Reader Thoughts and Opinions 
Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi, Seven Stories Press 2003, 237 pages.
As I’m not in the mood to offer anything similar to a formal review, I will direct you to the one and only Chartroose’s blog post on this book that will regale you with sample passages, great anecdotes and enthusiastic praise. [click HERE.] Here, I will offer up thoughts and odd tidbits of things that caught my attention. Warning: long and random.
First, I did enjoy this VERY MUCH. I’m giving it my highly tasty FOUR PIE rating. I especially liked the feel of the cover. Thick paper, slick and weighty.
Second, I ask a question: Do coming of age books typically lack plot? Just curious, because this book got me thinking about Catcher in the Rye – in that if you asked me what that book was about, I could only say I’ve read it but don’t remember anything about it except that it’s one of those books everybody knows about. And it was written by Holden Caulfield. or was that the main character’s name? no, yea. Anyway. Crap, now I have to go look it up or I will be sitting here thinking you think I’m an idiot. OK – JD Salinger wrote it; Holden Caulfied is the ‘anti-hero’ – gotta love Wiki!!
I don’t think Popular Music is much like Catcher in the Rye. But then again, it could easily be described as being of the bildungsroman category. The list includes A Separate Peace – which DOES have a plot. It is just hard to tell you what happens in this Vittula novel other than LOTS happen! You will love the narrator in Popular Music, a boy growing up in the northern tippy-top part of Sweden which might as well be Finland or Russia. From the very first event in the book – which is an eye opener that will have you say OhMiGOD out loud and as far as I could tell, didn’t have anything to do with anything in the novel.
Well, except that it does set the stage, I suppose, for why he wants to tell his story. Which, if you’ve followed me here, isn’t much of A story – it’s a collection of stories. From the first meeting of his pal Niila on the playground when they are about 5 years old and continuing through a whole string of events involving family, school, life, and shared passion for language and music, the narrator shares the beauty and the pain of growing up. About half way through, I had to look again at the cover and back page to check if this was a collection of short stories that are obviously well-connected or… No, it says right on the front “A NOVEL.”
I thought this was fun; I wrote down a reference to my current profession:
“As always, the intoxication brought about the most astonishing personality changes. The Korpilombolo boy’s face had lit up like a sun and he started telling obscene jokes about substitute teachers.”
And here’s one that references my college degree:
“… all the occasions they’d been cheated, all the cruel teachers and greedy company directors, all the times they’d been blacklisted, all the laborers who’d gone to Russia to help Stalin and been shot for their pains, all the damn ‘efficiency consultants’ at work, all the sadists at the hostels they’d stayed in as kids, all those who’d drunk themselves to death, …, all the tears, all the wounds, all the pains and humiliations that had afflicted our long-suffering family on their arduous trek through this vale of tears.
(I wrote down words and passages – I’ll save for Wednesday.)
I agree with Chartroose that this Niemi guy can WRITE! and I love that this was first written in Swedish! and skillfully translated into English by Mr Laurie Thompson – who lives in Wales, by the way, so we even have some non-Americanness to get over – but NOT MUCH! The language is wonderful.
What I like most about reading books set in other countries, books like this that just share stories about regular day to day living, is how universal the themes are – - people are all the same.
I won this from Chartroose, so I will return the favor and offer it to a lucky winner (US/Canada only please). However, rather than leave me a boring comment of “I would love to win this” please offer me a crazy stunt you pulled as a child and somehow survived! Mine is when I was playing with candles and almost caught the front drapes on fire. It was many years later when my mom saw the burn spots and sprayed candle wax on the curtains – no such luck for expiration of any statute of limitations. I was no longer guilty but just as in trouble. Winner by random draw late Monday May 25.
ollyn nidis lav* !!!!
* All ya need is love. 
Since you mentioned fire, when I was a youngster, gas stoves had a pilot light on each burner that stayed lit. A friend and I took straw from a broom and held them in the pilot light until they caught fire. When they got close to burning our fingers, we threw them in the trash can. I’m sure you can figure out what happened. I was in big trouble when my mom found the trash can ablaze.
Fire is so attractive, isn’t it? Dangerous.
When I was younger, my sister and I really wanted to have a Flocked Christmas Tree. The one we had, had no “snow” on it. We decided that we were going to make the snow ourselves with Baby Powder. It was EVERYWHERE!!!!! My mom said that she was dusting that powder off the ornaments for years afterwards. We were always doing crazy things like that. My email address is michellekaemarks@gmail.com. Thanks for the giveaway. This book looks like it is totally up my alley….
LOL! I have a baby powder story in my life, too! and it is tough to clean up: We had a really cool finished basement of a long room with the two ends carpeted with the middle third tile. We would sprinkle baby powder on the tile, run from the carpet end and slide in our socks across to the other carpet side. BIG FUN. Mother was not pleased.
I don’t recall doing anything crazy at all, as a kid, although there was a time that I was playing frisbee with some second cousins in Devil’s Gulch (in Colorado . . . by the Big Thompson River) and because I had no skill at frisbee, I sort of threw the frisbee across the river. Then, my second cousins slipped and slid across the water and claimed they nearly died because NANCY THREW IT OVER THE WATER. Gah, so embarrassing. I think I spent the rest of the evening in the car.
I love the cover of this book! It makes me long for a snowy winter, but then I always long for a snowy winter, don’t I?
You were probably a lot like me – I was terrified of looking foolish or getting in trouble when I was a youngster. Yes, the snow and cold in the book were not as chilly as I expected. The book actually covers the whole season rotation very nicely.
the cover has sold me. seriously. i love it. but the novel sounds a touch dense…? kind of like eating fiber one for breakfast instead of frosted flakes?
