Novel
Juhannustanssit
Not translated into English
Hannu Salama · 1964
Synopsis
The Midsummer festivities in the countryside, over the course of a summer night. People drink spirits, speak crudely, and find and leave one another by chance in barns, saunas and arbours. In the middle of the party, a drunken bricklayer, Hiltunen, launches into a parodic sermon about Jesus, which makes his listeners laugh.
Context
The author's fourth novel and his breakthrough, it was published by Otava in October 1964 and was at first well received. Then came an article in the religious press, a speech by the archbishop and an interpellation by nineteen conservative members of parliament. On 20 September 1966 the Helsinki court of appeal sentenced the author to three months in prison, suspended, for blasphemy and ordered the destruction of the unsold copies; the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence in 1967, and President Kekkonen pardoned him in August 1968. From 1966 Otava published an edition with part of the sermon cut, reprinted in that form until 1990.
Who it is for
A novel of about two hundred and fifty pages, in Finnish, raw in its language; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
His breakthrough, and the most famous blasphemy conviction in Finland; the book is now a classic.