New Finnish Grammar

Mar 17, 2012 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-in-translation, literary-fiction

I recently finished a Booker Award finalist, Snowdrops by A. D. Miller. On the surface these two novels would seem to have little in common (other than they both take place in snowy regions), but in fact they're similar in that they both are most of all about place: Finland in this case; Moscow in Miller's novel. Place (as well as the Finnish language in this novel) is the central character and any story line is secondary to the place(s) described. Miller's novel has more narrative pull than thi...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Bjorn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Trieste, 1943: A man is found with his head bashed in, almost dead, severely brain damaged, and completely amnesiac - even his language is completely forgotten. The only clue to his identity is a Finnish navy uniform and a name sewn onto it. He's taken on board a German ambulance ship, where the doctor just happens to be a Finnish expat, who takes it upon himself to save his unfortunate countryman. He starts re-teaching him Finnish, that weird language of dozens of cases and almost no prepositio...more Trieste, 1943: A man is found with his head bashed in, almost dead, severely brain damaged, and completely amnesiac - even his language is completely forgotten. The only clue to his identity is a Finnish navy uniform and a name sewn onto it. He's taken on board a German ambulance ship, where the doctor just happens to be a Finnish expat, who takes it upon himself to save his unfortunate countryman. He starts re-teaching him Finnish, that weird language of dozens of cases and almost no prepositions, and eventually manages to have him sent to Helsinki to recuperate and rediscover his identity in his supposed home town. There, our hero keeps a diary (helpfully transcribed and improved by his rescuer) of his painful, slow reintegration into Finnish society, Finnish history, Finnish language, all while the Continuation War rages at the Russian border.

New Finnish Grammar is an odd little novel, often both beautiful and frighteningly subtle, that I can't help feel deserves better than the slightly hamfisted (though justified) ending. It's most definitely a story for Europe in the 21st century, the European as a character who's forgotten who he is, and who has to be taught why he's better than others, his origin stories, his archnemeses; who is too caught up in trying to figure out who he was in some mythical past to see who he is now. An Italian writing a story of Finland in WWII, with absolutely nobody acknowledging whose side they're on in the struggle against a common scary subhuman enemy. A story written by a Eurocrat, set outside but never in Trieste and Vyborg, two of the major multi-ethnic cities that completely changed their identity following the war. A story about how language and myth is used to create and prevent thought, possibilities, futures and pasts. All centered around a simple tale of a man without a past (yes, Kaurismäki could film this) trying to figure out who he is by using grammar and music (the Finnish word for "Bible" literally means "grammar", he notes - or rather, it's noted for him) to create a context, a continuity.

I like it. I just wish I was better read up on the Kalevala.(less)

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Jan 01, 2013 Lachlan rated it 4 of 5 stars

As I was browsing through the fiction section of a bookshop in Dublin, the title of this book leapt off the shelf at me: it was not misclassified but is a novel by an Italian who works as a 'senior linguist' for the European Union. It is set first in Trieste and then in Helsinki during the Second World War and has a simple but brilliant plot. The text consists of three interwoven 'voices': the notebooks of a badly wounded man who has become totally amnesic and aphasic as a result of his injuries...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Joanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

I think I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't read an over-hyped review on the Guardian first (but then of course I wouldn't have come across the book at all...)

I enjoyed reading the book and am glad that I read it, but I'm not sure I would recommend it or pass it on. It was quite a gloomy read and the ending wasn't as tragic as it was set up to be (unless I'm just getting jaded in my old age) - this left a feeling of anti-climax (although in part that flows from the sense of inevitability...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Aditya Kelekar rated it 5 of 5 stars

~~~ Since language is our mother, try and find yourself a woman ~~~

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, READ THE BOOK FIRST!

