Huovinen in Kuhmo, Finland, in a press event during the photography of the film Havukka-ahon ajattelija
Veikko Huovinen (7 May 1927 – 4 October 2009) [1] was a Finnishnovelist and forester. As a novelist, his writing was known for its realism, pacifism, sharp intellect, and peculiar humor. He wrote 37 books, and one of his best-known humorous novels is The Sheep Eaters from 1970. One of his books, the 1980 novel Dog Nail Clipper was adapted into a critically well-received 2004 film of the same name.
Huovinen was born in Simo, Finland. When he was six months old, his family moved to Sotkamo, where he lived until his death. As a child, Huovinen was known as well-mannered, yet he had a reputation for outlandish stories and occasional mischief. He went to high school in Kajaani, but his studies were interrupted in 1944 when he served as a volunteer AA gunner in the Finnish Army. He graduated after the war in 1946, enrolling in the University of Helsinki, from where he graduated with a M.A. in forestry in 1952.
Huovinen worked as a forester from 1953 to 1956, until becoming a full-time author. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary professorship for his services to Finnish literature. He was married and had 3 children.
Huovinen started writing in 1949 when working in a fire watch post in Vuokatti. His first short story collection, Hirri was published in 1950, followed by the novel Havukka-ahon Ajattelija in 1952. Both of these concern the life and its peculiarities in the Kainuu region in Finland, written in a unique style of humor and characterized by their inventive use of language. The main character in Havukka-ahon Ajattelija, Konsta Pylkkänen, has since become ingrained into Finnish modern folklore as the archetype of a rustic, backwoods philosopher.
Huovinen's further works never strayed far from humor, but started to exhibit the author's pacifistic philosophies and later took a turn towards black humor. A good example of such is the trilogy, referred by the author as "Three devilish mustached men"; Veitikka – A. Hitlerin elämä ja teot, Joe-setä and Pietari Suuri hatun polki, concerning Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Peter the Great respectively.
Veitikka prompted some controversy at the time, as it portrays Hitler in a humoristic light. Huovinen countered the claims of impropriety by contending that by laughing at dictators, one strips them of their power to influence people. Veitikka is ostensibly a researched study into the character of Hitler, but the totally outlandish stories quickly betray the book as a work of fiction. The two subsequent books follow the same pattern of telling a ridiculous history of the dictators while letting the author lament the effects such people have on mankind.
Huovinen's 1980 novel Koirankynnen leikkaaja (translation: Dog Nail Clipper) was adapted into a 2004 film of the same name, directed by Markku Pölönen and starred by Peter Franzén. In spite of low profits, the film was critically acclaimed receiving positive reviews and winning several major film awards. Dog Nail Clipper was the most successful film at the 2005 Jussi Awards winning in five categories including Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Direction.[2]
