⛸️ Lowest Common Denominator ⛸️

Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio translated by Mia Spangenberg

Publishing Date: 7th August

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

📝 - In this charming patchwork of fever dreams and memories, Pirkko Saisio transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Pirkko keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her. But as she discovers that she can be the narrator of her own story, it is in language that she finds a refuge and a way to be seen at last.

💭 - Honestly struggling to gather my thoughts on this one. Shifting from third to first person, its style takes some getting used to, but I came to enjoy it. However, I can’t really tell you what I was supposed to take away from it (if anything), beyond snippets of the protagonist’s life. I also wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be biographical or fictional? Anyway, an interesting read, but slightly strange still.

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“I lie on my bed and cry. I don't know why.
I don't know if I'm crying because the book ended too soon or because I read my first whole book. Or because now I know I will go on to read many more books. I close my eyes and see an endless desert of unread books before me; they form a pyramid, a vast sea”
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I remember living not far from a Finnish church when I lived in London. The church had a lovely, quiet cafe in which one could quietly enjoy a good coffee and eat a Karelian pastry. Under the alter was a well disposed sauna, which I never did get round to using. I say this because there was something about the place, and perhaps Finnish culture that I find rather irresistible.
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That same indescribable feeling I felt emanated in some way from this book. A dream like novel of a Finnish childhood, gender and sexuality. All with a veneer of Finnish socialist politics and cultural touchstones. I can’t really fully articulate why I liked this book, but there was something about it thought I found completely absorbing.
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That’s not to say it was a blemish free book. The middle section and the parade of names and family members were confusing and I was definitely lost with who was who. Also there are a lot of specific Finnish cultural references that I didn’t understand, so for sections I had to spend time googling. Yet some how these issues didn’t bother me. I was carried away in what felt like an extended rumination on childhood and family.

This is an experimental, atmospheric, feverish coming-of-age tale, told through the eyes of a child in a rather fantastical 1950s Finland. A really gorgeous, otherworldly dream of a book. Totally different to anything I've read in a long while.

DNF at 40%

I am trying to read as much translated fiction as I can. Firstly because I want to read literature from all over the world, in order to learn about different life experiences/customs, but also because I feel not enough is being translated into English. Therefore the Lowest Common Denominator sounded very promising.

Unfortunately what I was expecting and what I've experienced have been at odds from the first few pages. I do enjoy a child narrator, but it has to be the right voice. For reasons... Saisio's voice has not captured my attention! Also the jumps in narrative from past to presumably present did not help matters. Plus there's some sort of dream like atmosphere when it comes to the "present" that, I felt, made it hard to discern if she was dreaming/imagining things or if she really experienced everything. Many a time I had to re-read paragraphs to make sure I was understanding what was going on...Needless to say that that did not make for an enjoyable read and I must admit defeat.

Technicolour: a black-and-white narrative, artificially coloured by memory in sometimes garish and unnatural ways. An old film reel that jerks and flickers, destroying any linear narrative and showing a life in flashes of joy and dislocation. An exploration of grief and how it both connects us and sets us adrift. An insight into a foreign culture - because another's mind will always be alien territory. But, in this author's skilled hands, we come closer to calling that alien terrain home.

Not for me. I could not work this out. May be a cultural thing or an age thing or just that I like writing to have carefully crafted sentences.