January 27, 2011
Nick at the UW store in Seattle gave this a sterling review that led me to pick up a copy. I was disappointed, though, not so much by the book as by the translation. At least, that’s what I think bothered me. There seemed to me to be many awkward phrases, some that didn’t even make much sense. I don’t know Finnish, but thought that perhaps some idioms had not been well-translated. Maybe the translator didn’t know the English equivalents. I can’t recommend it until those problems are fixed, though. The premise was fun, but not nearly surprising or uplifting enough to overlook the flaws.
I’m glad to hear someone else had a similar experience as I. Penguin put a fair amount of marketing support behind this book, and the blurbs I read made it sound really intriguing. It was intriguing, but only in a quirky sort of way. I kept wanting to be inspired, but instead found it to be fairly trite and somewhat disjointed. I too, wondered what the read would be like in the original Finnish