REVIEWS

"Nothing in life is ever black and white", says author Ilmar Taska in an interview on his debut novel Pobeda 1946 (Helsingin Sanomat, April 29). "That is why it is impossible to say who is ultimately the villain and who the hero."

There are, however, differences between his characters. Some of them know what they're doing. The henchman of the occupation makes use of a brand-new Soviet luxury product to lure the six-year-old son of the family and courts the mother worn out by life’s drabness with a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates and a bottle of liquor.

Somehow every single person in Taska's portrait of the times ends up a victim of the Soviet system, even the butchers themselves. It is not exactly comforting that they do.

Sex is something the Pobeda man grabs and gets whenever he needs it. Even more enticing to him than sex, however, is the siege and spiritual breaking of minds. The family caught in his net in the spring is therefore as good as gone by the coming of autumn.

The little boy of the story sees everything as a fairytale, complete with fairy godmothers, evil witches and lying goblins. In the end he is completely lost as to deciding which is which.

Individual souls disintegrate into mere shadows in a web of truth, interpretations, lies and self-deceit. All that remains is an embryonic Soviet being, lacking all background and inspired by one thing only: the new technical development he sees around him.

There is no limit to what such seeds can bring forth.

Taska is particularly skilful in writing about the physical tension between a man and woman whose views and hopes for Estonia's future could not be further opposed. Within a matter of a few years, the world has undergone such a change that charm and terror can be embodied in a single person.

They lack personal names, presumably because they are seen as anonymous pieces of raw material for Stalin, engineer of human minds, to mould in his effort to make the old Estonia disappear.

Transportations, violence and torture figure in Taska's writing as a breezy reminder of the horror at the bottom of the story, although at surface level it appears harmless, a child’s game. Each of the grown-ups tries to persuade the little boy to see things from his or her point-of-view.

Pobeda 1946 is a dark story, but thanks to its elements of childish wonder and innocence, it is a very charming account of bad times, and makes a lasting impact.

Translated by Alice Martin

Postimees, Culture

Ilmar Taska presents novel at prominent London bookstore

Ann Alari, London

Published May 13, 2016

The European Literature Festival is being held in the UK from 27 April through 9 June. Organizing the large-scale undertaking, which will feature over 60 writers from more than 30 countries, is the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC). Also playing an important role at the festival are translators, six of whom will have an opportunity on the last day of the event to defend and promote their projects before leading literary figures, publishers, and the public. The inclusion of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian literature in the festival program is a long-awaited achievement, and is thanks in part to the Baltic States’ respective embassies.

The festival’s popularity in London and the UK is rooted in the ever better and sometimes even painful understanding of Europe’s cultural diversity. Jokingly, one older Brit admits that he only speaks two languages – English, and a language made up for foreigners. The latter, he explains, is English annunciated extremely slowly and clearly, which should help foreigners understand him better. Yet today – at a time, when education, an ensuing career, and even family ties cross borders more and more often – British interest in smaller countries is also swelling. Migration and exile are hot topics in literature, and Ilmar Taska is skilled at raising these issues in a very intriguing way.

On the evening of 10 May, Ilmar Taska (Estonia), Mara Zalite (Latvia), and Paulina Pukyte (Lithuania) spoke at the prominent Waterstones Piccadilly bookstore. The three writers are connected by the fact that their stories are featured in the Best European Fiction 2016 anthology – a work published by Dalkey Archive Press and held in high esteem by readers, translators, and other publishers alike. Included in the latest volume is Taska’s short story “Apartment for Rent”, translated by Matthew Hyde. Actors Anna Winslet and Nicolaus Mackie read selections from Taska’s work aloud.

The evening event was conducted by the witty and lively Rosie Goldsmith, who is also a main co-organizer of the festival. Goldsmith has read all of Taska’s writing that can be found in English. Having heard Taska’s answers to questions, as well as the opinions of figures on the translated-literature scene regarding the author’s works, the translation of his most recent novel Pobeda 1946 (A Car Called Victory) into English seems inevitable. Taska certainly has what it takes to gain widespread popularity among English-language readers and reviewers. To the former, he provides an opportunity to delve smoothly into the precisely-worded lives of his characters; to the latter, he gives a chance to dissect his writing on the basis of relatively slow-changing traditions that have taken shape over the ages. Readers will enjoy Taska’s sharp attention to detail, his humor, and his sense for the absurd; not to mention the fact that his characters do not indulge in self-pity. When asked what he has to learn from other Estonians, Taska answers: confidence and tolerance. Reading Taska, a seasoned literary critic will revel in the kind of laconicism that popularized Ernest Hemingway, as well as the emotionality and thirst for survival familiar from the works of Richard Flanagan. Diving even deeper into the English-language reader’s subconscious, a comparison to Anthony Trollope cannot be avoided. It is thanks to Trollope’s novels and the costume dramas based upon them that English-language readers have gained an affinity for worlds populated by characters, who are neither wholly good nor bad; characters, who are simply people doing the best to get by in the society, into which life has thrust them.

At a time when the UK is preparing for a referendum over whether or not to stay in the European Union, the festival aims to acquaint (as well as possible) the diversity of European literature. There is no doubt that those, who belong to the literary parties of all the world are a monolithic force, in a sense. And yet, it is clear that no matter whether an author hails from Norway, Portugal, Finland, or Malta, once translated, his or her works’ success depends upon their being relatable, understandable, and emotionally acceptable to the English-language reader.