Not Before Sundown

I enjoyed this book. The overall feel of the story was a fairy tale within a fairy tale. First, there's the matter of the troll that the main character finds outside of his apartment building one night. In this version of Finland, trolls have been determined to be a rare, but real, species of wild animal. (I assume this isn't actually true - I have to confess I did Google trolls afterwards to make sure there wasn't, in fact something called a Finnish troll living in the wild!) Despite the acknowledgment in this book's universe that trolls are real creatures, they are also still recognized as the source of the classic folklore about trolls of which we are generally familiar. (This is reinforced by snippets of poems, songs, folktales, etc. that are pepped throughout the book.) I enjoyed this blending of "science" and fantasy quite a bit, as it underscored both the interrelationship between myths and real hard-to-explain phenomena, and the fact that many of us modern city dwellers don't understand the natural world - especially wild creatures - as much as we think we do.

Secondly, the construction of the novel itself - which was very economical - made it feel like a fary tale, in that the book was clearly heading in a direction designed to teach the main character (and the audience) important lessons. While I wouldn't say that I found the ending necessarily predictable, it had an air of inveitability to it. The author very effectively set all of the pieces in motion at the story's onset without completely broadcasting how exaclty it would play out. And, while I wouldn't say that the "moral to the story" was at all simplistic, the ending nevertheless felt like important comments were made about a society that rewards greed and cruelty. While that might not sound like a lot of fun, the sobriety of the book's lessons are more than balanced out by the quirkiness of the story and the breeziness of the pacing.