Mihkel Mutt

The Innie and the Outie.

"The Inner Immigrant" is a translation anthology of the short stories of prolific Estonian writer Mihkel Mutt, whose only other translated work in English to date is the novel "The Cavemen Chronicle" (2015) which was also translated by "Adam Cullen". The stories here have been selected from "Fabiani õpilane" (Fabian's Student) (1980), "Vana Fabiani Nutulaul" (Old Fabian's Lament) (1988), "Siseemigrant" (The Inner Immigrant) (2007) and "Fabian" (2015). The last one is a recent Estonian reissue on Mutt's own publishing imprint of the early Fabian stories. Including 5 books of short stories, Mutt has about 30 works to his credit, comprising novels, children's stories, essays, travel writing, memoirs and theatre. The stories "Fabian the Student" (1980) and "The Inner Immigrant" (2007) (both included here) won the Estonian Best Short Story Award named after writer Friedebert Tuglas in 1981 and 2008 respectively.

Only 6 of the 13 stories in this present collection are about Mutt's alter-ego of Fabian, but they do make up 75% of the book. Fabian is "an ironic observer of life and a skeptical bohemian" per the Estonian blurb for the 2015 Estonian reissue (i.e. "irooniline eluvaatleja ja skeptiline boheemlane.").

The inner monologues of the essayistic Fabian stories takes a bit of getting used to, especially as you don't really warm to the character very easily. "Old Fabian's Lament" with its richly observant details of matrimonial cohabitation was my favourite of them, especially as it had some wry humour and a nice little twist in the end.

The balance of the remaining 7 short stories were more approachable, and though they do not use the Fabian alter-ego explicitly, they could easily be viewed as a continuation of that thread. My favourites were the difficulties of writing a literary colleague's "Obituary", the writer's daytrip/lecture to a not very responsive audience in "The Lady with the White Beret" and the final "Inner Immigrant."… (meer)