Some thoughts on the school violence

I must've been in some kind of depression last week. When the news of the Kauhajoki shooting incident came out, I lost contact with the world. That's what it seems now. I was in a state of confusion. I slept badly. I couldn't believe anyone could be capable of doing what the guy in Kauhajoki did - he shot ten and then killed himself.

I did analyze the event, mainly in some blogs, here and elsewhere, but I don't think those did much good to anything or anyone. Certainly not to those who were in midst of their grief, who'd lost some of their loved ones. I can't imagine what they feel and think.

But writing about it is all I can do. Maybe beside bringing up my own children in respect of other human beings and everything living.

I've been questioning also my own role. I've been touting violent fiction here in my blog and my reviews and articles for the last ten years. I've helped starting a book line that will feature books in which people maim and kill each other, in some just for the sake of it. And why? Some books - the best books in this vein - always have a some sort of quality, a dignity in which the people in the book are portrayed, but not all. Some are just fun. And it's the fun part that's getting to me. Is it really okay to show people kill each other just because it's fun? Take Kill Bill for instance. Well, okay, I didn't like the film (and I've been very disappointed with Tarantino, since I really, really loved Reservoir Dogs: it had dignity his later films don't, the main exception being the very mature Jackie Brown), but still I've got feelings lately that I should've rallied against the film, marched down the street and shouted: "Ban Bill! Ban Bill!" or some such nonsense (in which I don't believe for a minute).

This is probably not making any sense. Films or books didn't have anything to do with the wacko that killed ten in Kauhajoki - but I still have a nagging feeling that the guy was thinking of Die Hard and Steven Seagal and John Woo, when he shot the glass walls down in the school hall. The aesthetics of action film came alive in those minutes. (But, hey, I've never said I liked Seagal or Woo. Die Hard, the first, is a very good film, probably one of the best actioneers of the eighties, but nothing to follow ethically or aesthetically in my books.)

I'm rambling. Let me say it again: films or books didn't cause anything. If something should be rallied against it's the availability of small weapons. Who needs .22 guns the guy used to shoot ten people? No one. Absolutely no one. There's been discussion in Finland whether all the pistols should be abandoned. Some say that hey, it's great sports and didn't we just win gold in the Beijing Olympics in shooting? Yes, we did, but then again we lost ten kids. Which is more important, some people's hobby or everyone's right to stay alive?

I've been thinking about lot of other issues lately. I even came up with an idea that maybe we should drop eating dead animals. Then we wouldn't so easily think of other human beings as objects with which we can do anything we please. Maybe. I don't know. (But we really should at least diminish eating dead animals, only for the climate's sake. I've tried to cut down that myself.)

It all comes down to this: I don't know. I don't know what caused all this and I don't know will prevent it. We can only try and abandoning all small handguns would be one step ahead.

(Ah, well, I guess I must move own. Stuff on violent fiction coming soon.)

Pari yritystä analyysiksi

(Just trying to come up with an explanation to all this misery. Will try to write about this in English later on.)

Olen runoja kirjoittaessani huomannut joutuneeni umpikujaan ja minun on ollut pakko purkaa Kauhajoen tapahtumia edes jotenkin älyllisesti. Olen postittanut tulokset Min Dikt -blogiin, mutta pistän nämä kaksi miniesseeksi luokiteltavaa tekstiä tännekin.

jotenkin tulee äkkiseltään olo ettei tästä aiheesta enää pysty sanomaan mitään. viittaan siis kauhajokeen. olo on kuin olisi katsonut alain resnaisin yön ja usvan ja sen jälkeen vielä joitain muita keskitysleirielokuvia. ne vaikuttavat vain tarpeettomilta ja lässyttäviltä. en siis tarkoita, että oma runoni ("kun maailma masentaa") olisi resnaisin elokuvan veroinen. ajatuksen muodostaminen tällaisista tapahtumista vaikuttaa banaanilta. siihen tappaja ehkä pyrkiikin. että oma maailmamme ja se, mitä siitä ajattelemme, vaikuttaisi banaalilta. siinä mielessä projekti on sama kuin 70-luvun äärivasemmistolaisten terroristien: maailman tietty luonne pitää väkivallan avulla tuoda näkyviin, jotta muuttaisimme sitä. ehkä tappaja ajattelee, että kaikkien pitäisi elää maailmassa, jossa kuka tahansa riittävän vahva voi ampua kenet tahansa. kyse on vain siitä, kumpi on vahvempi ja/tai nopeampi. tappajat vetoavat sosiaalidarvinismiin, mutta herbert spencer ei koskaan kai ehdottanut, että ihmisten pitäisi ammuskella toisiaan. ihmisten välinen taistelu tässä merkityksessä on luotu, keinotekoinen taistelu, jolloin se vain heijastelee kapitalismin tai markkinatalouden luomaa ihmisten välistä, perustaltaan aivan yhtä keinotekoista taistelua.

