kulttuuria (ei ruumiinkulttuuria)

I finally came across to pick "Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for snø" (suom. Lumen taju) by Peter Høeg from the library. What a book! Usually thrillers are just exiting and entertaning and after finishing one I have to check that nobody is hiding in the closets. (Maybe I should not read them but that is another story...) This one, it was exiting yes, but filled with very wise (no, not clever, wise is about deep understanging) observations about how humans are. Especially how humans in between cultures are. Does one have both or does one belong to none? Finally the descriptions of snow, ice and north were - very real. A book that the fifteen-year-old me would have put back to the shelf, because it was too slow and happeningless (in spite of being a thriller). Double the age and divide the tempo. Maybe there is hope that one day I can enjoy Sinuhe egyptiläinen as well ;)

Kätilö ("the midwife") by Katja Kettu, has not ben translated from Finnish, I assume. Those who read Finnish should chek it out. A lot of the story happens at Ifjord (next to Ifjordfjellet) which of course is not that exiting if you havent spent a lot of time there. And it probably opens better if you speak/have heard enough of northern Finnish (if you are one of those who find it funny when people speak a dialect far from yours it might slightly ruin the trip to this book). But in any case, it is powerful. Language is powerful and the story is powerful - not so unlike from those by Sofi Oksanen - very much about the animal in us. In good and bad.