It was on the flight during my first visit to Finland that I had first brush with Finnish, thanks to the announcements in Finn Air. Now what was that? The words that had just been spoken.. some were so long drawn out, some expressed in such a sing-song way, it was amusing to listen to them. Now, more than a year later, and having practiced some basic Finnish phrases, these lines...more ~~~ Since language is our mother, try and find yourself a woman ~~~

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, READ THE BOOK FIRST!

It was on the flight during my first visit to Finland that I had first brush with Finnish, thanks to the announcements in Finn Air. Now what was that? The words that had just been spoken.. some were so long drawn out, some expressed in such a sing-song way, it was amusing to listen to them. Now, more than a year later, and having practiced some basic Finnish phrases, these lines in the novel 'New Finnish Grammar' strike a chord: "Foreigners listening to a Finn speaking have the sense that something is flying out of his mouth; the words fan out and lightly close in again; they hover in the air and then dissolve. It is pointless to try and capture them for their meaning is in their flight, it is this that you must catch using your eyes and ears. Hands are no help. This is one of the loveliest things about the Finnish language."

The story is about a person who has lost his memory at a time when the world is in the throes of WWII. Doctor Friari, a neurologist of Finnish origin nurses the patient back to health. Seeing that the patient's tag identifies him as Sampo Karjalainen, an obviously Finnish name, the doctor teaches him Finnish. However, Sampo's past and his links with his family remain untraceable. Thinking that Sampo's best chance in finding his roots lie in staying in Helsinki, Dr Friari sends him to the city. At Helsinki, Dr Friari's note helps Sampo find lodgings and food, but learning the Finnish language (for, as Dr Friari tells him, that knowing the language is a prerequisite to his getting ahead in life) and uncovering his past remain a daunting task which he must accomplish.

At Helsinki, Sampo meets Koskela, a priest, who undertakes to teach Sampo Finnish. Often during Sampo's lessons with Koskela, there are excursions to the land of Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. One story is about Kullervo, born to a mother who has been brutally held captive. Kullervo is bred on hatred, so that when he becomes physically strong, he uproots all that crosses his path, but it bring him no happiness. Indeed, his mother fears that his hatred will consume him and that is what happens. After wreaking havoc in the camp of his mother's captors, Kullervo return only to bring misery to his own family.

I couldn't help comparing that with the story from the Hindu epic of Mahabharata... of Kansa, the son of a god who is born with divine strength but who is brought up by a poor low-caste family. Early in his childhood, Kansa faces discrimination because of his low-caste ancestry. Suffering humiliation at the hands of high-caste princes embitters Kansa so much that when a prince openly admire him for his talents, he pledges his support to that prince, though it later leads him down a false path. But here the home background is different. As a child, Kansa is cared lovingly by his foster parents, so that he in turn becomes a wellspring of kindness. The stories of Kullervo and Kansa seemed to me to complement each other in a superb way.

There is no child in 'New Finnnish Grammar' but Marani skillfully weaves you in the web of the Kalevala so that the lessons that Koskela has for Sampo are your own lessons too. Not for nothing does Koskela say that "children who are cradled without gentleness, raised uncaringly, dragged up harshly, will not become intelligent, will never have the gift of wisdom, will never become men, even should they grow up strong and healthy and live for a hundred years."

Sampo's hunt for tracking his family give us a peek into Helsinki as it was in the early 1940s -- war ravaged and grieving. Doctor Friari's recollections of his times in the city parallels Sampo's tale, and there we get a glimpse of the destruction that Civil War brought to Finland.

The novel's translation in English by Judith Landry seems to be beautifully done. (I say that even though I have not read the original Italian work.)

Of the three persons (the other two friends in Sampo's life are Doctor Friari and Koskela) with whom Sampo spends time to develop a friendship, the one with Ilma (a nurse in the hospital that Sampo lives) is the shortest: only one evening's meeting to really speak of. And yet, it is this meeting that should lead to something that keeps you going. Ilma has understood Sampo for what he is and wants to start a journey together. When Sampo says "let's sing all night" and Ilma joins, a spark is ignited. And when Ilma takes him to her tree of happy memories, you can't but get a feeling that the two are coursing down an evergreen road.

