I had never heard of Tuomas Kyrö, who is a Finnish writer. I doubt if I would have come across his writing, but I spotted his book ‘Happy Days of the Grump’ at a church book stall nearly a year ago. The title intrigued me, and as I’ve been trying to read outside my usual preferred genres, I forked out fifty cents to buy it. It sat on my to-read shelf for all this time, and I finally picked it up to read a few days ago.
The narrator - whose name we don’t discover; or if it’s revealed, I don’t recall it - is a man in his eighties who has worked hard all his life, and is pretty grumpy about modern living. He’s seen wars, and privations, and lived through war and poverty. He’s seen phenomenal changes in lifestyle, technology and attitudes since he was a child in the 1940s, and he’s convinced that, in many cases, the old ways were better.
The narrator’s wife has a form of dementia and is in an institution, but he visits her daily, and takes her the kind of food she likes. She’s unable to feed herself, so he helps her; a poignant way of showing how much he cares for her, although he admits to being unromantic, unwilling to say anything flowery, and not at all touchy-feely. He has a son and grandchildren whom he’s quite proud of though he doesn’t admit it openly.
But the story involves the narrator trying to write his will, and also build coffins for himself and his wife. He wants to make life easier for his descendants when he’s gone. It’s not the kind of plot that would normally appeal to me at all, but it’s delightfully humorous in a slightly dark way; the narrator is so wonderfully (and sometimes irrationally) grumpy. Yet he’s always willing to discuss issues, and doesn’t see the point of getting angry. I found myself growing quite fond of him.
The style is a tad confusing at first; when the narrator is involved in conversations, his part is written as his thoughts, yet it’s evident that they’re spoken aloud in most cases. But I quickly got used to this quirk; it makes for enjoyable dialogue, as the narrator’s thoughts are often uncivil and irreverent - yet honest, often saying what others would not dare to say.
He claims to have no friends; his one buddy has already died. But when he meets people - and there are quite a few in the course of the story - he is friendly and interested in them. If they respond with intelligent conversation, he’s more than willing to accept and value them.
I was particularly struck by the excellence of the translation. It reads fluently and with plenty of humour; I had to check part-way through as it was hard to believe that it wasn’t originally written in English. There are even several places where puns of some kind are made, and they work perfectly.
All in all I thought this a wonderfully quirky, and, in places, thought-provoking novel.
Highly recommended.
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