Culture|Book review
The narrator of Ville Verkkapuro’s debut work finds out the fate of his alcoholic father, who remained unknown, and at the same time confronts himself. The novel expands into an essay on humane substance abuse policy.
Novel
Ville Verkkapuro: Pete. Cosmos. 320 pp.
When when the father is alive, he is mostly absent or absent and then dies young, perhaps by his own hand, established as father figures Kurt Cobain and Homer Simpson. Of these settings Ville Verkkapuro (b. 1990) the protagonist and self-narrator of the first novel, Ville Verkkapuro, sets out to find out the story of his father Pete.
Google is no help: the father’s name does not produce a single hit, while Cobain has 20 million hits.
There are a few memories of Pete, some good ones, but the tangible evidence is limited to photos, fleeting glimpses on home videos, and woefully clumsy song lyrics in a notebook.
Described by his friends as sensitive and of the opposite sex Based on the little material he left behind, Pete, who has awakened the caring spirit, does not seem like the kind of misunderstood hero and rebel that Ville would like as a father.
Ville is achieved success both as a musician and as a copywriter, but an unknown past haunts the background. The advertising world is starting to appear not only superficial but also downright harmful, toxic.
Ville quits his well-paid office job and becomes an investigative writer. At the door of Kosmos’ office in Kallio, he greets the publisher For Mikko: “I have a topic.”
“Don’t quit your day job”, the publisher replies, even though the publishing contract is signed. Let the boy keep his day job.
Although offered for once it would be a stylish and successful autofiction, the publishing house markets the work as a documentary novel. The A-word has perhaps been tarnished by heavy use as an unwanted stigma, and on closer inspection, the documentation really describes the work better.
From domestic works of recent years Joonatan Tolan The red planet comes close as a description of intergenerationalism, but more than colorful memories, the starting point of Verkkapuro is their lack.
Stylistically Pete is in some places crude or bluntly reported. In a way, these features also support a multifaceted whole, which is restless by nature and does not want to settle into its own channels, for example, as a flowing art prose.
Ville’s feelings and impressions are always present, but not in the main role. Above all, he longs for living, reliable evidence, the missing pieces of life.
The work could also be called trauma fiction, where the memories encapsulated in the body are dealt with linguistically.
From one point of view therefore, a classic artist story and growth story: the work feels like a golden backdrop and reality doesn’t leave you alone. It is necessary to reach a level of self-awareness at which Ville can make responsible decisions in the world, for example regarding a relationship and family addition with his girlfriend Andi.
Ville travels to his half-brothers in Turku and from there to his mother, friends and relatives in Pietarsaari, the place of his father’s death.
The story is aware of its mythical dimension, where the hero seeks advice and instructions before diving into the underworld, towards his dead father. We return home stronger, with new knowledge and strength.
Twists in the story are sometimes unexpected, and towards the end the novel expands into an essay that deals with drugs, addiction and self-knowledge from perspectives that are fresh for us:
“An addict will find any tool for his addiction. We live in a world where we are rewarded for being addicted to our work and punished for being addicted to substance.”
As a speech in favor of a humane drug policy, against the slavery of work and the stigmatization of addicts, the novel gains another level.
Ville is not Pete, as he suspected when he didn’t know Pete, but not Kurt Cobain either. Instead of the former dead end, he finds a space where he can choose for himself.
Also as a novel Pete is open to surprises and new forms, making it one of the most inspiring debuts of the year.
Helsingin Sanomat’s award for the best debut of the year will be awarded on November 17.
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