Sofi Oksanen: Purge

[Bjorn]

Sofi Oksanen: Purge (Puhdistus, 2009)

World War II and the cold war gave birth to the modern spy thriller, where everything was about uncovering secrets and false loyalties. In Purge, Oksanen seems to bury it once and for all, while at the same time reminding her readers that there are always going to be those who remember where the bodies are buried. The wars are over here, democracy and freedom have won the day, the KGB archives are opened, the oppressed are getting back what they lost and all the old lies are going to be uncovered... well, the ones the winners want uncovered, that is. It's not going to be easy. There's going to be deaths, both new and old, before it's over.

It's early 90s in newly independent Estonia, where the old woman Aliide has lived alone in her little cottage for years. As an old Soviet functionary she's despised and feared by her neighbours - a witch who may still have some sort of powers left. Children write insults on her door and throw rocks at her house, but nobody dares do anything more than that to drive her out. There's the big history, the collective one; 45 years of occupation and oppression can't not leave traces in a country that ceased to exist for decades and now has to be reinvented from the bits of history they can bear to remember.

Then one day, Aliide finds a young woman in her yard. Zara comes from Vladivostok and speaks the slightly archaic and accented Estonian of one born in exile. What she's doing in this part of the world is obvious from her outfit, make-up and skittishness; she's running from men in a big black car. That's the big history, the collective one: so many Balts were sent East by Stalin in the 40s and 50s, so many East European and Asian women are sent West nowadays to work in the thriving European sex trade.

Everything was repeating. Even though the ruble had been exchanged for the kroon, though there weren't as many fighter planes flying overhead, though the officer's wives had lowered their voices, though the anthem of independence blared from the speakers on Pikk Hermann every day, there was always a new leather boot, there was always a new boot, the same or different, always tramping in the same way across your throat.

But we know that, right? Dictatorship bad, democracy good, trafficking bad, etc. What makes Purge a great, entertaining, and uneasy bitches' brew of a novel is the way it interweaves the personal history with the big one, how they affect each other, and what exactly it is we build this bright new freedom on. How did these particular women end up on this particular farm of all places, what did they bring, and what's buried there? As Aliide and Zara sit there waiting for the big black car to inevitably find them Oksanen takes us back and forth through their history, tracing them from a young naive girl in the 30s through the shifting loyalties of the war, the Soviet years with its paranoia and secrets, on into the 90s. History is written by the victors, it's said, but of course losers write their history as well, why they were right, why their day will come, and what definitely didn't happen no matter what the other side may say. And in both Aliide's and Zara's life - and in the Soviet and Estonian records - there's so much that hasn't happened (can't have happened, mustn't have happened).

Purge is reminiscent of Ian McEwant's Atonement in some ways: a masterful character drama based on our ability - our need - to sometimes lie to ourselves, re-tell the story not just to justify our own actions but to make heroes of the people who may just have been victims. To be able to live with ourselves. But unlike McEwan, Oksanen dares to give the screw another turn, in both cold fury and compassion, and explore the darker sides of what the cultivation of victimhood can lead to, the righteousness, the elective blindness.

The title refers to deportation, to expulsion. To exorcism of old demons, to witch trials. To catharsis and self-delusion. To cleansing (and we know what meaning the 90s gave to that word). To execution. All of it will finally come to the surface in that little cottage on the edge of an Estonian forest, where the ground is still poisoned since Chernobyl (since 1946, since 1942, since 1917, since Adam and Eve) and Aliide has spent decades filling her dark cellar with preserved goods. When the big history and the small ones collide, something's going to explode. And then, once again, someone's going to have to clean up the blood, hide the bodies, and pick a winner.

[Eric]

I've not yet read the book, although I have the Dutch translation, the Finnish original, and will probably end up reading it in Swedish, as I read Swedish with much greater ease than Finnish. But it was encouraging to see, in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, that a book with a Soviet and Estonian theme has made it to the top of the Top Ten best new books according to Swedish critics. A Finnish woman lecturer I spoke to last week said that Oksanen's novel "Stalin's Cows" is also good.