1970-luvun amerikassa teurastamo oli oiva vertauskuva sisimpänsä menettäneelle ihmiselle. texasin moottorisahamurhat kertoo edelleen vakuuttavasti perheestä, jonka ainoa elämänsisältö oli teurastaminen, ja kun eläinten lihaksi teurastaminen menetti taloudellisen merkityksensä, perhe siirtyi ihmisten teurastamiseen, kauniiden ja banaalien nuorten ihmisten teurastamiseen. sama vertauskuva pätenee edelleenkin. oletus on, että ihminen voi alentaa muut oman elämänsä objekteiksi ja tämän avulla menestyä taloudellisesti. kun tämä ei ole mahdollista, on kuitenkin edelleen mahdollista alentaa muut objekteiksi suhteessa omaan itseensä. objekteillehan voi sitten tehdä mitä haluaa.

Paras lukemani juttu aiheesta on muuten tänään ilmestyneessä Kansan Uutisten Viikkolehdessä oleva Kai Hirvasnoron artikkeli, jossa hän lähestyy tapahtumia sekä omakohtaisesti että tuoreen artikkelikokoelman kautta. Samalla kannattaa lukea hänen pääkirjoituksensa lehden viitossivulta. Toivottavasti hän postittaa ne blogiinsa pikaisesti.

Viikkolehdessä myös Tuula-Liisa Varis kommentoi tapahtumia pitkälti. Vihreän Langan Niemeläinenkin puhuu aiheesta, hyvä, joskin aika lohduton teksti, koska hän päätyy siihen, että Kauhajoen tapauksessa yhteisö nimenomaan toimi: joku Saaren tuttavista oli suoraa kysynyt, meinaako tämä oikeasti ruveta ampumaan ihmisiä, ja ilmoittanut sitten poliisille, että kaveria kannattaisi haastatella. Saari oli sitten vain onnistunut vakuuttamaan poliisin siitä, että ei hänellä ole oikeasti sellaisia aikeita. Mutta yhteisö oli toiminut. Kaikki oli mennyt juuri niin kuin pitikin. (Mieleen tulee jopa kammottava ajatus, että jos yhteisö ei olisi toiminut, ehkä Saari olisi vielä ainakin lykännyt tapahtumia ja ehkä ne olisi jollain toisella tavalla toimimalla voitu estää. Myönnän, etten ole lukenut esimerkiksi iltapäivälehtiä - en yksinkertaisesti pysty - enkä tiedä kaikkea mitä Saaresta on kirjoitettu.)

News links

I didn't have the required energy to come up with English-language links to the Kauhajoki shooting incident. My friend pHinn provides some in his own post here. And here's what he has to say about the whole thing.

Thought I'd translate the poem I wrote

I don't really know if this works, but I was actually captivated by it. I've kept staring at my own poem during the day and been wondering what it's about, what it's trying to tell me. Can you tell me? (The most obscure thing in the poem is the line about the liver. I woke up at six and stayed in bed for over an hour. I kept saying to myself, almost like in a dream: mugwumps have no liver. You know where that comes from, don't you?)

when the world gets you down,
count to six, when you don't wake up,
count to seven

strange songs are ringing in your head,
some have no liver

when you are laying on straws, your eyes wide open,
think of the fatherland,
its face has been torn open

Freaked out? Sure!

Patti asked in a comment to a previous post if we Finns are as freaked out as they, the Americans, are. She was talking about the financial crisis, the new Depression.

And the answer is: Yes, we are as freaked out as you Americans are. But I'm not talking about the financial crisis now, I'm talking about the new school massacre that took place yesterday in a small town of Kauhajoki. The guy killed ten and shot himself. He was taken to a hospital, but he didn't survive. I would've liked to see him apologize for what he did. It wouldn't've helped, but, well, we'll never know.

