#minna lindgren

Somebody said Miss Marple? There's none of that in here, much to my chagrin. I came here looking for a detective story and ended up with a mix up between (kind of) a satire of detective stories and a social critique of old people's treatments and lives. Which was cool, but not what I wanted.

The main character is Siiri Kettunen, a 94-year-old woman living in Sunset Grove, a retirement home. She is really well for her age, that is: she lives alone, doesn't need pills, and does what she wants. She has nothing to do, so she basically passes the time and waits for death. 

 Every morning Siiri Kettunen woke up and realized that she wasn’t dead yet. Then she got out of bed, washed, dressed and ate something for breakfast.  

Her best friend is Irma, a 92-year-old woman that also lives alone, and she is a bubbly, chatty woman that honestly made my heart melt. These two are unbelievably cute together. The trio is complete with Anna-Liisa, a (former) Finnish language and literature teacher who can be defined by being a teacher: can install order at any moment, manages unruly old people like teenagers, and is basically calm under extreme situations because she was seasoned in a classroom. She is, in short, the best asset a retirement home can have.

(There are other characters, but these three are the most important and worth a mention.)

The plot is, well, lacking. Basically nothing happens in the book, and those things that happen (something with drugging old people, and some kind of mafia) aren't really understood because the narrator is a 94-year-old woman that, while in perfect shape for her age, doesn't have the capacities younger people have, so she understands half of what is happening (and, consequently, the reader understands half of what is happening). I had hunchs and suspicions that never resolved, because everything kind of resolves itself? Or, like, at least, isn't considered important enough to resolve, so I was left wondering.

The social critique, however, was on point. It showed how people treat old people as if they are idiots that don't understand things, or basically wait for them to die. Which is really, really sad, my heart felt for these women that didn't have anyone going to visit them. Also, the book took a really dark turn of how some retirement homes are, and I struggled a lot between my suspicions and what was shown. There were some hard to read parts, not because of what is shown, but because is understood of that. Very hard critique, honestly.

So the nurses got burned out and ended up quitting to find a job that was more fun. Or they went on state sabbatical. Siiri had no idea what state sabbatical was. 

‘That’s when an employer pays a worker to do nothing for a year,’ Irma explained, but Siiri didn’t believe her. You couldn’t always trust Irma’s stories. She was a bit batty sometimes. 

The narrative is quite funny, because it’s told in Siiri’s POV, and it’s rich in sarcasm, both intentional and less-so. I really liked it, and it was the one thing that impulsed me to continue and finish the book when I was desperate.

TO SUM UP

I think the major fault with this book was how it was marketed: this is not a detective story, don’t fault yourselves. It’s a good book, and quite well-written, but the marketing misguides and disappoints readers (like me).

The best part: The friendship between Siiri and Irma.

The worst part: The lack of a concrete plot and the lack of explanations about what was really happening.