In Elena Joel Haahtela showed that a story, in which seemingly nothing much happens, can be deep and moving. In Naiset katsovat vastavaloon (Women are looking against the light) Haahtela tells a more conventional story. Or so it seems, before the end.
A young couple, newly married, moves to a large house in the countryside. The man is an architect, works in the city nearby, and the woman is a translator, works at home. She has time to look around and quite soon befriends another woman (her junior), of another couple, living in a house nearby. The couples become good friends, visit each other, while the women become fascinated in each other. Everything is fine and nice until, as in Elena, something which should stay below the surface, surfaces. There is something secret, something threatening in the past of the younger woman. The ending is tragic, although nobody dies, nothing stays the same. And Mr. Haahtela plays the feelings of the reader as he wishes.
Again, Mr Haahtela has written a book which remains in the mind of the reader for a long time. The mystery, the untold parts of the story will bother the reader in the most pleasant manner for a long time since the book has been returned to the library.
28.01.2007