I don't really know what to say. I've felt depressed and I slept badly and I feel bad about taking my kids out to the world. Come back home, here you are safe! But then I say to myself that we can't afford let those bastards win. The world is ours, no matter how stupid or arrogant we may seem to you, and we won't let you have it!

Sorry, don't have an energy to come up with an English-speaking news link.

Here's a poem I wrote this morning, somewhat relating to the events yesterday. In Finnish. And here, in Finnish again, a rambling I wrote on another blog.

Alabama White Sauce

Found this recipe on the White Trash Barbecue blog (great name, that one!), I believe it's the one Patti and Jess mentioned in the previous post's comments.

Grilled Chicken With Alabama White Sauce Chicken:
1 /4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 /2 teaspoon paprika
1 /4 teaspoon chili powder
Dash salt
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Sauce:
1 /2 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 /3 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
Dash hot pepper sauce
Dash salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

To make the chicken: Combine garlic powder, paprika, chili powder and a dash of salt. Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry; rub seasoning mixture evenly over both sides of chicken.
Heat grill or let coals burn down to white ash. Grill chicken 9 to 12 minutes, until fully cooked and meat thermometer registers 170 degrees, turning midway through cooking.
To make the sauce: Combine all ingredients and whisk until smooth. Serve sauce spooned over grilled chicken or serve as a dipping sauce. Makes 4 servings.

What is that piece of food on the left?

The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat had a largeish piece on how Americans are getting fatter and fatter, mainly because of the extra large dishes. The article was accompanied by the picture on top. I think it was from Kansas. But just what are those big white chunks, covered with a white sauce, on the left? (What's on the right plate looks absolutely delicious, but I could live three days with that amount of food.)

The paperback cover for Waltari's The Egyptian

I found an article featuring the paperback cover for Mika Waltari's The Egyptian. The illo for Pocket Cardinal Giant No. GC-31 is by Charles Binger, the publication year is 1956. The guy is more heroic in the cover that he's in the novel!

I don't have any of Waltari's English-translated paperbacks, so if there's anyone out there with The Etruscan or The Dark Angel or other adventure novels of his, I'd be thrilled to see what they look like. Make those scanners sing!

Clayton Matthews

I corresponded with Clayton Matthews some years ago - it must've been in 2001 or 2002. He's an American novelist and short story writer who focused mainly on paperback markets. He started out in late 1950s writing short stories and then coming up with paperback novels, mostly in the crime genre, in the early 1960s. I notice now that Clayton Matthews died in 2004, quite shortly after my interview (damn, the Nummelin curse again!). His widow and long-time collaborator Patricia Matthews (who was once called "the queen of the romance paperbacks" or something along those lines) died in 2006. Had Clayton Matthews lived to see this day, he'd be 90.

I wrote a short article based on his letter and published it in my fanzine, Pulp. I've posted the article in here. It's understandably in Finnish.

Nevertheless, late last night I came across his letter and the bibliography he sent alongside it. They were buries in a heap of books. I've scanned the bibliography and put it up in the Pulpetti Bibliographic Section. For some reason or another, Matthews didn't include his solo efforts in the bibliography, so I'm putting them as a separate post here. I've compiled the data from Hubin's bibliography and the Fictionmags Index and checking out Abebooks.

There's one curious item in Clayton Matthews's letter. There's a paperback novel called Las Vegas from 1974 (Pocket Books) that he wrote in collaboration with Arthur Moore, but there are also rumours that he himself was Arthur Moore. Some sources say Moore died in 1977, after penning some other paperbacks with Marilyn Granbeck and Don Hoyt and writing some Western paperbacks under his own name. I asked about this from Matthews and all he had to say was: "Yes, Arthur Moore is still alive and definitely did not die in 1977." I gather this means that he really was Arthur Moore and there was never a "real" Arthur Moore. So Matthews may have written all the books that have been published as Arthur Moore. But I can't say I know this for sure.

On the side (or on top, actually, since this got so long) the cover of the only book-length translation from Matthews, Dive into Death (1969) under the title Houkutteleva saalis (Manhattan 91, 1971). His first name is written wrong in the cover. Matthews told me he didn't know his book had been translated into Finnish. It's possible he got royalties only from the Swedish edition (or that the royalties included also possible publications in other Nordic countries). The book is very much okay, a hardboiled adventure yarn, and reminiscent of John MacDonald's Travis McGee books. Matthews had also some short stories translated in the Alfred Hitchcock mags in the seventies and they are okay, too, if nothing spectacular.