Some Estonians appear to be rather envious of Oksanen, saying that what she has written in "Purge" has all been written before in Estonian books over the decades. But I take my hat off to Oksanen as she has managed, maybe by her weird dress combined with a sharp mind, to promote this theme internationally.

Several thousand Balts were deported by the Soviets to Siberia in razzias in 1941 and 1949. Others, especially Jewish ones, were evacuated by the Soviets as the Germans invaded in 1941. So people returning from Siberia to their Baltic homelands may have suffered different or mixed fates. Someone called Zara is likely to have a Jewish background. Estonian women, especially Russian-speaking ones, started going over to Finland in the 1980s to work in the sex trade.

I'm glad Bj?rn wrote the review to remind us all of Sofi Oksanen and her rather well-received novel. Now all I've got to do is read it. It has, as I said elsewhere, been published in English in the United States.

For more on Sofi Oksanen, also look at:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...i-oksanen.html

[kpjayan]

This books tackle two issues at the same time, linking both through the suffering of a family. One the German occupation and the post war resistance of Estonia... The next the post independent states of Old Soviet Union, still going through the same experience.. From the militiamen it's now moved to the hands of Mafia.

I thought Jan Kross book ( Threading Air) has more depth and wider spectrum of the resistance movement, but here it's more personal and humane.

Beautifully written, constrain use of language ( in a positive way), emotionally checked and balanced... Very good book.

[Eric]

Kpjayan, as I myself translated "Treading Air" by Jaan Kross into English, I'm bound to like that one. But Oksanen is symbolically important in Scandinavia because she has drawn the attention of Finns, Swedes, etc., to a number of issues in the neighbouring Baltic countries.

The Scandinavians were very cautious, during the time that the Soviet Union existed, of making too much publicity about the plight of the occupied Baltic countries. They did not want to upset imperialist power Russia, which had invented the Soviet Union and incorporated these countries. Oksanen is focusing on the plight of women specifically, as well as the occupations of Estonia by the Soviet Union (1940-1941 and 1944-1991) and Nazi Germany (1941-1944). Estonians themselves have written similar books previously, but Oksanen knew how to promote herself and her books better.

That is the long and the short of it. Short, here.

[Eric]

This novel has now appeared in German. There was a largish review in the NZZ:

Wenn Frauen Freiheit ben (Kultur, Literatur, NZZ Online)

Curiously, the title has been changed slightly in the German: from "Purge" (Puhdistus, Puhastus, Zuivering) to "Purgatory" (Fegefeuer). But it's all a question of cleansing.

I'm sorry to say that I've still not read the book.

Details:

Sofi Oksanen: Fegefeuer. Roman. Aus dem Finnischen von Angela Pl?ger. Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, K?ln 2010. 396 S., Fr. 30.50. ? Auch greifbar als H?rbuch bei H?rbuch Hamburg.

[Beth]

I read Purge last month and, lacking a good grip of the historical and political background, was able to hone in on the riveting story of the relationships between Aliide and Zara, Aliide and her husband, Aliide and her sister. Not to mention Hans. What impresses me is how skillfully Oksanen portrays the dance between Aliide and Zara, the fear which precludes any possibility of friendship or intimacy. In many ways, I felt that the novel deals with the small scale tragedy of missed opportunities for trust, all brought and made lasting as repercussion through large scale dynamics.

[Eric]

Thanks for that, Beth. Whether or not you have the appropriate culturo-historical baggage, I'm sure the book is well worth reading. I must get down to it, as even here in Sweden it is a book you regularly see in the bookshops. Someone also recommended her novel "Stalin's Cows", which is available in several languages, but perhaps not English yet.

Oksanen seems to be one of those rare occasions where a well-hyped book also seems to be a genuinely interesting one. Of course, I am biased, because of the Estonian connection, but the book is attracting many readers throughout Europe and elsewhere, many of whom may never have heard of Estonia, like some old chap from New York I met the other week.

[Beth]

I would hope you'd enjoy it, Eric, as it's much more complex than I'm able to convey because of my shortcoming in fully comprehending the geography and history. Although, when my son, earlier this year, began a conversation by saying "Mom, you know how when the Soviets occupied Estonia?...well....", I was forced to heads up pay attention and let him explain it a bit.

