Published: June 24, 2009 10:46 pm      

Ashland native shows dark side in books

They say Finnish is the second-hardest language in the world to learn, just after Mandarin Chinese.

Jim Thompson learned that the hard way when he followed his heart to the country nestled between Sweden and Russia and poking its northern quadrant into the Arctic Circle.

It was a woman who drew Thompson to Finland, and even after breaking up with her the Ashland native remained, tending bar and enrolling in Helsinki University, where he met his wife, Annulkka.

So he had to learn the language, the better to serve up beers and understand the lectures at university. Before long, Thompson figured he belonged in Finland. He earned baccalaureate and master’s degrees in English philology.

And he threw himself into writing. Thompson taught himself to write by immersing himself in the craft. He read his favorite authors analytically.

Thinking he might try his hand at a thriller, he deconstructed one of the best — “Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth. “I took it apart like tearing the walls of a house out to the studs,” he said.

Thompson, 44, is unknown — for now — in the U.S. literary world, but in Finland, he has published two novels and has two more in the works. Both have been released in Finnish only (Thompson writes in English and collaborates with a translator to create the final product in Finnish).

But the U.S. publishing house G.P. Putnam’s Sons plans to release one, “Snow Angels,” in English in January, meaning Thompson is on the verge of gaining a domestic audience at last.

Authors published under the Putnam imprint include Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Amy Tan, Robert B. Parker and Tom Clancy.

Becoming a writer in Finland started when he was a child at Holy Family School, Thompson said Tuesday, lounging on the back porch of his father’s rustic house in the hills of Lawrence County. He and his wife are visiting the United States for about a week.

Thompson’s mother, Judy Chabot, teaches physics at Ashland Community and Technical College.

His family was a bookish one, with cases full of classics, said his father, James, a former photo department manager. Young Jim generally had a book in his hand, his father said.

At Holy Family, assigned to write a book report, Thompson turned up his nose at the suggested young-reader-appropriate selections and chose instead “Lenin in Zurich,” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

When he first started writing seriously, he encountered a vicious and uncompromising critic — himself. “I was throwing my own stuff against the wall, it was so bad ... It’s like somebody who likes to eat thinking they know how to cook.”

His self-schooling included daily writing and membership in writers’ groups. It took time. After 10 years, he grudgingly admits he’s competent.

Seeing Thompson relaxed in the afternoon sunshine, his father and wife beside him and hummingbirds buzzing and flitting among feeders hanging from the rafters, it is difficult to picture him as the author of hard-edged crime novels.

A selection from “Snow Angels” depicts a bleak scene of murder and mutilation driven by racial hatred. The murder mystery draws in readers, who will follow his protagonist, small-town policeman, Inspector Vaara, as he investigates the vicious killing of a B-movie starlet in his resort town near the Arctic Circle.

It is the exploration of racism that intrigues Thompson, however. Americans may believe racial bigotry is an entirely domestic curse, but Thompson, after 11 years in Finland, finds it there as well.

In “Snow Angels, “ Vaara explains it:

“Finns are sensitive about race relations because by and large we’re closet racists ...it’s not the overt racism of the American kind, ... but a quiet racism. The passing-over of foreigners for promotions, a general disregard and disdain ... We don’t talk about hatred, we hate in silence.”

It may be, he reflected, that his Finnish readers resent an American expatriate revealing their cultural skeletons. It’s part of the writer’s job, he believes. “Part of what I do is show people themselves.”

The publication date for “Snow Angels” is Jan. 10; readers should be able to find it in most bookstores. Thompson’s contract with Putnam calls for a sequel.