Author: Arto Paasilinna
Year: 2013 (1994)
Publisher: Brombergs förlag
Language: Swedish (translator Camilla Frostell)
A 2018
report by British researcher and educator Stephen Follows reveals that around
52% of all movies produced in the US and Europe so far in the 21st
century were categorised as drama, with comedy ringing in at 28% in second
place, well ahead of other genres such as thrillers (12%), romance and action (11%
each), and horror (10%).*
In
literature a similar pattern emerges. Drama, thrillers and crime, and romance
dominate the lists of bestsellers. Yet comedy is nowhere to be found.**
Why are
there so few funny novels?
One
possible explanation is that, unlike suspense and romance, which are largely
propelled by plot, comedy, much like erotica, depends more heavily on the mode
of narration. In this genre, the ‘how’ often matters more than the ‘what’. The
effect lies not in events themselves but in their delivery. As a result, some
might argue that such writing places fewer demands on events, relying instead
on tone, timing, and voice to achieve its impact, making it infinitely more
demanding to write.
Arto
Paasilinna is frequently cited as a master of comic fiction and his books are hugely
popular all over the Nordics and beyond. The title of one of his novels, “Volotinens
första fru och annat gammalt” (“Volomari Volotinen's First Wife and Assorted
Other Old Items”), is perfectly hilarious. While, as will become evident,
accurately capturing the contents of the book, it nods playfully to an old, albeit
arguably misogynistic, adage about women and ageing. I was understandably
brimming with anticipation when I began reading, eagerly expecting to
snort-laugh my way through it. After all, I have laughed out loud more than
once at other books by other authors, though few and far between.
Set during
the height of the Cold War, the story follows Volomari Volotinen, a Finnish
insurance investigator, and eccentric collector of historical oddities. His
pursuits, ostensibly harmless, soon entangle him in a series of situations, some
of which will even have political ramifications for Finland’s delicately
balanced relationship with the USSR. His wife Laura, twenty years his senior, ever
so loyal and at times unexpectedly resourceful, sometimes needs to step in and
assist when Volomari goes overboard in his enthusiasm.
Though
presented as a novel, the book reads more like a series of loosely connected
short stories, unified by recurring protagonists rather than a continuous
narrative arc. Each chapter typically centres on a single object of interest, Volomari’s
latest fixation, serving as both its title and narrative anchor. The episodes
are largely self-contained, with storylines that begin and conclude within the
bounds of each chapter.
Unfortunately,
I was forced to conclude that the book falls short for precisely the reasons
outlined earlier. While Paasilinna scrambles to construct humorous scenarios
for his protagonist, he lacks the esprit and comic precision necessary to
render them genuinely amusing. The episodes themselves, while potentially
entertaining as anecdotes shared over a family dinner, are held back by a
delivery that feels mundane and uninspired. The result is a collection of
stories that rarely transcend their artificiality, leaving the reader more
aware of the author’s hand than immersed in the humour.
What begins
as an endearing portrayal of Volomari gradually gives way to something more
unsettling. As the narrative progresses, his enthusiasm for collecting turns
into obsession, and his antics shift from amusing to awkward. Far from the
goofy but likeable nerd, Volomari emerges as a calculating and opportunistic manipulator,
willing to exploit both his professional position and the trust of others to
acquire objects that would otherwise remain out of his reach. His
transformation bears an eerie similarity to that of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Grey.
On the
whole, the reading experience proved underwhelming. The situations in which
Volomari finds himself lack the absurdity required to elicit genuine farce,
while the narration falls short of the wit and precision needed to provoke
sustained amusement. The spontaneous, laugh-out-loud moments brilliantly delivered
by comic masters like Jaroslav Hašek, Sir Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and
to a certain extent Mikael Niemi, Tom Sharpe, P.G. Wodehouse, and Jerome K.
Jerome, in “Volotinens första fru och annat gammalt” are, regrettably, entirely
absent.
* Some
movies have more than one label, which is why the percentages do not amount to
100.
** Instead,
fantasy and sci-fi make up almost 25% of books published but seem to be far
down the movie genre list.
