Do you know you have a Raskel in your back seat?
Read it already? Check out my other suggestions for Finland here!
I picked up Juhani Karila’s Fishing for the little pike (also published as Summer fishing in Lapland) because I saw it described as a “mildly ironic, exuberant, folkloric eco-thriller-comedy slash love story”. I mean, how could I not?
And it was exactly that, and I loved every page. That’s it. That’s the review.
You would like a longer review, you say? What more could you possibly want? But ok, then, I’ll happily tell you more. The problem is though, that this novel has to be experienced. Nothing I say here will do it justice, I fear. Reading Fishing for the little pike is like stepping into a whirlwind of casual absurdity, and it will leave your head spinning.
The story on the surface is quite simple: Elina is a young woman on a mission to catch a particular pike in a particular lake outside her old hometown in Lapland. But if you think this is a relaxing fishing trip, think again. Because the clock is ticking, and there’s something deeply unsettling lurking in the water.
Elina has exactly three days to catch the elusive fish, and she must do this every year. In fact her life literally depends on it. But besides this curse on her life she also has to deal with a police officer on her trail, who wants to accuse her of murder. And while they both battle time – and a very wide array of magical and mythological creatures who show up along the way – we are also treated in flashbacks to glimpses from Elina’s childhood and youth. This is where the love-story comes in. And the explanation for why this yearly fishing trip is needed.
Karila masterfully blends Finnish folklore, dark humour, and an intimate knowledge of fishing into a story that’s equal parts bizarre and beautiful. Reading this book is into a fever dream where reality and myth overlap seamlessly. It’s a book that doesn’t care about boundaries between the real and the magical. It crosses them unapologetically on every page and have you going “wait, what …?”
“If I told you I saw a naked man climb out of the trash can last night,
with a unicorn head and wings, and that he spread his wings and flew
like a magpie, would you think I’d gone mad?”
There was silence in the car, then Pöllö said:
“There are stranger things in the world than that.”
“Yes. I thought so. So, shall we just go and look at your wandering demon?”
A few chapters into this book, you come to accept the absurd and the mythical as a fact of life. After all, everyone knows it is like this in Lapland. And you will get used to the Raskel taking up the back seat of your car.
While the absurdity and the gripping plot keeps you entertained, Karila’s genuine love for Lapland and the people who live there shines through every page. This is Lapland, as you have never seen it before. There are no picture perfect snow covered reindeer flocks here, only swampy landscapes, wonderfully odd characters, and insects (soooo many insects!).
I found Fishing for the little pike to be laugh-out-loud funny, extremely weird, and unexpectedly touching. I adored this story with every fibre of my being, and if you’re in the mood for something wildly original that doesn’t take itself too seriously but still leaves you thinking, I highly recommend picking this up.
Because this is of course not just a novel about catching a fish; it’s a story about reckoning with your past, facing the oddities of life, and accepting that sometimes, you’re going to meet a demon, and you will just have to deal with it.
Have you read it? Have you read some of these other books from Finland, or do you have another one I should know about?
There’s nothing I can add to your review other than to say I absolutely loved this book once I’d got over the shock of the sudden unexpected introduction of weird fantasy and folklore. From there on it was a sheer delight. I wanted it to go on and never end. An absolute joy of a book.
So happy you loved it too!