{"id":15245,"date":"2015-02-24T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T04:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=15245"},"modified":"2015-02-23T18:06:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T22:06:23","slug":"sofi-oksanen-when-the-doves-disappeared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2015\/02\/24\/sofi-oksanen-when-the-doves-disappeared\/","title":{"rendered":"Sofi Oksanen: When the Doves Disappeared<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Doves Disappeared<\/em> (Kun kyyhkeset katosivat<\/em>, 2012; tr. from the Finnish by Lola Rogers, 2015) is a smart-paced, suspenseful novel that explores the life defining consequences of choosing loyalty over betrayal, authenticity over self-preservation.<\/p>\n

\"When<\/p>\n

Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen opens her novel in 1941 Estonia during the extraordinary political turmoil created by the battle between the Nazis and the Soviets for possession of that country.\u00a0Young farmer Roland Simson and his cousin Edgar have joined Estonian independence fighters in armed skirmishes against the Red Army.\u00a0Their success in forcing the Soviets into retreat only facilitates the swift encampment of the Nazis as the new occupying power.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Nazi occupation Roland remains loyal to the nationalist cause.\u00a0He goes into hiding, collaborating with pro-independence groups and arranging secret evacuations of Estonian and Jewish families.\u00a0Edgar, on the other hand, uses the German occupation to his advantage and positions himself as a valuable informant for the Nazis.\u00a0Juudit, Edgar\u2019s estranged wife, becomes the live-in mistress of a high-ranking Nazi official stationed in Tallinn.<\/p>\n

The novel moves back and forth in time between World War II and the 1960s when Edgar and Juudit are once again living together, albeit still estranged. In this new era Edgar has taken on a different name and a different past. Hoping to elevate his standing with Moscow, Edgar is writing a fabricated history of Estonian fascists\u2019 atrocities against Russian nationals. The question of whether Roland survived the war and will resurface to expose Edgar\u2019s and Juudit\u2019s collaboration with the Nazis is one of the novel\u2019s key mysteries.<\/p>\n

As in her previous novel, Purge<\/em>, Oksanen deftly combines the historical fiction and mystery genres, employing a writing style that is entertaining and thoughtful.\u00a0Much of the novel is told from Edgar\u2019s perspective, and his motivations and calculating nature are fully fleshed-out.\u00a0Not so with Roland. I wanted a closer look at his thoughts and emotions, not because Roland, the \u201cbetter\u201d character, is more likeable but because his and Edgar\u2019s divergent paths — rebel versus collaborator — and the consequences of each man\u2019s choice, is a central premise of the novel.\u00a0Unfortunately, we get only teasing glimpses of the light and shadow of Roland\u2019s mind:<\/p>\n

I grabbed Juudit by the shoulder and shook her. The smell of her Baltic baron, his heat, his sickening stench, came out of her gapping mouth, and I had to put one hand over my nose . . . . Juudit was limp, not even trying to get loose.\u00a0We fell onto the landing. Her light body was on top of me, my hand still clutching her arm. Her open mouth closed over mine, her breasts pouring out of her blouse. It was so silent that I could hear the change in her odor, salty as sea stones, her tongue like a slippery tail swimming into my mouth. My body betrayed me, my hand let go of her arm and moved to her hips, and then the thing happened that shouldn\u2019t have happened.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Roland\u2019s simultaneous physical attraction and moral revulsion toward Juudit never gets the full focus that it should.\u00a0Additionally the mysterious death of Roland\u2019s fianc\u00e9e lingers over much of the novel, but Roland\u2019s grief and how the death impacts his emotional and psychological life deserves more attention.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding some shortcomings When the Doves Disappeared <\/em>is a page-turner, maintaining suspenseful tension throughout.\u00a0And for the most part the writing is very good.\u00a0With commendable novels like Purge<\/em> and When the Doves Disappeared<\/em> in her repertoire, it is natural to expect great fiction from the young Ms. Oksanen in the future.\u00a0And to eagerly anticipate it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lori reviews Sofi Oksanen’s 2012 novel When the Doves Disappeared<\/em>, translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers and recently issued by Knopf. Read the full post<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":15246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[720],"tags":[721],"coauthors":[704],"class_list":["post-15245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sofi-oksanen","tag-finnish"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/When-the-Doves-Disappeared.jpg?fit=336%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-3XT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15249,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15245\/revisions\/15249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15245"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}