When I Forgot

By Elina Hirvonen

Book Overview

An astonishingly assured and compelling debut, When I Forgot explores the relationship between a sister and her brother, the past that they share, and the painful memories that shape their lives forever. Anna is on her way to the hospital where her brother has been institutionalized when she falters, and in that pause her world splinters in a blazing display of memory and madness, of childhood security treasured and shattered, and of families blighted by psychological trauma--her brother's and that of her boyfriend's father, a Vietnam vet. September 11 serves as a backdrop for the story, and the Finnish perspective on America and its politics is as uncomfortable as it is compelling. In Elina Hirvonen's skillful hands, the grimness is illuminated by firecracker insight and surprising beauty. And, above all, there is hope.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0980243653
• ISBN13: 9780980243659
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Tin House Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

a heartbreaking, beautifully written novel

This short novel is a heartbreaking, beautifully written story. Every sentence is memorable. I don't even know how to say 'hello' in Finnish but applaud the remarkable translator for making Elina Hirvonen's words touch a place in my heart that remains with me weeks after having read it. For Anna, remembering the happy and tragic events of her childhood with her mom and dad and her troubled older brother Joona juxtaposed with the reality of unexpected terrorism in New York, makes every memory ache with what we want our lives to be and what we have to deal with. It's short, touching, sad and overwhelming in its grasp of our precarious lives. You will not put this novel down quickly.

A disturbing and controversial but nonetheless beautiful read...

Anna is a young journalist on a work deadline. But instead of working on her article, she sits at a café and reads a Virginia Woolf novel. She is also avoiding her boyfriend Ian, a literature professor, and her mother's text messages, begging her to visit Joona. Mrs. Dalloway brings back bitter memories for Anna, memories she has tried to forget. These memories center on her brother Joona and their father. The father, a religious fanatic, was an abusive man, and Joona now suffers from a mental illness as a result. Calling out to Satan is one of his many troubling behaviors. So, as Anna sits alone at a café with a book, flashbacks of abuse, conversations with Ian and witnessing post-Vietnam war traumatic stress befall her. All told with dark and edgy undertones, with a backdrop of post-9/11 and the subsequent Iraq invasion, this controversial Finnish novel is literary and heart wrenching. When I Forgot has quite an open anti-American feel that might offend some, but might bring awareness to us from a different perspective. The September 11 disaster didn't just affect us, but the whole world. The stuff centered on WWII, the Vietnam War and the War Against Iraq is nothing compared to the stuff that hits closer to home, like the ones centered on abuse and struggles. Joona is one of the saddest characters recently written. Anna is also quite compelling. Even through the heartaches and unresolved issues, she is able to maintain her spirituality and love for her family, no matter how hard she tries to run away from those things. Virginia Woolf is also a big deal in this book. To the Lighthouse is the only Woolf novel I have read, and not because I wanted to; it was required school reading after all. But this novel has compelled me to read Woolf's work. I've already picked up Orlando, which has quite an interesting premise. All in all, When I Forgot is a dark, beautiful read. Elina Hirvonen (translated from Finnish by a Douglas Robinson) is a great author. And even though this is more of a novella than a novel (only 180 pages long), it is nevertheless substantial enough to be considered the latter. I recommend this if you're in the bargain for something short but meaningful.

A simply beautiful book

This small translated-from the Finnish book was simply beautiful. The microcosm of a family dealing w mental illness, while the world deals w the madness of 9/11. As an American, I tend to think 9/11 happened to "us", however this book desrcibes how everyone world wide was affected. The translator did a wonderful job in keeping the beauty and emotion intact. It is a beatifully written book about a sad subject, but written from the heart. The characters were described with such intensity, that I could actually see what they looked and smelled like.(you will understand this after reading) To say this book was about "a brother-sister relationship" misses the more global theme presented by the author. I was moved to tears by the description of Ian being confronted as "a war-monger" simply because he was an American. The conflicting emotions he felt while living in a foreign land during an American crisis, while disagreeing with his President- all in the context of a father ruined by Viet Nam...wow! Just a beautiful, beautiful book by an amazing writer. Don't miss the more global theme when reading it!!!