On the side, one of Matthews's early erotic novels.

PS. Having written all this and posted stuff on various blogs, it just occurs to me to Google. And lo and behold, Clayton Matthews's bibliography, including even his erotic paperbacks, is up on Fantastic Fiction and Wikipedia!

Book Fair, Schmook Fair

Of course the Turku Book Fair is in October, not August, as I previously wrote. I'm just not able to change the post on Tapani Bagge's new book, don't know why, must be Blogger, not me.

James Crumley dead

Just read from various blogs that James Crumley is dead. This is sad news, since it's not long since he last published - was it 2005, The Right Madness?

I haven't read that book, but I really, really liked The Last Good Kiss, which was translated as Viimeinen kunnon suudelma and published by Otso Kantokorpi's short-lived publishing house Jack-in-the-Box. I remember taking it with me in 1994, when me and two other guys drove up to Nordkapp* (and back!) in a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle. I read it on the way up. (This must sound like I'm an adventurous guy. Far from that. But later on that.)

Other Crumleys I tried, but didn't get excited. I tried the one with a biker gang's boss asking Crumley's private eye hero, Sughrue, to find his mother. I liked the premise and it still makes me chuckle, but I dropped the book, when it didn't seem to go anywhere. Might want to try again.

It seems to me that the Finnish publishers have neglected Crumley's earlier novels, The Wrong Case and Dancing Bear, which many cite alongside The Last Good Kiss as his best crime novels. (Then there's of course One Count to Cadence, his first novel, set in the Vietnam war.) Might I suggest someone correct this wrong? (Well, it is true that without small publishing houses we wouldn't have Crumley here in the first place. First, Jack-in-the-Box, then Book Studio.)

* Nordkapp is the northernmost town in Europe. It's in Norway. There's a tourist trap in there, but we didn't get in there, since we didn't have any money by that time. This was before euros. We drove to another town and I changed my last twenty Finnish marks to Norwegian money.

Tapani Bagge: Ammattimies

My friend, prolific author Tapani Bagge has a new short story collection out soon. Here are the cover by Jukka Murtosaari and the contents of the collection. The book consists mainly of previously published stories, but there are also some hitherto unpublished ones. As you can see, I've published some of the stories in Isku and other fanzines, "Kylmä tuuli/Cold Wind" having been published only in Isku.

Jukka's cover illo features Tapani's hero (or actually anti-hero) Kovanen, who's the lead character in the two graphic novels Tapani scripted to Jari Rasi's drawings.

The book's publisher is Turbator and it will come out to the Turku Book Fair in August, with the Western short story collection I've edited, with stories by Joni Skiftesvik and Totti Karpela.

Alamäki (RikosPalat 1/1988; Isku 1 (2004))
Ammattimies (1988; Pikkujuttu, Gummerus 2003)
Laukaus tehtaalla (SinäMinä 19/1990 (salanimellä Tapio Halla-aho))
Kylmä tuuli (Isku 6 (2005))
Rikoksen pyörteissä (SinäMinä 23/1990 (salanimellä Tapio Halla-aho))
Bodom, bodom, bodom… (Seura 36/2005)
Ääriviivat (Aamulehden Valo 32/2007; Ässä 2 (2008))
Salainen keksintö (1988; Usvazine 4/2007)
Aina murha kotiolot voittaa (RikosPalat 4/1988; Isku 8 (2008))
Keskiyö Rio de Janeirossa (RikosPalat 5/1988)
Varjoton mies (1988)
Kuolema joulun alla (1988)
Jälkisanat

Stranger on the Third Floor first film noir? Nah!

Just last week I was able to watch Stranger on the Third Floor, a small film that's largely been dubbed as the first film noir, mainly because of its photography and lighting.

I don't really know. I'm not one seeking rigid definitions, but this is noir only regarding its style, otherwise it's "only" a thriller. It is also a serial killer film, which you would expect from seeing Peter Lorre in it. This is quite inferior to Fritz Lang's M in which Lorre is so magnificent as the child killer.

What's missing from the film so that I can't call it noir? The lead characters are not doomed, for instance - the ending of the film is very much in the happy end vein, and they are the heroes of the story. If the focus had been on Lorre's character (which resembles the M character very much), then this might be noir. It's just not gloomy enough.