It is in discussion with Ilma again (or rather in the course of Sampo's reading of her letters) that the importance of a past comes up. Sampo had earlier declared it his purpose of hoping to recover some fragments of his past; Ilma says she is content to live a life free of the "ballast of memory". Are these divergent views then? I would think Sampo's obsession about trying to find his past goes beyond just satisfying his curiosity of discovering it. The past is also his link to find out what were his talents and skills, for without them how can he pride himself to be a man? It is then a nod to his self-esteem that he goes about his identity search till the point that he finds it a futile exercise.

And, again, it is Ilma's letters that make your heart heavy. That a soul could place so much trust and confidence in a new friend by just one evening's meeting speaks of Sampo's quiet charm and poise. You wish you could go back in time, and push Sampo to reply. Well, I don't know about you, but I would.
(less)

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Dec 29, 2011 Meri Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars

It feels strange to read about Finland when I am Finnish myself - it seems almost foreign (in a good way though :)) If you are looking for an action packed drama this is not the book for you. I am simply oustounded by the beauty of this book which so many people found 'boring'. I think the translator did a remarkable job in translating. I agree that maybe there was a little too much hype over the book but I can understand why this is because this story is not some block-buster but a rare little...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Joanna Paterson rated it 2 of 5 stars

I think I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't read an over-hyped review on the Guardian first (but then of course I wouldn't have come across the book at all...)

I enjoyed reading the book and am glad that I read it, but I'm not sure I would recommend it or pass it on. It was quite a gloomy read and the ending wasn't as tragic as it was set up to be (unless I'm just getting jaded in my old age) - this left a feeling of anti-climax (although in part that flows from the sense of inevitability...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Jim Elkins rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: italian

This book has a really tremendous idea: a man is badly injured; he can't remember who he is, and he has lost his capacity for language. His doctor decides the man is Finnish, because he has a Finnish name embroidered inside his shirt collar. The doctor is passionately Finnish himself, and most of the book is taken up the doctor's lessons in Finnish language and culture. The patient imagines that the words he is learning have resonance somewhere deep within his injured brain. Even though each wor...more This book has a really tremendous idea: a man is badly injured; he can't remember who he is, and he has lost his capacity for language. His doctor decides the man is Finnish, because he has a Finnish name embroidered inside his shirt collar. The doctor is passionately Finnish himself, and most of the book is taken up the doctor's lessons in Finnish language and culture. The patient imagines that the words he is learning have resonance somewhere deep within his injured brain. Even though each word and idea is unfamiliar, the man assumes that he is slowly reconnecting to his fundamental identity. It turns out, in the end, that the man was German. He never learns that, but he does finally realize he is probably not Finnish. At that point, however, it's too late: his identity is broken in an unusual and interesting way -- he is entirely convinced that the sounds and feelings of Finnish words are woven into his essential sense of himself, and at the same time aware that those words really just float on the surface of whatever he was, or might still be.[return][return]It's a great idea, with all sorts of implications for identity theory, language, and translation theory, and it fits with the ongoing fascination with stories of failed memory. It questions one of the common assumptions of identity theory in relation to language -- that the words, phonemes, and grammatical forms we learned as infants are deeply embedded in our nature, in our character. A seminar on structural linguistics could make good use of this book, and so could a seminar on translation theory.