Purge

Aliide wanted to spend the day inside, but the mound, visible out of the corner of her eye through the kitchen window, disturbed her. It looked the same as it had from the bedroom window, just as much like a person, and it didn’t deem to be going anywhere on its own. Aiilde turned off the radio and went back to the window. It was quiet, the way its quiet in late summer in a dying Estonian village – a neighbor’s rooster crowed, that was all. The silence had been peculiar that year – expectant, yet at the same time like the aftermath of a storm. There was something similar in the posture of Aliide’s grass, overgrown, sticking to the windowpane. It was wet and mute, placid. (pg. 7)

…her eyes blinked open and she sat bolt up-right. Aliide moved away, just to be safe. The girl’s mouth was still open. She stared in Aliide’s direction, but her hysterical gaze didn’t seem to register her. It didn’t register anything. Aliide kept assuring her that everything was all right in the soothing voice you use with restless animals. There was no comprehension in the girl’s eyes but there was something familiar about her gaping mouth. The girl herself wasn’t familiar, but the way she behaved was, the way her expression quivered under her wax-like skin, not reaching the surface, and the way her body was in spite of her vacant demeanor. (pg. 10)

Shortly after Estonia’s independence in 1991, an elderly woman named Aliide, who lives in a small, dying village in the country, finds a battered and bruised girl in a heap in her yard. Aliide has had troubles of her own throughout her life and is hesitant about taking the girl in. Zara, the girl, is running away from something and she is terrified she will be found. The two women verbally dance, revealing little bits to each other and even more to the reader. Purge unfolds Zara’s and Aliide’s pasts and the problems they face in the present in a novel that brings global issues to the forefront by exploring the lives of two women.

Purge is Sofi Oksanen’s first novel to be translated into English and is adapted from her highly regarded play of the same name. The novel is divided into four parts – the first three tell Zara’s and Aliide’s story ranging in time from 1939 and 1992. Oksanen goes back and forth in time in her writing but the narration is tied together through events, metaphor, and symbol. There are a lot of parallels in her work. The two women are connected by many different threads which are woven together as you read along; the fourth section consists of a series of Soviet reports.

With the majority of the novel taking place in a small village, the reader encounters the reality of what happens to women in war from rape used as a tool of torture and coercion in war and occupation to the victims of the modern-day sex trade. This is the reality for a vast number of women in the world and Oksanen truly gives them voice and stature. Some of the events depicted are harrowing and descriptive as Oksanen doesn’t pull any punches. But each woman is treated by the author with great respect. Purge can be disquieting to read in parts but well worth the effort.

The author has a rhythm to her writing that matches what is happening in the novel. She goes forward, steps back, then goes forward again – each time you go over the same ground again, you get a little deeper, a little more information, more layers.  Words themselves have many layers of meaning including the title: Purge – to cleanse, to wash yourself clean, and to signify the deportation of Estonian citizens to the Soviet Union. There is minute detail without minutia as it seems Oksanen does everything with intent.

There are many themes in Purge which, in some books, can lead to a very muddled reading experience. Here, instead, Oksanen uses these themes almost like layers of an onion, peeling away go inside, deeper and deeper. Themes are restated in different ways from different points of view adding to the reader’s experience.

One of the key themes is self-preservation in any way possible such as playacting as a means of survival:

Possibilities steamed in and out of her head, she couldn’t tame them, not enough to think things through. Her temples were throbbing. She couldn’t breathe deeply, act trustworthy. Like the kind of girl that older people like. She should try to be sweet and polite and well behaved and helpful… (pg. 59)

Another example is the necessity for a person to hang on to their sense of individuality in the midst of degradation – keeping whatever tiny core of self that they can:

Zara wiped the edge of her mouth. She was ashamed, her face burning. And she did what she always did when she was overcome with shame. She focused her gaze and her thoughts on something else. Aliide, the kitchen, and the pot of pigs’ ears disappeared. She stared at her hands. The froth left on her finger from where she wiped her mouth looked like a snake’s spit on a raspberry leaf. A spit bug. She focused on that, a little animal was always best when you had to move your mind away from your body. (pg. 65-66)

The yearning to be recognized as a person, to be valued for who you are, is a universal feeling – for your value as a person, how people define themselves through story and the need to redefine, reinvent and rebuild yourself is well described throughout the novel.

…she would be free; she would get a new passport, a new identity, a new story for herself. Some day all this would happen. Some day she would rebuild herself.” (pg. 264)

Would Zara’s story begin at the gate of that house, a new story, her own story? (pg. 292)

I think the ultimate message of Purge is having control over your person, having a voice, having the power to write your own story and the price that you pay to achieve that control. It is easy for me to see why Oksanen has won so many prizes in Europe for this work. I think it was stunning and worthy of any reader’s time and attention.

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