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Product Description
Some people have said this book is romantic and maybe it is: a young lost American college grad falls in love with an intriguing European journalist and embarks on a journey that restores his faith in himself and the world. Sure, it is romantic. But it was never easy. A foreigner arrives in the middle of a dark winter and must survive in Estonia, the "least fortunate Scandinavian country," a land where people eat blood sausage and jellied meat, drink warm bread, and are always on time; a place where every family is haunted by the past and is struggling to catch up to the present. Over the course of one year, so much happens in this tiny northern land that it stops being foreign. Estonia and the college grad turned journalist become intimately acquianted. Inseparable. And in the end, he comes to love it, even when they do not want to let him back into their country.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've just finished Justin Petrone's My Estonia. It's an enjoyable read, and not quite what I expected.
Justin is probably the most consistently readable and interesting blogger in the Baltic states, but his book shows he is also a talented and endearingly honest writer.
The book covers Justin's first encounters with Estonia and early years as a sometime-illegal resident of the country.
Early chapters deal with his initial encounter with Epp, his future wife, on a trip to Finland for budding foreign correspondents. There are broad hints that Justin has been suffering from depression of some sort, but not really enough to make it clear what frame of mind he is in.
But once Justin actually sets foot in Estonia the book begins in earnest. It may be an account of a man lacking confidence at first, but Justin's writing immediately gains confidence. It's clever the way he communicates bewilderment and frustration in such a measured and authoritative way. One senses that whatever Justin was looking for (my own opinion would be a place to put his overflowing love) he found it in Estonia and in Epp.
Yet despite the amount of text dedicated to Epp, she remains the most elusive figure in the book. The terms used to describe her in Justin's conversational, Kerouac-influenced style ("crazy", etc) simply don't offer enough information as to her motivations and reasoning. But with a second volume promised it's likely Epp's evolution will continue.
What's not in doubt is that Justin and Epp come as close to the definition of star-crossed lovers as is possible without descending into sentimentality. Indeed Justin's honesty about his own feelings and frequent insecurities makes for some of the strongest passages.
His guilt and guilty pleasure noticing that he finds other women attractive despite his devotion to Epp is a particularly honest observation. The terrified euphoria of learning he is to become father and subsequent fear that he will be a bad one will be familiar to any man who has ever heard the words: "We're having a baby."
In another well-told episode he and Epp have a rare quarrel, to which Justin responds by throwing his bag at the nearest available wall. I would very much like to see this adopted worldwide as a gesture of overwhelming, inexpressible frustration.
If Epp remains enigmatic, the incidental characters including mischievous niece Simona, "family drunk" Toivo, Toomas the magician and Vaiko the rock star are deftly described once Justin's Estonian Odyssey is underway.
While Justin's new family may seem a little eccentric to the sort of reader who would find a dry toilet shocking, they seem pretty typical of the Baltic states to me.
Justin's stance is that of a foreigner who by rights shouldn't fit in at all but somehow does. As such it makes a very refreshing change from the sort of travel books that like to point out how "backward" and "uncivilised" this little corner of Europe is and one is left understanding why the author has fallen in love with Estonia the country as well as Epp the woman.
Justin is probably the most consistently readable and interesting blogger in the Baltic states, but his book shows he is also a talented and endearingly honest writer.
The book covers Justin's first encounters with Estonia and early years as a sometime-illegal resident of the country.
Early chapters deal with his initial encounter with Epp, his future wife, on a trip to Finland for budding foreign correspondents. There are broad hints that Justin has been suffering from depression of some sort, but not really enough to make it clear what frame of mind he is in.
But once Justin actually sets foot in Estonia the book begins in earnest. It may be an account of a man lacking confidence at first, but Justin's writing immediately gains confidence. It's clever the way he communicates bewilderment and frustration in such a measured and authoritative way. One senses that whatever Justin was looking for (my own opinion would be a place to put his overflowing love) he found it in Estonia and in Epp.
Yet despite the amount of text dedicated to Epp, she remains the most elusive figure in the book. The terms used to describe her in Justin's conversational, Kerouac-influenced style ("crazy", etc) simply don't offer enough information as to her motivations and reasoning. But with a second volume promised it's likely Epp's evolution will continue.
What's not in doubt is that Justin and Epp come as close to the definition of star-crossed lovers as is possible without descending into sentimentality. Indeed Justin's honesty about his own feelings and frequent insecurities makes for some of the strongest passages.
His guilt and guilty pleasure noticing that he finds other women attractive despite his devotion to Epp is a particularly honest observation. The terrified euphoria of learning he is to become father and subsequent fear that he will be a bad one will be familiar to any man who has ever heard the words: "We're having a baby."
In another well-told episode he and Epp have a rare quarrel, to which Justin responds by throwing his bag at the nearest available wall. I would very much like to see this adopted worldwide as a gesture of overwhelming, inexpressible frustration.
If Epp remains enigmatic, the incidental characters including mischievous niece Simona, "family drunk" Toivo, Toomas the magician and Vaiko the rock star are deftly described once Justin's Estonian Odyssey is underway.
While Justin's new family may seem a little eccentric to the sort of reader who would find a dry toilet shocking, they seem pretty typical of the Baltic states to me.
Justin's stance is that of a foreigner who by rights shouldn't fit in at all but somehow does. As such it makes a very refreshing change from the sort of travel books that like to point out how "backward" and "uncivilised" this little corner of Europe is and one is left understanding why the author has fallen in love with Estonia the country as well as Epp the woman.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As an Englishman also married to an Estonian, and having lived in Estonia, the detail in this book was incredibly accurate and honest, to the extent that some of the experiences actually were my own! Explore weird Estonian delicacies; understand the way Estonians deal with death and cemeteries, to trying to understand the Estonian obsession with promptness. For any foreigner married to an Estonian, this book is your bible!
For anyone else, this book will give you not only an enjoyable and pleasant read, but also a detailed and extremely accurate overview of how life really is to live in modern Estonia from a foreigner's perspective, which is vastly different from the standard tourist information magazines you are likely to come across.
For anyone else, this book will give you not only an enjoyable and pleasant read, but also a detailed and extremely accurate overview of how life really is to live in modern Estonia from a foreigner's perspective, which is vastly different from the standard tourist information magazines you are likely to come across.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book as my daughter is doing an Erasmus semester at Tallin University: we travelled around the country in August 2011 before she started and this book gave a feel of the place, although as tourists staying in hotels it doesn't reflect the author's experience. The book is whimsical, a little romantic and sometimes the author is a tad patronising, however it is diverting and the book has become a sufficient success in Estonia for a second book to have appeared. I recommend this book without awarding 5 stars!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Awesome
A wonderful read, and a fantastic view of Estonian life from a foreigners perspective. My wife (Estonian) loved it ,made her laugh the whole way through. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Woodster
Very funny, witty and perceptive
As an Estonian-American, I occasionally read and very much enjoy Justin Petrone's blog "Itching for Eestimaa". Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2010 by Kairus
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