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Utrensning (2008)

by Sofi Oksanen(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

9100123951 (ISBN13: 9789100123956)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Bonnier

review 1: The Purge may be the best Finnish language novel that I have ever read in that I am not aware of having read any other. It is a superb thriller in the Henning Mankell tradition about a young Russian prostitute on the run from her gangster pimps. She somehow finds her granny in Estonia who saves her by shooting the two gangsters pursuing her.I think that the Purge is yet another example of the high standard that has been attained by Scandinavian crime writing. The Jury of France's prestigious Femina Prize considered it to be literature giving it the 2010 prize in the Foreign category. Certainly worse novels have won the prize. Purge is a truly great crime novel and relatively good literature. Take your choice.
review 2: This had the makings of an excellent... more novel. It has certainly created waves in Finland where Sofi Oksanen is one of the best regarded authors of her generation.As a study of what longing and desire can do to twist someone and lead them to do things which are hateful and immoral it really worked. It cold have been developed a little better, it felt as though there were a few loose ends, but it was convincing. The backdrop of the war and Soviet occupation of Estonia was also really effective. The extreme conditions under which people lived, the brutality of the repression, serve to mitigate the dreadful things some of the main characters do or at least lend us some sympathy for them. In evil times it's doubly hard to be good.However I did feel that some aspcts of the novel were under-developed, particularly Zara's story. Oksanen is pretty brutal in her description of 19 year old Zara's life in Berlin where she's been forced into prostitution by a couple of Russian mafiosi. But Zara's story is too linear. There are few twists and turns and her story doesn't really resolve itself.And the ending seems somehow unsatisfactory - as though the author knew how she wante to end it but couldn't create the right sense of culmination. Aliide's relationship with Hans and Martin and the reasons why she finally did what she did need to be better signposted and underscored.So a potentially great book that for want of a firmer editor became simply very good. less

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Reviews (see all)

Arinea

This is a great book that at its core is a love story of flawed people trying to survive. The story is not a happy one, but satisfying. Purge is about truth, trust and secrets one must keep to survive under oppression. The story is laid out in the opening pages and the secrets and mysterious are elegantly reveled as we are caught up in Aliide’s, Zara’s and Han’s stories of the evils that political systems let happen. We just need to watch the news of the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine to know this story is not over. The book beautifully tells this story and educated me to the oppression that Estonia withstood along with the rest of Eastern Europe, for this alone it is worth the read. But, the book is much, much more and left me sad to see it end. I am looking forward to reading Sofi Oksanen’s next book that will be released in 2015 and am sure it will be as good.

hcreech

This book was recommended to me a number of years ago. I'm surprised to see this is part of a series - a quartet if I decipher correctly, and this would be the second. I found this book quite fascinating and very hard to read. I had only expected the contemporary aspect of this book (Zara's story) and hadn't pondered the relevance of the title. I would have liked to know more of Ingel and Linda's story - perhaps those stories are told in one of the other books in the quartet?One of the aspects of the book that makes it unpleasant for me is the character of Aliide - from the outset she is jealous and much (not all)of her subsequent suffering is a direct result of her manipulation and refusal to face the reality of her sister's relationship.Very well-written with strong, moving images (bravo to the translator!) An interesting, albeit difficult read.

anneleen

Read the German translation 'Fegefeuer'. It was a great but not really enjoyable read.

kimboslic3

its english title--the book is written originally in finnish--is "purge."

Blue100

Abandoned. Own life too bleak to cope with others right now....

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