Purge is a mystery of sorts, but in my humble opinion it's more about relationships, no history lesson required.

[Flower]

Great review, Bjorn!

I just ordered the book today and am looking forward to reading it.

[Eric]

Which review was that, Flower? I haven't seen one very recently. I have to say that I have been held up for the umpteenth time in my reading of that novel, but the thought did strike me, reading the first few pages, that she is a good stylist, whatever the subject matter of the book (which of course interests me as a translator from Estonian). It is one of the few times that I welcome an author and a book that have been rather well-hyped, as usually I shun the fashionable mainstream. I wonder when her earlier two novels, "Baby Jane" and "Stalin's Cows" will appear in English. All three novels are available in Swedish translation, and presumably in Danish too.

[Flower]

Which review was that, Flower?

The first post in this thread!

[Eric]

I quite agree that Björn's review here was excellent. Björn's English is very good too. I hope he publishes more reviews of that calibre on the WLF. I didn't realise that you were referring to the first posting, Flower.

[Eric]

I read in the Stockholm Finnish-language weekly that Purge is now being staged as a play in Stockholm. The translator of the play is the same as of the novel: Janina Orlov. The article says there that it started out as a play in Finnish too, before Oksanen adapted it into a novel, the one that has been reviewed here. It is also being staged in New York and, logically enough, in Estonia, given the content of the play. And this year it will be staged as an opera at the Finnish National Opera which, if I'm not mistaken, is housed in a building in the provincial Finnish town of Savonlinna. (Incidentally, since Björn quoted that passage, Estonia has gone over from the kroon to the euro. I like Björn's pun "bitches brew".)

I decided not to read Purge as a novel first, starting instead with Oksanen's Baby Jane which deals principally with a rather fraught lesbian relationship, and and is set in flats and bars in Helsinki. One reason for the postponement is that I may ultimately even try to read Purge in Finnish (with, of course, some help from the Swedish translation when I don't understand things). As I am so steeped in things Estonian right now, I thought that another book about that country would be a little too much. But I'm getting on well with Baby Jane. Except for the bits where she goes into detailed descriptions of make-up. Not being a tranny, I cannot always follow the subtleties of mascara, foundation layers, the drying involved, and so on. But the novel is satisfying so far at an emotional level, and the difficulties and depressions undergone ring true. A third novel by Oksanen is called Stalinin lehmät (i.e. Stalin's Cows) and is, as far as I can gather, already moving in the direction of Purge with regard to subject matter, i.e. Estonia and Soviet prostitution.

[DWM]

I've ordered Lola Rogers' translation of Puhdistus, which was recommended to me by a Finnish critic as being at least as good as the Finnish original, so we'll see.

[Eric]

Yes, Lola herself posted here quite recently, on one of the threads involving Oksanen.

What I'm doing to improve my Finnish vocabulary - which I realise is severely circumscribed - is reading Baby Jane in Finnish with the Swedish version lying right next to it. I can manage some of the colloquial Finnish contractions, such as "mun" for "minun" and "oon" for "olen". And you can guess words such as "diileri". And once you realise that a "lepakko" or butterfly is a lesbian, you can grasp the meaning of "unisexlepakko". And so on. The international borrowings are the least of my problems. One's such as "humpuukia" from English, which is rather blandly translated as "inte stämde" in the Swedish version - which is otherwise very good and sticks to the original.

But I realise that it is the straight vocabulary, if you'll excuse the pun, that I'm lacking. So even my relatively old dictionaries can help there. I constantly wonder how many of those phenomenally difficult sentence contractions are used in colloquial speech, since when I did live in Finland (for a total of four years in the 1970s), I was concentrating almost wholly on Swedish, so I didn't listen with attention. I still feel I have a long way to go, even though I'm translating Estonian novels all the time, and the languages are similar.

Baby Jane is not of the same sophistication as Puhdistus / Purge, but it is an enjoyable read, not least because Oksanen alternates comic passages with genuine sad emotion. The protagonist's lesbian girlfriend is quite manipulative. I don't know where it will all end, because I've only read half the book, so far. But it's a tragi-comedy, for sure.

