Product Description

'A wonderfully warm tale of weddings, funerals, marathon sauna contests -- and the incomparable thrill of your first kiss, from 'the Nick Hornby of the Arctic' (Marina Warner, Sunday Times)It's the 1960s, and pop records are gradually finding their way into the eager hands of teenagers in the far north of Sweden. Young Matti dreams of being a rock star -- but in the tiny ice-bound village of Pajala, a boy should really spend his time cultivating more manly pursuits, such as hunting elk, drinking moonshine and fighting on dancefloors...Popular Music is one of the freshest, funniest debuts of recent years, and winner of the August prize, Sweden's equivalent of the Man Booker. So wrap up warm and join Matti and the unforgettable community of Pajala in a wonderful tale of weddings, funerals and marathon sauna contests, the incomparable thrill of your first kiss -- and of finally hearing the Beatles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92371 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
From the British reviews:'The novel I enjoyed most this year, without reservation, was Mikael Niemi's Popular Music, a coming-of-age story set in the Arctic in the 1960s. I really cannot think of anyone who would not enjoy this book... It is surreal, moving, life-affirming and hilariously funny.' Scarlett Thomas, Independent on Sunday 'Books of the Year''Profound and humorous at the same time, set in a remote town in northern Sweden, it recounts a childhood and youth with great imaginative verve, and is a delight from the first page to the last.' Alan Sillitoe, Independent 'Books of the Year''First, let me confess that I was asked to leave the British Library reading room for chuckling -- not once, but repeatedly -- over this book... Mikael Niemi combines the knowing warmth and vernacular style of, say, Nick Hornby or Roddy Doyle with a bittersweet poetry. Each chapter is a small parable, simple but oceans deep, so that frequently you find you are laughing while having tears in your eyes.' Glyn Brown, The Times'An extraordinary novel: hilarious, ribald, obscene... All the ingredients are there for a tender and bittersweet coming-of-age story: Roddy Doyle meets Fever Pitch. But then Mikael Niemi smashes into the memories he has assembled with his pulverising imagination... I've never read anything like it.' Nicci Gerrard, Observer'Hilariously tracks Matti's rise from the illicit and shocking pleasure of listening to a Beatles single to miming in the garage with a hardboard cut-out guitar... There are nuances to these rites of passage that recall Nick Hornby's High Fidelity...the astonishing success of Popular Music in Sweden confirms that this sardonic tale of terrible guitar-playing can strike a fresh, jaunty, even heartfelt, chord.' Independent

Independent
'Nick Hornby with elks, drunks and snow... drifts of snow'

Guardian
'a pure, exhilerating delight...Laurie Thompson's translation makes this a double feat of brilliance.'

Customer Reviews

A new world
I recently went on a trip to Finland, so when I saw this book I had to have it. It is beautifully constructed, a series of incidents in the lives of Matt and his friends; their rock band modelled on the newly discovered Beatles, Matt's first job and its disastrous end and Matt's hilarious journey into puberty. Niemi has an understated sense of humour that brings the bickering and backstabbing, but ultimately united, icy village of Finnish childhood to life. It reads like a poem, with some truly awe-inspiring descriptions of places and people, but especially the gorgeous scenery.
Stuck back in England, missing Finland and all my new friends there, this is a wonderfull link back to them all. Terve!!

Episodic Swedish Coming-of-Age Story
If you're looking for a funny and tender coming-of-age story set above the Arctic Circle, this is the book for you! It's set in Pajala, a small town in the remote Tornedalen region of Sweden, far north and near the Finnish border. The semi-autobiographical story is told through a series of twenty self-contained short stories that take Matti roughly from age 5-15 or so from the mid-'60s to mid-'70s. One is immediately given a taste of the book's style in the prologue, in which the adult Matti manages to freeze his tongue to a metal plaque atop a Nepalese mountain. He only manages to free himself (and live) by using his urine to break the bond, which then launches him into the story of his youth. The broad outlines of his experiences are similar to those of any other boy growing up in a remote place forty years ago. Life was boring and filled with hard work, some things were manly (hunting, work, fighting, hockey, eating, drinking, machines), and everything else is "women's work." If you're not good at manly things, well... at a minimum you won't fit in very well.

Of course, Matti is a little outside the mainstream, but manages to make his way with best friend Niila by his side. Where the book shines is in the the specifics of his childhood, in which wacky antics shine with humor and pathos, and magic realism rears its head every now and then. Some of the events covered include: discovering rock and roll music via the Beatles, a summer job as a mouse hunter, a raucous arm wrestling contest, an equally grueling sauna endurance contest, a sermon in Esperanto, a mind-boggling teenage drinking contest, tall tales of family prowess, a will reading degenerating into a brawl, starting a band with a cardboard guitar, the vagaries of a fundamentalist Christian sect (Laestadianism), first sexual encounters, and a BB-gun war. And let's not forget the transsexual hermit magician... All these individual parts are quite entertaining, even if they never quite add up to a complete hole. It's an amusing, and sometimes very funny look at growing up rural which would probably resonate much more with other remote cold climate dwellers than the average reader. A welcome oddball addition to the coming-of-age genre.

Note: The book was a runaway bestseller in Sweden, selling one copy for every twelve Swedes! Naturally, the book has been adapted as a film--which was co-written and directed by an Iranian who immigrated to Sweden as a teenager!

We were crying on the floor with laughter...
When this first came out in Sweden, we seriously wondered what could be so funny about growing up in the north of our country. We soon found out... this book is recommended for reading out loud to your friends, alone where nobody else can hear you, or somewhere else where it is not necessary to be quiet. Niemi has written an absolute classic of a piece, taking geekiness to a whole new level... Everyone I know loved it and read it far too quick. We are now reading the English edition, whilst desperately waiting for Niemi to come out with another book.