And the film in itself is not very good. Of course there is the famous dream sequence which is very well made, and the photography by Nicolas Musuraca who later on filmed some bona fide film noirs is great. The camera angles and shadows really make the film look noir, but then again the similar elements are found in Citizen Kane, and that's a film very few people would call noir. (And the elements that Musuraca is said to have picked from German Expressionistic cinema were used in Hollywood already in the thirties, in films such as Fritz Lang's Fury, films by Josef von Sternberg and James Whale, and even Son of Frankenstein! So that alone doesn't make a film noir.)

Back to the actual film. Many of the actors are bad, especially the hero guy is unbelievably over the top, especially in the scene where he talks to himself alone in his apartment and thinks there's someone out there. The script is silly. I could walk through the holes in it. First the hero shouts out to Lorre in the lobby of a quiet house: "Who are you? What are you doing here?" (several times), without anyone paying any attention, and then he goes back to his apartment and starts thinking he should go back: "What if someone hears me walking there? What do they think?" The killer in the film strikes out (as he very well would, he's Peter Lorre after all), but no one claims having seem him or even paid any attention to him, which is simply impossible. The court scenes in the beginning of the film may have been the writer's idea for a searing critique on the juridical systems, but they strike me only unconvincing. The police don't check upon the wrong man's doings, when he says he worked through the day and received some money.

There are some good scenes throughout the film, and Lorre is his usual good (and Elisha Cook Jr. makes a good minor role), but all in all I would say this is much overrated.

It seems that this is not available on DVD. Thanks to the Finnish Broadcasting Association I was able to see it - but for Pete's sake, start showing these damn films in a better time! This came out in middle of the day and I had to stop working to watch it! Are these films intended to be of interest only to the sick, unemployed and retired? What?

Fake I.D. out in June 2009

Just heard from Jason Starr that his masterpiece, Fake I.D., will be out in June 2009. Here's the cover (and check out who's blurbing it...).

Megan Abbott's Queenpin

Again a short review on a piece of new American noir and hardboiled: Megan Abbott's Queenpin (with thanks to Patti Abbott, in ways more than one!). I finished the book last night and enjoyed it very much, with some reservations.

The book is a stylistic exercise: how to write a book that's set in the late fourties or early fifties and not to mention anything that could give the setting away? Abbott uses mainly only language to convey the feeling of the era. She uses the slang known from film noirs and hardboiled novels of the era, but she doesn't mention any films or books or celebrities from the era which would've been the easy way out. She succeeds marvellously, but at the same time I have hard time imagining a reader who'd be able to get into this, had he or she no knowledge of the usual expression of film noir or the vintage hardboiled literature. But being who I am, I had no trouble. The book is terse, tense and brutal, which are equivalent of "good" in my vocabulary.

There's one thing more that gives Queenpin an unusual edge and makes it rise from usual pastiche-like quality: the two leads are two women, the men are somewhere around, on the fringes, but not very important (except when a love story comes along). And these women are no ordinary housewives: they are big operators in a Mob-related business. The way Abbott writes about them makes that seem totally plausible.

I could've wished there was more plot to the book, though. It's actually a pretty straight-forward story. But maybe it might've been too tough to follow, if there'd been a more difficult plot.

I haven't read Abbott's previous novels, The Song Is You and Die Me a Little, but she certainly is someone to watch.

Olavi Paavolaisen runo Waltarista

Selvittelin Waltarin lehtirunojen bibliografiaa tarkemmin ja törmäsin Ylioppilaslehdessä vuonna 1927 Olavi Paavolaiseen runosikermään "Nuoria runoilijoita: Impressioneja". Mukana oli Katri Suoranta, Lauri Viljanen, Elina Vaara, Antero Kajanto, Uuno Kailas ja joku muukin, sekä Waltari. Runoihin Paavolainen oli poiminut runoilijoita mielestään luonnehtivia yksittäisiä asioita - ihan hauska juttu, jonka joku voisi rekonstruoida nykyäänkin.

Tässä Paavolaisen runo Waltarista:

Vihreätä marmoria.
Koralleja merenpohjalla.
Kipsinen pääkallo.
Kaasulyhty East-Endissä.
"Fleurs du Mal" taskupainoksena.
Ahasveerus Folies Bergèrén nojatuolissa.
Händelin "Largo" soitettuna Monte Carlon kasinossa.
Alusvaatekaupan näyteikkuna.

