Rosa Liksom: Hytti nro 6

Hytti nro 6 (2011)
Rosa Liksom
WSOY, 2012
Pokkari, 200 sivua


Finlandia-voittaja 2011
BC-kirja
GR: 3/5 tähteä
★★★

A young Finnish woman travels from Moscow to Ulan Bator by train in the 1980s (I believe the author has made the same journey herself in her youth). She shares the train compartment with a Russian man in his forties.

This wasn't a fast book to read because Liksom uses very descriptive language and even some strange words to describe the nature, sometimes I even wondered if she were colour blind... The descriptions of the faraway towns in Siberia and the reality of the life in the Soviet Union were believable in my opinion, having twice visited one of the poorer areas in Russia and even the Soviet Union as a child.

The Russian man was an interesting character but I am not sure if I had wanted to share a compartment with him for days or weeks, even. That made reading the book sometimes uncomfortable. I think for me the stories about other people were the most interesting part of the book, they felt real (and maybe they were) and gave a glimpse to the life of the ordinary Soviet people.

This wasn't a book I personally enjoyed reading and that is why I only gave it three stars but a person who enjoys reading books for their language will probably like it more.