Harjunpää ja pahan pappi by Matti Yrjänä Joensuu

I actually bought this book last summer, only it was left on the self with all the comotion that happened soon after. I picked the book up first about two weeks ago and read couple of the first chapters, until I couldn't stomach it anymore - Matti Yrjänä Joensuu could probably depress anyone and if you're in a delicate mood it he can distroy you.

Harjunpää ja pahan pappi (Harjunpää and the priest of evil) starts out with a haunting scene of domestic violence, then moves on to a serial killer priest who worships an ancient goddess, and then moves on to Harjunpää checking out a would-be crime scene where a mentally disturbed young man's dominating mother is found dead in her bedroom decomposing. Charming as ever - it's all coming back to me why I found these books so depressing.

But when I picked the book up again yesterday I really got into it. For a change things were not going entirely wrong for Harjunpää, and the criminal wasn't the sad figure with a difficult childhood. As always with Joensuu's books, it's not really as much about solving a crime or the plot as much as it is about (unhappy) characters and their emotions. Bullied boy, struggling writer (who constantly reminded me of Isä) and of course the deranged priest.

In a way Joensuu is abandoning the realism in this book - the priest seems to indeed posses supernatural powers that he uses to lure and command people. The boy, Matti, lives in his imaginary world when the real world is too terrible to face. The father - the writer - isn't too far behind in the hell of his own creation. The border between reality and imaginary isn't as strict - whereas border between good and evil is very explicit. The priest is indeed pure evil without any redeeming qualities, and he is contrasted by Matti - a child who is pure and innocent, but at the same time like a canvas where the one who yelds the brush can paint whatever they want.

Very good book, but not for the weak at heart.