Popular Music from Vittula [Hardcover]

 

 

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Poplular Music from Vittula is a very sweet coming of age novel about a boy growing up in Sweden in the 60s and 70s. It's an enjoyable read, filled with very funny episodes from Matti's life. Matti grew up in the middle of nowhere in Sweden--he remembers the first paved roads coming into his town. Matti also shares the first time he heard the Beatles and his antics in the local rock band. Niemi throws a bit of almost magical realism or mysticism in the novel. This is a charming and funny novel. Enjoy.

This book is incredibly funny! The opening chapter must be one of the most striking in the history of the novel. Just imagine the main character, on a spiritual trek through the Nepal mountains. He kneels down to reverently kiss a metal plaque with budhist prayer script (he assumes), and promptly freezes his tongue to the metal. There he is, stuck with his rear poised upward, and the experience triggers, Proust-like, a rememberance of having got his tongue attached freezing metal in the far north of Tornedalen, Sweden as a small, disadvantaged working class child. What to do, one asks? Well, in Tornedalen they don't raise no wimps. He decides, very non-spiritually, that in order to save his sorry Finn rear from certain death of exposure, he is going to have to thaw his tongue, and the only solution seems to be to urinate (on all fours) in his drinking cup and... pour it over his tongue!!! And from there it takes off. The novel continues with a hilarious, sad, poignant, and very REAL story about his young man's life up until the point of "Nepalese arrest", and it is always, ALWAYS funny! And how about THAT for an opening chapter!!

I never stopped laughing while reading this funny yet tender coming of age book set in the Swedish backwater of Pajala in Tornedalen Sweden. North of the Arctic circle on the border of Finland and Sweden lies this small community of survivors in a harsh climate. In a social milieu that rewards heavy manual labor like hunting and logging, there is little room for a young man whose greatest interest is listening to and playing rock and roll music. From descriptions of his six fingered guitar playing music teacher to the limited ability of these northeners to express their feelings, this is a marvelous window on the soul of Pajala. So limited are their communication skills that most social interaction takes place in the context of manly physical contests like arm wrestling or moose hunting. These occassions are liberally lubricated with alcohol of dubious quality. Often they end in alcoholic stupors. Obviously, the dark northern winters take their toll on the residents' psyches. The narrator and main charcter, Matti, has a best fiend whose family is a member of a fundamentalist christian sect. As such Niila is even further deprived of human warmth and conversation. His family would be aghast at their son's interest in rock music. Thus, this interest is secreted in Matti's cellar where they play at being musicians with homemade semblances of instruments. Not until a new music teacher comes from skane to teach at their school do they have the advantage of real instruments. Matti and Niila assume that the music teacher plays authentic american blues because he is from Skane in southern Sweden and therefore familiar with authentic southern american music. Such is their cultural deprivation. Yet in spite of the bareness of their youth in this landscape, they maintain their interest in what the Pajala menfolk would consider women's work. That anyone in this dismal backwater could maintain an interest in the arts is a testament to the main charcter's inner strength. One wonders if this book is at least drawn in part from the author's interest and career in writing and teaching Swedish. The villagers who speak a Finish dialect view the standard Swedish taught in the school as a snob's language. Normally I don't care for translations, but this one is excellent. The only word(s) the translator confuses is "pry" and its conjugations with "prize."I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and recommend it highly. It is both technically well done and a quick, easy, enjoyable read.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and entertaining
I was sorry to reach the end -- I will miss the narrator and his quirky town, relatives, friends and neighbors. The story moves smoothly from reality to fantasy and back. Read more

Published on Feb 8 2004 by Kevin Berman

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
After reading the original and trying to share it with my non-Swedish speaking friends, I am delighted to see that it now exists translated into English. Read more

Published on Oct 21 2003 by Nom de plume

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet, funny, beautiful
Don't be discouraged by this book's jacket, which makes it look kind of dark and serious. It's _hilarious_--as well as humane, moving, and gorgeously written/translated. Read more

Published on Oct 10 2003

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