[return][return]The problem is that the author never quite figured out how someone with no language can contemplate the etymology of words or the poetry of myths when he can scarcely understand anything that is being said to him. Throughout the entire book -- all the way up to ten pages from the end -- the narrator is saying things like, "Once again, I did not understand it all, although I could not fail to see that it contained harsh words" -- this after an impassioned and extremely eloquent letter from a woman who had loved him. (p. 173) After a lengthy and detailed exposition of the Finnish epic Karevala, the narrator says simply, "I had at last managed to begin to make some sense" of the myths. (p. 126) The book is full of eloquent, articulate, detailed accounts of national character, history, literature, and language, which we read in full, but which the narrator can't really understand. Somehow, he reconstructs these wonderful speeches by memorizing entire sentences, and by pondering what had only seemed to him to be passionate random sounds.[return][return]It's such a pity that such a trivial, logical problem of narrative prevents this book from working as it should. It would have been easy, for example, to introduce another character who could hear and transcribe everything in detail, and then have the patient recall what he could of each speech. Oh well. Marani is a translator, and is full of wonderful ideas about language; I may read another of his books in future.(less)

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Mar 22, 2012 James Folan rated it 1 of 5 stars

oh, look. here's a letter from that pretty nurse I met recently in wartime Helsinki after losing my memory:

'Do you remember my tree in Kaivopusto Park? There are many ways of seeing it: you can regard it as a network of lymph vessels, of veins, of roots teeming with sap, linked up to a living nucleus which, through the breathing leaves, establishes and maintains a flow of matter between earth and sky, between inert matter and air. But you can also reduce it to a pure number, make it into a law o...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Yeemay rated it 3 of 5 stars

This read beautifully and I couldn't help wondering if the original Italian text was as good or better. It was a lovely, quiet book full of intelligent questions and observations of identity, memory, existence and reality: pretty much everything about the universe, really!There were moments when the writer was talking about that process of learning a language that could limit or enhance expression, that took me back to my childhood when I was learning a second language and still trying to get gr...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Annabel Smith rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: translation, abandoned

This book had many things to recommend it, but ultimately was not for me, which I'm a little disappointed about because it's the first book I chose for the Translation challenge I'm taking part in and I didn't make it to the end. #fail But anyway, I think life's too short to spend it finishing a book you're not enjoying and this was the case for me here.

On a positive note it is very-well written. There is a precision to the writing, and there were many beautiful descriptions of both landscapes a...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Snipkin rated it 3 of 5 stars

This Italian author has received much praise for this prize-winning novel, only recently translated into English (2011), despite being originally published in 2000. My mother is Finnish, and I know and love Helsinki and Finland. Without this interest, I do not think I would have read this book or even have found it particularly interesting. I just didn't 'get' it. It's certainly an unusual story. I would give it two stars, but it gets an extra star for being about Finland - which does not featur...more

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May 29, 2012 Maria Grazia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, narrativa-italiana

Noi siamo la lingua che parliamo? Questo è il tema di questo interessantissimo e insolito romanzo ambientato durante la seconda guerra mondiale, dove un medico cerca di ricostruire quella che lui ritiene essere l'identità di un marinaio gravemente ferito e in preda all'amnesia insegnandogli quella che ritiene essere la sua lingua, il finlandese.
Ma la scintilla del riconoscimento non scatterà, sia perché l'uomo non è finlandese, ma soprattutto perché, quando sarebbe quasi pronto a rinunciare alla...more

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Mar 14, 2012 A.E. Shaw rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I have a feeling that this book will be one to grow on me even more, now I've finished reading it. The first third, I struggled with. I put it aside a few times and picked it up again only because this year I fully intend to finish all the books I start! But then around the halfway point, I found I was quite entranced by the very dense, yet piecemeal prose.

