Book review | Why can't a woman be called ugly anymore, Markku Envall wonders – Some of the essays should have stayed in the desk drawer

Essays

Markku Envall: Two sides of the border. WSOY. 232 pp.

Today in the spring, the reader can enjoy essays written by men with a full belly. New essay books appear, for example From Juha Seppälä, Antti Hurskainen, From Herman Raivio, Tommi from Melender and From Markku Envall.

At least the topics have not been chosen ahead of trends. Seppälä's book is completely dedicated Paavo Rintalan for processing. Also by carrying Envall's book to public places, there is certainly a good chance to stand out from the crowd. When Envall deals with literature, the authors are as fresh as Juhani Aho, Aaro Hellaakoski, Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene.

Two sides of the border is already Envall's (b. 1944) tenth collection. The literary hero, who is approaching eighty, is clearly making some kind of written accounting in his work. The essays have a strong autobiographical look that reaches back to childhood, which also reaches into the future and understands its limitations.

Death looms large in the background of several essays, but two separate essays are also devoted to the topic.

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Instead of plot and character descriptions, I would rather read thinking and analysis in the essays.

Tight, even the choice of form tending to aphorism makes the collection a quick read. The work contains 18 pieces of essays of more than ten pages. Even the titles are simple: Shame, Guilt, thank you, Beauty, Tobacco and so on.

The order and overall structure of the essays has also been thought out by a long-time author. The starter of the collection A chair and a lamp deals with reading, to which the objects mentioned are often associated.

You can see from the text that Envall, who won the Finlandia prize in his career, has almost nothing left to lose. You can already loosen the sieve a little and bring out thoughts and writings that look like desk boxes.

The collection originated from the isolation during the pandemic. Then there was time to think. For example, something like in the opening essay, that you fall asleep with a book less often if you sleep better at night.

Or that dedicated books turn into problem waste and Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov as one volume is unempathetic towards the reader. Or that young people wean themselves off books in the same way as old people wean themselves off screens.

Envallin there is a fault in the reports in the texts. Instead of plot and character descriptions, I would rather read thinking and analysis in the essays. When reading them, I feel like returning to Envall's thoughts in the opening essay: “Often the reader notices that he has read the text but was thinking about other things.”

The weakest entry is still the essays in which an older man shouts at the clouds. In the text about beauty, Envall's theme is that the concept of ugliness no longer exists. Hohhoija.

The essay begins with how to fall in love with a beautiful young saleswoman. From this point of departure, we will start with the following:

“The word body positivity was invented, it forbids calling someone ugly. There is no such thing as an ugly person, if it is in the eye of the beholder, or in attitude and values. And when there is no ugliness, beauty becomes a tautology,” Envall writes.

It is clear, that bodies are viewed in different ways and conventional beauty has privileges, but Envall aims briskly past. There is no going back to a time when there is some ancient ideal and men are free to criticize women or any other people as ugly in public.

The concept of ugliness can be applied to many other things than a person's appearance. For example, to the new apartment buildings of Kuopio Matkakeskus.

Billion– text about overpopulation could have also been left in the desk drawer. Envall calculates that there should only be one billion people on earth, as there was in 1800. All in all, I am at least 50 years too young for this kind of “it was better before” rocking-chair essayism.