OXFORD, Miss. – A University of Mississippi professor of
English has published a novel on the life of the late
Finnish poet and translator Pentti Saarikoski.
Doug Robinson, a former resident of Jyvaskyla, Finland,
recently revisited Finland for the Helsinki Book Fair to
promote his novel, “Pentinpeijaiset” (“Saarikoski’s
Spirits”). The event included a panel discussion of the
book attended by more than 300 people, including two of
Saarikoski’s former wives.
The novel is causing quite a controversy in Finland,
Robinson said. Part of the opposition points toward
Robinson, an American who has written about a person
considered by some to be among that countrys sacred
literary idols.
“Another source of controversy is that this book includes
very personal things about real people,” Robinson said.
“There’s a balance of positive and negative things; it’s
the negative things that make it controversial.”
Saarikoski married four times and was accused of having
extramarital affairs. He was known to have been a heavy
drinker of alcohol, which eventually contributed to his
death in 1983.
“As a way of rebellion against his father, he lived very
much in the public eye,” Robinson said. “He told the media
everything about himself, including any time he cheated on
his wife.”
Saarikoski gained fame in his country for translating J.D.
Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye.” At the time, there were no
comparable Finnish words for some of the slang Salinger
used in the novel. Saarikoski is credited for creating a
new literary language in Finland by collecting the slang
that teenagers used in local teen hangouts and putting them
into print. His other translations include Homer’s
“Odyssey” and James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”
Robinson, who was named UM’s director of freshman writing
this year, has received accolades from Patrick Quinn, chair
and professor of English.
“Seldom in my 35 years of academic work have I met a
colleague with the fine mind of Doug Robinson,” Quinn said.
“What is exceptional about Doug is not only his dedication
to research, but also the varied nature of his output:
Literary theory, linguistics, literature and composition
are all grist for his intellectual curiosity.”
Besides “Pentinpeijaiset,” Robinson published three other
works this year. He translated Finnish author Elina
Hirvonen’s debut novel, “Etta Han Muistaisi Saman” (“When I
Forgot”) into English. The book’s sales point to its being
the most popular translated debut novel in Finnish history,
according to the publisher, Portobello. It is the story of
a Finnish girl who has an affair with an American man
suffering from the effects of Sept. 11 and the Iraq War.
Robinson’s scholarly monograph “Estrangement and the
Somatics of Literature: Tolstoy, Shklovsky, Brecht” is due
to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in March.
He wrote the book while on a Fulbright trip to Russia.
Also, Robinson and his wife, Svetlana Ilinskaya, UM
instructor in English, have custom published the academic
textbook Writing as Drama for UMs English 101 course. The
book’s second edition is in production for use in the
spring semester, and Robinson and Ilinskaya are in talks
with the publisher, McGraw-Hill, to market it nationally.
For more information about the Department of English, go to
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/.