal rights activist. Large chunks of the novel are narrated as "excerpts" from Eero's blog on these issues.
The book heads into magical realism when after a tragedy occurs, Orvo, with the dead queen bee in his pocket finds a doorway into another world, the world to which he surmises all the bees have gone (after being so mistreated in this world).
While the book raises some interesting issues, I found that it never really developed fully as a novel. Instead, I felt I was mostly reading arguments for ecological and environmental sanity.

2 stars

Olen fantasian ystävä, mutta tämä ei kauheasti napannut. Yllättävä, kyllä, sekoittaa fantasian aineksia todellisuuteen taitavasti, eikä tarinakaan ole kovin pliisu, mutta silti ei jotenkin kantanut. Asetelma oli jälleen herkullinen, mutta olisin ehkä pitänyt enemmän jostain mikä olisi päättynyt eri tavalla.

young Finnish man takes in lost troll cub and falls in love as trolls infiltrate human society

I wanted to like this book a lot, since it won the Prometheus Award, but it was really 3.5 and I'm being generous. It does accurately describe a new type of dystopia (leftist, health and safety, combined with misogyny), but aside from the really weird hot pepper angle, it just felt like a rehash of Handmaid's Tale crossed with Brave New World. I think some of Sinisalo's other books (Troll?) are better.

Well, the beginning of this book is unlike anything you've read, guaranteed (ouch). I didn't really buy the premise and none of the characters really stood out -- but page to page there were some interesting scenes and ideas, so I did skim it. She's often a very striking writer, but the whole was too far-fetched for me. Beautifully translated!

Dopo essere stati sconfitti, i nazisti hanno fondato una colonia militare sul suolo lunare, con l'idea di tornare un giorno sulla Terra. Quando la missione sta per iniziare, due astronauti americani sbarcano nei pressi della base tedesca. (fonte: Wikipedia)

It felt like Sinisalo began with an idea rather than a story. Possibly my enjoyment of this novel was inhibited by the truly weird, one-of-a-kind, never-at-all-careful novel [b:Troll: A Love Story|100485|Troll A Love Story|Johanna Sinisalo|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1328822266s/100485.jpg|2995200] by the same author. In contrast The Core of the Sun felt like [b:The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid's Tale|Margaret Atwood|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1473094781s/38447.jpg|1119185] lite to me. The peripatetic writing style--a combination of the personal reflections of two characters, epistolary entries to a probably-dead sister, and examples of propaganda from this dystopian society--gave the story a detached air for me where the characters never quite gelled and I never quite cared about them. The society depicted here felt a little vague and bland and lacking in vivid detail. The core relationship of the story was strangely sterile. The idea of chile peppers as an outlawed, addictive drug is interesting but it didn't tie for me into any larger theme.

I didn't finish this. It was weird and intriguing, but felt a lot like The Handmaid's Tale because it's a misogynist dystopia that's disturbingly easy to imagine, and I don't have the energy to deal with that.

I'm not sure how I came across this book but I'm glad I did. Sinisalo invents a uchronic Finland where a human female sub-species has been bred. Known as Eloi, they are submissive, receptive and bred for sex and procreation. Intelligent, independent women, Morlocks, are not permitted to reproduce and are doomed to a life of menial labour. The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland benefits and strengthens the patriarchy.

Vana looks like an Eloi but isn't. She wants to rescue her Eloi sister Manna. To do it she needs the money and teams up with a male friend, Jare, to sell chilli. Chilli is considered to be an extremely dangerous stimulant by the Finnish Health authority and the growing or possession of it is illegal. To complicate matters, Vana is an addict and her addiction is getting worse.

Sinisalo tells a truly twisted tale through multiple viewpoints (Vana's and Jare's), letters that Vana writes to Manna that provide the backstory for their current predicament, snatches of government publications, education publications, and excerpts from magazines. The result is an unapologetic social commentary. Sinisalo's satire kicks the patriarchy, and the mechanisms that support it, where it's needed. A highly recommended read from the queen of 'Finnish Weird'.