This is easily the best novel I have read in terms of talking about what it is like to learn a language you don't know. It helps, perhaps, th...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Jim Coughenour rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bleakfiction

An almost-beautiful book — a man who has lost his memory and language is recreated (with the best of intentions) as a Finn and sent back to Helsinki toward the end of World War II. He's sustained by a couple more interesting characters, a Lutheran pastor/shaman and a poetic nurse. The book is suffused with an abstract sense of sadness, darkness, cold and longing. Yet it's more of a tone poem than a novel. The writing is far too fine for a person just learning the language and the emotions too di...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-historical-fiction

'New Finnish grammar' by Diego Marani is an interesting book and one I found hard to rate and categorise. The writing is sublime, poetic and clever. The premise of the story about a man who loses his identity and struggles to realise who he is and where he fits in the world is similarly brilliant and inventive. That, however, is where my praise ends. I had no affinity or empathy with any of the characters. At some points of the novel I didn't care at all about the main character. This is a shame...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: italy, iffp-longlist

It’s taken far too long for this seductive book to be translated into English, and I’m not surprised that it has been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize almost as soon as it hit the shelves in the English-speaking world. (What other treasures lie in store for us, I wonder, now that at last readers can source the kind of books they like from everywhere, not just limited to what local booksellers think they might like? Publishers are starting to realise that there is a world-wid...more It’s taken far too long for this seductive book to be translated into English, and I’m not surprised that it has been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize almost as soon as it hit the shelves in the English-speaking world. (What other treasures lie in store for us, I wonder, now that at last readers can source the kind of books they like from everywhere, not just limited to what local booksellers think they might like? Publishers are starting to realise that there is a world-wide market for books in translation at last!)

Diego Marani is an Italian Eurocrat, apparently one with a sense of humour. To divert himself from his work as a linguist for the EU in Brussels, he spoofs current affairs for a Swiss newspaper using his own invented language called Europanto. He is the author of six novels, but according to Stu at Winston’s Dad, New Finnish Grammar is the only one to be translated into English. Let’s hope we see more of them soon.

New Finnish Grammar is the story of a man’s search for identity. Not the navel-gazing, coming-of-age or getting-older kind of identity that in my opinion tends to preoccupy too many authors at the expense of more significant issues, but an actual identity. He doesn’t know who he is, and in the turmoil of war, neither does anyone else.

It so happens that he is found on the quay in Trieste, with near-critical head injuries, in September 1943. The date is significant because this is when Mainland Italy was invaded by the Allies under Montgomery and the Italians signed an Armistice. Although Italy was then no longer a belligerent in the war, the Germans still occupied Trieste in the northeast near the border with Slovenia, and that is how a neurologist from Hamburg happens to be working there. (The Germans also continued to occupy other places in Italy, as all those of us who’ve read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin will remember).

To read the rest of my review, please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/04/22/ne...(less)

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May 10, 2013 Marianne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

New Finnish Grammar is the second book by Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist, Diego Marani, and the first to be translated into English. This is the tragic tale of a man found on a dock in Trieste during World War Two with a head injury, no memory and no language. Petri Friari, the doctor who treats him, concludes from scant clues on his person that he is a Finnish sailor named Sampo Karjalainen, and sets about helping him to relearn his language. Sampo is sent to Helsinki wher...more New Finnish Grammar is the second book by Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist, Diego Marani, and the first to be translated into English. This is the tragic tale of a man found on a dock in Trieste during World War Two with a head injury, no memory and no language. Petri Friari, the doctor who treats him, concludes from scant clues on his person that he is a Finnish sailor named Sampo Karjalainen, and sets about helping him to relearn his language. Sampo is sent to Helsinki where he hopes to recover his former life; the well-meaning Finns he meets on his quest lead him, however, in another direction entirely. As a translator, Marani is, of course, acutely aware how vital memory and language are to a sense of belonging; and how, bereft of these, loneliness is the likely result; Marani’s powerful story conveys this to the reader in a most exquisite manner. In an unusual format that consists of Friari’s interpretation of the Sampo’s journal (which itself contains interpretations of others’ words), as well as commentary from Friari and transcriptions of