(Lähde siis Ylioppilaslehti 24/1927.)

PS. Väitin tässä aiemmin, että Katri Suoranta olisi ollut Katri Vala. Ei ollut! (Sekoitin ilmeisesti sen takia, että kummatkin esiintyivät kolmen runoilijan antologiassa Kolme. Olisi pitänyt tarkistaa, kirja näkyy olevan aivan selän takana hyllyssä.) Kiitos Boris Hurtalle virheen huomaamisesta!

Erotica out

Erotica, with the subtitle 69 Exciting Book Classics, is out. It's a history of erotic literature told through 69 (more or less) classics of literature, ranging from Sappho to postmodern blog porn à la Belle du Jour, from paperback sleaze to surrealistic avantporn à la Georges Bataille.

Written with my friends and colleagues, Ville Hänninen ja Vesa Sisättö, whose idea it was in the first place. So, thanks, guys!

Kehoitan kaikkia suomenkielisiä lukijoita hankkimaan kirjan. Se on aiheestaan huolimatta tehty hyvällä maulla ja on ennen kaikkea vakavasti otettava teos. Joskin eilen kun selailin sitä ja lueskelin kirjoista poimittuja sitaatteja, alkoi väkisinkin pan... naurattaa. Porno on hauskaa! Enemmän kirjallista pornoa! Alas kuvan ylivalta!

Jason Starr and Ken Bruen's Max and Angela series

Another installment in our series on new American (and British and Irish and Australian and what not) hardboiled crime lit (and actually another installment in our on-going series on books I read during the Summer, but have been too busy to post about or have just simply forgotten): Jason Starr's and Ken Bruen's three books about Max Fisher and Angela Petrakos, Bust, Slide and The Max.

Jason Starr has been one of my favourite authors ever since I read Fake I.D. Luckily that book will soon (well, some time next year) be available for the American audiences, since it's an American masterpiece, a piece of great literature while it's also a great crime novel. Also Nothing Personal is a personal favourite (might be even better than Fake I.D., since it has a larger scope than the rather solipsistic Fake I.D.), alongside other novels of him. From Ken Bruen I'd read only Rilke on Black (1997) on which I thought it lacked plot, but was nevertheless an intriguing book. I'd of course heard and read everyone praise him, so I started their collaborative series from Hard Case Crime with great expectations.

And they were met. The best of the books is the first one, Bust, in which Max Fisher, a sleazy business man, hires someone to kill his wife. You can't go wrong with a book that has dialogue like this (the hired killer calls himself Popeye):

Max kissed her then said, "You know, the only thing I'm worried about is this Popeye character."

"Why?" Angela asked.

"First of all, I don't like his name."

"What's wrong with his name?"

"Come on, it's a fucking cartoon character. It's like I'm hiring Donald Duck to kill my wife."

"You can't expect him to use his real name. I mean, he has to protect himself, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, but couldn't he come up with something better, more hitman-like. I don't know, like, Skull, or Bones, or something like that."

"You can't judge somebody by their name."

These people sure are not winning any Nobel prizes, but Max Fisher is right to be a bit suspicious of Popeye. The book has tons of great dialogue and a twisty plot - stuff I'm born to read.

Slide continues in the same vein and is equally hilarious and trashy, and the writers make apt jokes about serial killer novels - this guy is just as dumb as I've always thought killers usually are. He just doesn't realize it. Max Fisher stands up among Jason Starr's other sociopathic anti-heroes, when he sets up a drug business and starts digging into hip hop.

The Max that doesn't seem to be out as yet contains more cursing than the other novels in the series (and maybe any other novel I've ever read), but it's more slack in its plot and could've been better. I had some trouble imagining some of the stuff in the book, especially with Max Fisher, who rises to the highest rank inside the prison. Yeah, I know, Bust and Slide are not exactly realistic either, but they were more plausible. The Max seems at times to be a bit too long inside joke. But make no mistake - I liked this just as fine. I like cursing in novels. I don't know why that is, but I find it entertaining.

All the books have great covers, like Hard Case Crime usually has, but the cover of The Max (by Glen Orbik) really promises more than it delivers - even though Angela Petrakos does get behind bars in a Lesbian jail... (Maybe they are playing with the readers' expectations. Hope I'm not giving anything away with this.)

