Antti Nylén: Essays on Anger and Bitterness

In his polemical essay collection Essays on Anger and Bitterness Antti Nylén writes about neckties, sex, crazy bitches, meat, pop, and God.

It should be pointed out at the outset that Antti Nylén is dangerous. He is not from this century, as he makes clear on the first page of his book. “As a nostalgic, one of the things I like about the present day is that the insane and abnormal walk freely again amongst the sensible and normal, just as in the 1860’s, when I would have liked to have lived.” His strange world revolves around Baudelaire, Morrissey, veganism and Catholicism.

I suspect that many who chance upon Nylén’s sharp-edged book will wish they had never opened it. Nylén is a ruthless misanthrope and moralist. “The most vulgar thing in the modern age is faith in humanity, in the abilities of man.” Fortunately, the average Finn only reads books during Christmas vacation and will never come across this loaded pistol.

Nylén’s texts are spring-loaded with paradoxes, but he succeeds in stitching everything together into a whole that is as impenetrably beautiful as a medieval castle. You are with him without agreeing with him. He probably reasons with himself in the same way, as the converted Catholic and feminist that he is.

When Nylén takes on a theme, he does it with empathy and patience. As so many others from the 70’s are, he is obsessed with pop music and films. We should be glad for that.

Essays on Anger and Bitterness won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize for Literature in 2007 and was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Best Debut Book Award.

Original title: Vihan ja katkeruuden esseet
Publisher: Savukeidas 2007, 301 pages
Cover design: Antti Eerikäinen
Cover picture: La Fraternité des flâneurs domestiqués