A keen-eyed author spares neither herself nor the reader in this volume of surprising essays.
Author: Silvia Hosseini
Finnish original: Tie, totuus ja kuolema
Publisher: Gummerus, 2021
Genre: essays
Number of pages: 238 pp.
Reading material: Finnish original, English sample
“Life is a journey, they say. What a lousy metaphor. After all, life’s fundamental nature is stasis, repetition, routine. Life is weekday mornings, the dip in the sofa, taking out the compost, and what should we have for dinner. Maybe life is a journey for Bedouins, but not otherwise. A journey is a journey.”
Silvia Hosseini’s second volume of essays leads the reader on a meandering expedition from joy to sorrow, from beauty to dread. Drawing from literature, history, and the author’s own experiences, the collection masterfully addresses the various transitions, assertions, and losses of the three titular themes through contemporary phenomena. The thinking is sharp, the expression beautiful.
In the essays, knowledge of culture and history combine in fresh insights and self-deprecation. The impact of Arab philosophy on Western civilization is examined through Sicily and Inspector Montalbano. In her essay on the Beat authors, Hosseini objects to the re-evaluation of old works of art on the basis of their worldview. Contemporary feminism comes under fire for being ideological and memeified. And in an essay on birds, Hosseini ponders the role of birds as symbols of life and messengers of death, as in the present day, when the vanishing of bird species predicts devastating ecological catastrophe.
Hosseini’s voice is strong, and the compilation an unapologetic literary cornucopia. Way, Truth, and Death was nominated for the Toisinkoinen Literary Prize.
About the author:
Silvia Hosseini