On his way home one night, Angel rescues a small troll from being beaten up by a group of drunk teenagers and the encounter will change his whole life. This is a weird one. I liked so much of it - the characters and the ties to mythology are amazing, but there are some parts that just make me really nauseated, so I'm coming away with a slightly sour taste in my mouth.½

This little troll was on the new book shelf, subtitled "a love story". It took a little while to figure out who the characters were, the story flips between 3 or 4 points of view. Angel/Mikael rescues a troll and starts bringing up the mysterious wild beast in his apartment. This situation is disturbingly compared to the captive mail-order bride that lives downstairs. The characters are moody and murky and often overcome with desire or fear. The scenes are often interrupted with excerpts from histories and literature about trolls. Dangerous and alluring. (November 18, 2004)

If you think there's nothing new under the sun when it comes to story-telling, give this book a try - it won't be what you expect, whatever you're expecting. (Especially if you're expecting Shrek.) A fast and entertaining read that isn't 'experimental fiction', but still does creative stuff with perspective and the idea of trolls. One little thing about the translation bothered me at first - the translator occasionally uses slang words that are really outdated - both for the date of the translation (2003) and the time period of the novel - early 2000's. Words like "pad" for apartment, or awkward descriptions of the act of internet searching, when the verb 'to google' was already in common use. But it is very infrequent, and I liked the spirit of the book so much that it started to seem cute after a while. But I still doubt it was intentional.

So this is "Finnish weird," huh? I like it and I want more, especially from Johanna Sinisalo.

This book is... well, it's a suspenseful mystery set in a horrifying and plausible dystopian now with some magical realism woven between it all.

Vanna is an addict. A chile addict. In Finland in 2016 chiles, along with other dangerous and addictive substances like alcohol and drugs, are banned. Vanna is also a "morlock"--a woman who doesn't meet societal standards and isn't allowed to breed--except Vanna is also an "eloi," or at least she was raised pretending to be one. Her sister, Manna, is an eloi, the type of "femiwoman" Finland has been selectively breeding for for generations. Vanna is also Vera, and Manna is Mira, because soft elois can't have hard Rs in their names. Rs and other special things--like independence and nearly Stepford-like wives--are saved for mascos.

This story is told with letters Vanna/Vera writes to Manna/Mira, which tells their life stories from the beginning when their parents died and they moved to Finland to live with their only relative to the end where Vanna finds out what happend to her missing sister; in excerpts from fictional (and occasionally real!) books and articles about the history of Finland, which explain the history and realities of modern Finland; and through Vanna (and occasionally her masco friend Jare's) present-day actions from Vanna's chile highs and confused grief to Jare's future plans and their shared chile-dealing business with a bit of capsaicin-spirituality over and above it all.

I loved this book. I was shocked by Vanna, I pitied her, her sister, and everyone trapped as they were, I was frightened by the very plausible history of Finnish society the author created, and I was always, always entertained. Also, I really want some spicy peppers now, but Vanna can keep the core of the sun for herself.

[I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.]

Negli ultimi momenti della seconda guerra mondiale, un programma spaziale nazista segreto ha evitato la distruzione fuggendo verso il lato oscuro della luna. Durante 70 anni di assoluta segretezza, i nazisti costruiscono una gigantesca fortezza spaziale con una massiccia armata di dischi volanti. Quando l'astronauta americano James Washington mette giù il suo Lunar Lander un po 'troppo vicino alla base nazista segreta, il Moon Führer decide che il glorioso momento di riprendere la Terra è arrivato prima del previsto. Washington sostiene che la missione è solo una trovata pubblicitaria per il Presidente degli Stati Uniti, ma cos'altro potrebbe essere l'uomo solo per esplorare l'imminente attacco delle forze terrestri? Il quarto Reich deve agire!