Actually, frosted flakes would be a better analogy than FIBERone or even, FrootLoops. I would not say it is dense. Heavy maybe but with a loving touch of humor.
as for childhood mishaps…how much time do you have? would you like to know about the time i used a straight razor to shave pretty curls of wood off of the end table in the living room until the dark pine was shaved off to unstained, white pine? or how about the time i drove the car around the backyard, turning it into my own little speedway? i was a menace.
wow. You WERE a menace! I would have been in awe of you as a kid. Heck, I’m in awe of you now.
This sounds really good. I too think that coming of age stories lack plot, may be they concentrate more on characterization which I am okay with.
those passages are lovely
Sorry they are about you profession though 
P.S: Not entering the contest.
It IS really good – fun heartfelt crazy life stories. No need to be sorry about the professions! I just noticed them. When I was typing them here, I did wonder abt how negative the last one was – oh well.
At the age of 12, I decided to take a brief dip in the Danube River one summer. If the current was too strong, I’d jump out. I let go of a branch on the bank and was promptly carried downstream away from the bank. I tried to get close again, but I wasn’t a strong enough swimmer.
Realizing that I was probably headed for Switzerland or disaster, I called for help. Two middle-aged German guys swam out and pulled me to safety. My parents who had been blissfully sunbathing looked over to see what the ruckus was. After that, I was sternly restricted to swimming in the pool which now seemed bathwater-warm after the icy river.
What a great story! I would love to take a cruise on (not a swim in) the Danube. Someday.
Once I took a short cut across a muddy field with my two friends, only my two friends thought better of it while I forged on ahead, only stopping when my shoe got sucked into the mud and I couldn’t get my foot out. The friends left me there, stuck fast in the field of mud, and ran home to get my parents. By the time my parents arrived I had extricated myself and was on my way home. We still have the pictures, I look like the creature of the Black Lagoon, all covered in mud from head to toe.
How fun! and scary.
This one was a mega bestseller in Denmark when it first came out, and I brought it and it has been sitting on my shelf since then, unread of course. Now I think it is time to read it. We are not like Swedes/Fins in Denmark, but of course, we do share some things in common, but we do not use saunas the same way they do (for one thing we do not have as many lakes). Can’t wait to read this now and thrilled that it has actually been translated to English.
Cool! Dig it out – not many reviews of it when I searched.
I’m so glad you liked this, Care! I still think about the boys drinking in that big warehouse-thingy until they became nearly blind, and about the mouse extermination. For some reason, this novel really affected me.
Since I bought a copy for myself, I won’t be entering, so I don’t have to tell a childhood story. I’m pretty sure I’ll be writing one on my blog soon.
Later, Gator!
I added this to my list of must reads after seeing Chartroose’s review awhile back and now after seeing your thoughts I want to read it even more!
It’s cool that you mentioned how much you liked the feel of the books cover – alot of times the feel of a book, whether it’s a buttery-smooth cover or yucky meat wrapper pages will change how I feel while reading. Weird how reading can effect your senses that way.
I have a bazillion childhood stunts that I barely survived – that comes with being a wild tom-boy! But one event I’ll never forget is the one my mother will never stop reminding me of. It damaged her psychologically I’m sure. By the age of 4 I had never been subjected to a hair-cut, only slight trims to avoid split ends. So at the time I had long, smooth, beautiful hair my mother kept in a nice french braid for playtime. I remember always grabbing the braid and tucking it into my pants pocket, so it didn’t drag when I played on the swings. I loved my hair, and was even vain of how people admired it – but I HATED having it brushed out – the knots and pulls were torture to me. So one morning while my parents were sleeping I snuck into the kitchen and grabbed the scissors. You know what happened from there – I ended up with a boy-cut. But the worst of it was that I had a cat, a loving cat who allowed me to dress her up in doll clothes, indulged in my mudpies and generally adored me. She got a haircut too. A few hours later while lying back in bed enjoying the feel of my new haircut and telling my cat how pretty we were, I heard the first scream. My mother had walked into the kitchen and found the hair that covered every visible surface (o.O) Once she realized I hadn’t been butchered by an escaped madman I’m surprised she didn’t murder me herself. Although back then spankings were pretty common and I didn’t sit without wincing for at least a month!
Oh, your poor mother. You tell a great story. Any pictures of you before and after the stylin’? You are now entered in my contest.
Care-
Just got your message. I do have this on my TBR list! Please drop my name in the hat!
Let’s see, I have stories about being stuck in mud like Ali, or bermudaonion’s fire story but probable the worst was driving my friend Peter’s parent’s car into a parked car. He was 15 with a learner’s permit, I was 13 and very adventurous out of site of adults. We very quickly switched seats, he took the blame and I never got caught. Sadly, I’ve lost touch with him.
Peter Brook, if you’re out there, big hugs and thanks for saving my butt.
The craziest thing I did as a child was flunk first grade. Not because I was dumb but because I ran away from school almost every day. I went to a Catholic school. Keep in mind this was 55 years ago. Th nuns were scary so I would just duck out the door on the way to lunch. I went into the woods across the street and fed my lunch to a Collie. I guess the nuns had other things on their minds because I didn’t get caught for months. Of course when I finally got caught all hell broke loose and in a Catholic school that’s saying a lot. My reputation at that school was forever tarnished in the eyes of the nuns. I think the children thought otherwise.
Most of the crazy stuff I’ve done in my life I am doing now.
I read the reviews of the book and it looks good. Of course, I read both “A Catcher in the Rye” and “A Separate Peace”. I can’t remember which one I liked better having read them in high school.