Aimo Kanerva ja Reino Helismaa?

Reino Helismaa oli Olavi Kanervan serkku avioliiton kautta. Olavi Kanerva oli Seikkailujen Maailman päätoimittaja ja Kanervan painotalon toimitusjohtaja 1940-luvulta eteenpäin. Olavin isä oli August Kanerva, joka oli perustanut kirjapainon Lahteen 1910-luvulla.

Kun kirjoitin äskettäin Mika Waltarin taidekritiikistä, huomasin, että taiteilija Aimo Kanerva oli lahtelaisen kirjaltajan (eli minkä tahansa kirjapainoalan työntekijän) Hugo Kanervan poika. Tuli mieleen, että Hugo voisi olla Augustin veli, ja Olavi Kanerva siis Aimo Kanervan serkku ja Helismaakin näin ollen Aimo Kanervan serkku! (Avioliiton kautta tietysti.) Tietääkö joku blogin lukijoista tarkemmin?

Edit: Näin kertoo Markku Jalava:

August Kanerva (ent. Manninen) oli Helismaan äidin Marian (o.s.Manninen) veli ja Olavi Kanerva siten Helismaan serkku.Aimo Kanervan isä oli kirjaltaja Hugo Kanerva ja A.K. syntyi Lahdessa. Helismaan elämäkerran mukaan Marialla ei ollut Hugo-nimistä veljeä,joten Reino Helismaa ja Aimo Kanerva eivät ilmeisesti ole serkuksia.

(Oh, this is about a possible kinship between artist Aimo Kanerva and songwriter-pulpster Reino Helismaa.)

Breaking Cover by J.D. Rhoades

In our on-going series on new American hardboiled: J.D. Rhoades's Breaking Cover, his newest novel.

I haven't actually read any of Rhoades's earlier novels, with the series character Jack Keller, but if this is any indication of what they're like, then I'll definitely will read them later on. Breaking Cover seems a bit to be an attempt to break through to more lucrative thriller markets, but this is still definitely hardboiled.

The pace is fast and there are no empty scenes. The lead character, a mystery man called Tony Wolf, is not at all unlike Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm, one of the toughest heroes of hardboiled writing. He doesn't fuss about, he acts and doesn't much talk about it. (Even though the major part of the narrative is his own monologue!) The bad guys in Breaking Cover are really bad, but somehow Rhoades makes them seem human, even though you can't say they are very likable. Some might say that the violence in the book is gratuitous at times, and even I had to look away in some scenes, but I won't complain.

While I hadn't read any of Rhoades's novels, I had published a flash story by him in one of my fanzines, Ässä, in its first issue in 2007. The story, "Hundred", was first published in Flashing in the Gutters that's sadly been gone for over a year now. It's a perfect piece of redneck noir Rhoades practices in his novels.

Some of Rhoades's earlier novels are available in cheap paperbacks via AdLibris.

Finished a book, another one came from the printers

Just sent the Mika Waltari book to the publisher. And heard earlier today that the erotica book I talked about here some months back has just come from the printers.

I'm sorry I haven't written about Waltari here as often as I'd like to have, but always something else came up (and I think I'm behind writing about newer books I've received from writers abroad; will have to catch upon those).

Whose book? / Kenen kirja?

Jos olet lukenut tätä blogia viime aikoina, arvaat varmaan, kenen kirja on vieressä oleva Greetings from Finland. Mutta silti ensimmäinen oikein tiennyt (tahi arvannut) saa palkinnoksi yhden kappaleen lokakuussa ilmestyvää uutta teostani. Jos tulee tasaveroisia vastauksia, niin se, joka ilmoittaa vuosiluvun, voittaa. (Kustantaja tuossa melkein näkyykin.)

(It's a contest. If you guess or know, who wrote the book to the left, you'll win my forthcoming book the name of which I can't give away. The book is in Finnish, though.)

Tää on liian helppo! Too easy, mon!

I'm a guest writer

I was invited to promote discussion as a guest writer of the month at the Rihmasto website. The discussion is understandably in Finnish. Here's my contribution - it's about the fact that Mika Waltari's career would be totally different if he started writing now. (Hell, do you think anyone would publish Sinuhe egyptiläinen/The Egyptian now?)

Here's also the too long introduction on me I wrote.