Heidi and Jyrki are a Finnish couple hiking in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. They are lovers, but don't actually know each other very well. Jyrki is a strong outdoorsman and hiker, Heidi, not so much--she's just trying to maintain credibility with Jyrki. The story is told is alternating sections from Heidi's point of view and Jyrki's point of view.

While the story of Heidi and Jyrki is a good-enough story, the real star of this book are the descriptions of the landscape and hiking. For those who know the area, Heidi and Jyrki hiked the South Coast Track in Tasmania, the Queen Charlotte Track in New Zealand, the Kepler Track in New Zealand, and Grampian's National Park, Hall's Gap in Australia. The internal portraits of Heidi and Jyrki as they challenge the landscape and elements seem absolutely authentic. Along the way, we also learn a lot about the kea, a mountain parrot living on the South Island of New Zealand.

While the gorgeous and remote setting of this novel frequently is at the forefront, this book is in no way just a travelogue or adventure story. We are instead experiencing Jyrki and Heidi's experiences, their on-going internal monologues, and the changes they undergo. The ending is satisfactorily ambiguous.½

What a weird, fantastic book! The author has a great style, and although a kind of dystopian fantasy, this novel has a lot to say about contemporary politics and societal norms. Absolutely recommended reading.

"Masco: I am eternally grateful that I got caught and the Health Authority rehabilitated me. I'm also grateful that the awful, nasty stuff is illegal now. Capsaicin addiction is forever -- you can't ever get away from it -- but now I have a life worth living. (Meaningful pause) In clean pants..."

The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo, is unlike any book I've ever read. Set in an alternate, Finnish, dystopian future (actually most of the journal entries/letters are set in 2016), Vanna is looking for her sister. She's a woman forced to pretend she's a socially acceptable, useless woman (Eloi) hiding in a world of dignified, infertile ignorants (Morlocks) while dealing with a chili pepper addiction that's a major offense against the Eusistocratic Republic of Finland.

Through flashbacks, journal entries and letters to Vanna's sister, Manna, in a world fashioned from H. G. Wells' Time Machine along with eugenics, (a word I learned from Wayward Pines). Women are either Eloi, who are considered ignorant but capable of being molded into perfect, domesticated companions, who will have babies, serve up meals and take care of home or Morlocks- the ones who are infertile, too smart for their own good and rebel-rousers! Vanna is the latter...

* For the full review: http://bit.ly/2bbHSAb
**Book is from my personal library, for an honest review.

'I've tried to capture part of the forest and now the forest has captured me', 20 Jan. 2013
By
sally tarbox

This review is from: Not Before Sundown (Paperback)
When gay Mikael rescues a young troll from a gang of drunken yobs, he at once states:
'It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
I know straight away that I want it.'
In Sinisalo's novel, trolls are a rare but scientifically accepted species, and the very short chapters, narrated by different people who feature in the story (but not Pessi, the 'tamed' troll) are interspersed with literary and non-fiction references to the creatures.
The situation of Pessi, kept penned up in a Helsinki flat by a stronger creature, is parallelled by Mikael's neighbour, a young Filipino mail-order bride, living a hellish existence with her brute of a husband. She too gets sucked in to the troll story...
A very unusual and intriguing read.

solid B+ sci fi dystopia handmaid's-tale-inspired story about a future Finland in which women are either "elois" who get married or "morlocks" who do the dirty work, and one woman who tries to rebel against the system. I enjoyed it, I read it quickly and I'd recommend it as a literary beach book.½

In this winner of the Finlandia Award, trolls are presented as a real but extremely rare species of animal discovered in 1907. Angel, a young gay photographer/graphic designer finds an injured young troll one evening and takes it in. In order to save the troll, who he names Pessi, Angel seeks to learn everything he can about trolls, and chapters relating the story of Angel's falling in love with Pessi, are interspersed quotations and excerpts from real and fictional works referring to trolls. This was a fascinating read.

3 1/2 stars½