unanswered letters from a nurse to Sampo, Marani gives the reader rich imagery, elegant prose and much food for thought. “Fear oozed into the city from the frozen bay, lapping at the streets and squares.” And “….solid and dense, these words marched across the page in geometrical, almost military order, reinforced by the alternating rhyme schemes. I did not read the rhyme, rather I saw it, like reassuring embroidery made of the same three letters, bonding the lines together like an iron nail.” And “Of all the words I’d written in that notebook, it was the ones which had made the soldiers cry that most intrigued me. That they had to do with war was plain as a pikestaff. Some of them were quiet long, full of repeated vowels, with umlauts like helmets and aitches like slung arms. Others, much shorter, chopped off by apostrophes, seemed to be waving their stumps in the direction of the empty line….I saw the word for flag, and it did indeed seem to flutter, making a snapping sound as it left one’s lips.” Marani’s fascination with language is quite apparent: only a linguist would have his main character tell the female lead that what he likes most about the Finnish language is the abessive declension. Or perhaps, more pertinently, only a linguist would have them discussing language at all. Marani includes plenty of interesting tidbits about the Finnish language, like the fact that there are two words for east (and why), as well as theories of migration and the resultant complexity that is the miracle of language. Succinct reflections on life add to the strength of this novel: “…I could not love Ilma without first knowing who I was. I could not offer her the heart of someone I did not know.” And “nothing which has been forgotten has the power to harm us any more.” That this novel was shortlisted for the 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and was a 2012 Best Translated Book Award finalist is no surprise: the translation by Judith Landry is flawless. This novel is compelling, moving and thought-provoking.(less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Kateandthegirlz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Parts of this book are fabulous - the parts that explore the implications of the loss of language, the role of memory, even strangely the bits about Finnish grammar - but other parts aren't so fabulous. I know Sampo has had a tough time but he is not the most engaging of characters. The book delves a little too much into metaphor and mythology for my liking. I'm also not a fan of the structure - the diary and the doctor's written responses to it are a little jarring and contrived. But Finnish is...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

When an injured seaman who has lost his memory and powers of speech is brought to a Finnish doctor working for the German army, he recognises the name in the label of his clothes as Finnish. He tries to teach the man his mother tongue and re-kindle his memory by sending him off to Helsinki. Set mostly in wartime Finland, which I knew very little about, this then allows a contemplation on war, linguistics, loss, memory, and creating a history for yourself or a country. Finished it and afterwards...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Lishesque rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

Favorite quotes:

'"But without memories there would be no nostalgia, either," I objected.

"That's true. So how would people carry on living? After all, we live in hope that a memory will come back - that it will prove to be a premonition."' - Page 93

'But I didn't go down there: I want the memory I still have of those places to remain intact, softened by time, cleansed of all pain. Perhaps, indeed, the day will come when memory will ebb away from those images too, letting them fade into oblivion. H...more

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May 05, 2013 Ruth Bonetti rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the sort of book that one thinks 'I must reread this to absorb its depths of meaning.' As one keeps turning pages. The insights into language are especially deep for we're talking that most difficult tongue, Finnish. The complexity, the umlauts, cases, declensions... having learned a few basic phrases of Finnish I have a hearty respect for anyone who can not only learn it (as did our hero, the supposed Sampo) but write about it in such a perceptive manner:

'...For us Finns knowledge is a...more This is the sort of book that one thinks 'I must reread this to absorb its depths of meaning.' As one keeps turning pages. The insights into language are especially deep for we're talking that most difficult tongue, Finnish. The complexity, the umlauts, cases, declensions... having learned a few basic phrases of Finnish I have a hearty respect for anyone who can not only learn it (as did our hero, the supposed Sampo) but write about it in such a perceptive manner:

'...For us Finns knowledge is a road, a path leading us out of the woods, into the sunlight, and the person who knew the way in the olden times was the magician, the shaman who drugged himself with magic mushrooms and could see beyond the woods, beyond the real world. It is of course true there is more than one possible path to knowledge, indeed there are many. In the Finnish language the noun is hard to lay hands on, hidden as it is behind the endless declensions of its fifteen cases and only rarely caught unawares in the nominative.' How I envy such facility with a complex language that one can analyse, not merely speak!

And: 'In European languages the sentence is a straight lie; in Finnish it is a circle, within which something happens.'

