Isä by Hannu Mäkelä

This weekend we've been swapping Christmas books and reading each others gifts. While Dragon was reading about brave women, I was reading about men: the book I picked was Hannu Mäkelä's novel Isä (father). This book is a real page turner, I picked it up and just read it in one go, I couldn't even go to sleep without finishing it.

The book is Hannu Mäkelä's autobiographical story about himself and his relationship with his father, who had left the family before he was born leaving his mother as a single mother of three in the early 40s. His father was a bitter man who put himself first in every occasion and dispised his children believing that they were worthless and would never come to anything. Once the father asked his young son what he was planning to do when he grew up, and upon hearing his son reply that he wanted to be an author, the father replied with his most famous remark "You'll never become an author". (It's to be noted that Hannu Mäkelä has written over 160 books to this date comprising of poems, plays, and children's and adult's books.)

It's a shocking book, about a relationship between son and father their comptetition - the father wanted to be all the things the son was but unfortunately was himself totally talentless. I've seen these kind of people - they believe only in themselves and if something goes wrong, the error is with other people, or possibly the world. They have extremely limited vision and are mostly incapable of any kind sympathy or looking at things from any other point of view than their own.

This isn't really a book you can "review" or "critisize" - the writer is an eshtablished one, and the book has been born out of need and whatever is in it was chosen by the author (who is really is the only person qualified in this case). I've read some reviews written by people who wonder why Mäkelä couldn't just walk away from the relationship if it caused him so much pain. Personally I think the comment a bit naive - I don't think a person can never totally detach from their parents, and seeking parent's approval in one way or another is perfectly normal understandable. It only becomes sad when the parent is unwilling (consciously or not) to give it.

Gripping read - painful but really interesting read.