[DWM]

What I can't work out is the degree to which Sofi Oksanen is a self-promoting "rebel" and provocateuse along Rosa Liksom lines, or is genuinely committed to an artistic vision of humanity.

The public image she adopts is confusing, and the Danish television interview she gave some time ago didn't leave me with a particularly positive impression of her. On the other hand, I have never met her, and I haven't yet read one of her books - Purge will be the first. So I'm really curious about how I'll react to it. I also want to read it in English because it seems to me that it's in English - and certainly not Finn(gl)ish - that Sofi Oksanen really communicates with the world: the television interview convinced me of that.

I think there are going to be more writers like Sofi Oksanen - Europeans who are crossing the Atlantic and in the process, either in translation or in the rejection of their native tongue and native land, leaving a European identity behind. Perhaps it's a sign that Europe is slowly dying.

[Eric]

I've only seen a quick flash of Oksanen on TV, but my intuition tells me that, despite her talent for Gothic histrionics and self-promotion, there is something of greater substance to Oksanen, compared to many of the narcissistic jokers that populate the literary scene in rather rich Scandinavia.

For instance, it surprises me that a Finn has made a success with what is in effect an anti-Soviet novel dealing with serious issues, given Finland's tradition for finlandisation and the suppression of the Tiitinen List. You will remember that the Russians didn't give Oksanen a visa a couple of years ago to attend some book event in Saint Petersburg, and that the somewhat unstable Johan Bäckman (backed by his ex-KGB publisher no doubt!) did a kind of anti-stalking of her around the time of the Bronze Soldier incident. I don't think that Oksanen rigged such things for the sake of more publicity. Oksanen's quarrel with WSOY has been kept rather under wraps, so I don't know who said what to whom.

The Estonians are very ambiguous about Oksanen, as one of the traits of Estonians (according to the Estonians themselves), is eesti kadedus, i.e. Estonian envy. Especially those Estonian authors that have been trying to get the world to notice the ills of the Soviet occupation and system over the past few decades are rather bitter that some face-painted Finness has come along and got world fame by writing about things that the Estonians themselves have not succeeded in promoting. But where were the people promoting Maimu Berg, Eeva Park, Enn Nõu, Heino Kiik, Arvo Valton and a number of others in Europe during the 1990s and early 2000s? Jaan Kross is about the only critic of some Soviet ills who has become visible in Western Europe. And, when we consider works of literature, the style counts as much if not more than the story. So there may also be the style factor.

I've only read a few pages of Purge, but as I have said earlier, I already regard it as a step up from Baby Jane. The latter is still rather a student-type of book. But I'm enjoying the lesbian intrigue, not least because it is described with sincerity and with all its pitfalls.

I'm going to read Oksanen's books in Finnish (even with a crib lying next to the book) for the banal reason that she wrote the books in Finnish and I happen to be brushing up that language. I have been going sentence by sentence through Baby Jane, to the extent that I even notice where Janina Orlov (the Swedish translator) occasionally deviates.

So it will also be interesting to ultimately get hold of Lola's translation of Purge and compare the two translations with the original. I also have the Dutch translation, which was translated by a Finn (Marja-Leena Hellings) who has lived for decades in Holland. I haven't got hold of the Estonian translation yet, but that should be interesting, because the translator, Jan Kaus, is likely to be very alert to matters Soviet.

[DWM]

I've only seen a quick flash of Oksanen on TV

You can see a rather longer "flash" in the YouTube video I linked to in the blog post referred to above.

[Eric]

I'll have a look at the Danish interview. Meanwhile,could you expand on this:

I think there are going to be more writers like Sofi Oksanen - Europeans who are crossing the Atlantic and in the process, either in translation or in the rejection of their native tongue and native land, leaving a European identity behind. Perhaps it's a sign that Europe is slowly dying.

This all sounds rather Euro-apocalyptic. There are a lot of people who write in European languages. Have you any proof that Europe is dying, either culturally or politically?

[DWM]

It's just a feeling I have. So many writers in Europe are looking towards the English-language markets and audiences now. In Finland one sometimes gets the sense that some authors will soon be actually writing their books in English...