It is valid to compare this book with 'The English Patient' for it weaves a mystery of identity. It tells of an amnesiac, who has no idea of his origin, even his own mother tongue but who tackles the fiendish Finnish language in the hope of finding himself. The author, in the voice of Dr. Friari, scatters tantalising crumbs that hint Sampo is on the wrong road. And that Friari bears guilt that he set the hapless man on a path that will come to a tragic ending – in a war not his own, the bitter fighting on the Karelian Peninsula bordering Russia.

So we are left with a sad shake of the head that a life was wasted, screwed by the insanity of war. But also by the good doctor's futile attempts to help a lost soul. My only small quibble is that the writing attributed to Sampo is so fluent, so graphic, so visual, that one wonders at his ability to express such depths in a short time. But this seems churlish to question someone desperate to find meaning of his life. How can I judge? I must make a focused effort to learn Finnish!(less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Parrish Lantern rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, on-my-shelves, translation, iffp-long-list-2012

Memory is an individuals ability to evoke or revive specific events from their lives. Memory is thought to divide into 3 main subdivisions, these being Working memory (prefrontal Cortex), Long term memory (hippocampus) and Skill memory (Cerebellum). These all play their part in contributing to our identity, by the building of new memories and the retaining of past ones, also by providing us with scenarios that allows us to know how to behave socially. Making memory an important factor in buildin...more

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Jun 27, 2012 rameau rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-translation, historical, annoying-1st-3rd-voice-mixing, read-in-2012

This reads more like a man's desperate attempt to make sense of a language, a culture, and a history behind them that is wholly different from his own, than it reads like a novel about an amnesiac man searching for an identity through a new language.

I appreciated the historical accuracy, but can only hope that the mispelled Finnish words are the translator's fault rather than the original author's. As I said in one of my status updates, it's good for linguistic laughs.

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Apr 26, 2012 Cel Jel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the next book this year that is going to have me continuing to think on some of the themes in it. Perhaps the translation is a little poor in places - the sentences in patches seem too long or too forced, but the underlying story leads to questions.
What makes you you? What do you need to have to be able to form relationships with others.
I found this book made me think.

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Sep 13, 2012 Eleblack rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dare un senso a una cultura, alla storia (a una storia) è sempre difficile. Così Marani tenta di dare un senso alla cultura finlandese, alla storia che l'ha originata, e descrive i tentativi del giovane protagonista di dare un senso alla propria vita. Non dirò niente sul finale :) Ma bravo Marani, che sa essere uno scrittore più bravo di quanti lo fanno per mestiere.

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Jul 12, 2011 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely loved it. The Finnish language has fascinated me for years, especially the way in which it's spoken with pauses and lengthy silences, as well as the cadence .... besides the very moving plot, the description of the construction of the language is beautiful. I'm returning to passages time and again, and will most definitely re-read it very soon.

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Aug 14, 2012 Victoria added it

A lovely title, admitting myriad possibilities, and all in all, what emerges doesn't entirely disappoint. But the general theme, which, without spoiling anything because it's clear early on, is identity through language, does seem a bit thin compared to the riches possible from the characters involved, who end up primarily acting out the theme and somewhat failing to have lives of their own. Along the way there are nice insights into what it means to have a large, powerful, and typically predato...more

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Jul 31, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

A typically rich jewel mined by the lovely Dedalus Press. This WWII story of amnesia, love and a search for identity is intertwined with and steeped in (especially)Finnish language and culture, to joyously surprising effect. The tidal waves of glowing reviews and word-of-mouth approbation were very well justified.

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Apr 13, 2013 Katherine Govier rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just picked this up in the Brisbane airport. It is translated from SPanish, not sure it's published in Canada. But what an interesting meditation on language! I really enjoyed it. Some passages are the sort that you want to stop and read over again and again.

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title link	preview: New Finnish Grammar
avg rating	preview: New Finnish Grammar Goodreads rating: 3.42 (302 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11465331-new-finnish-grammar?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348768431l/11465331.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11465331-new-finnish-grammar?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani[/url]

New Finnish Grammar

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