Martty Larney "The Fourth Vertebrae, or the Reluctant Fraudster": main characters, quotes

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The Fourth Vertebra is a book published in 1957. Martti Larni portrayed the American way of life in this satirical work, inviting the reader to look at it through the eyes of a Finnish immigrant. What are the characteristic features of the mentality of the inhabitants of the New World? What is a European who finds himself in the US unable to get used to? The content of the novel "The Fourth Vertebra, or the Unwilling Fraudster" and its main characters are the subject of the article.

About the author

Larney Martti is a journalist and writer. Born in 1909 in Helsinki. The author of the book "The Fourth Vertebra" began his literary activity with the publication of several poetic works. Already in the late thirties, Larni Martti was known in his homeland as a journalist and poet.

In 1948, the writer went to the United States and was so impressed by the American way of life that he wrote a pamphlet novel, the content of which is set out below. The work describes the hypocrisy of the inhabitants of America, the hypocrisy of the figures of charitable foundations. Translation from Finnish toRussian (1959) was most welcome due to the cold war that began in the mid-forties. The novel won many positive reviews from Soviet readers.

Translated from Finnish into Russian by linguist Vladimir Bogachev. The book has been reprinted several times since the late 1950s. It is worth saying that in our time the novel of the Finnish author is extremely relevant. So, what is the book "The Fourth Vertebra, or the Reluctant Fraudster" about?

Main characters

Jerry Finn is a journalist of Finnish origin. At birth, he received a rather dissonant name. Many years later, having turned into a "citizen of the universe", he changed this name to a more sonorous one - Jerry. The protagonist of the novel "The Fourth Vertebra" is a truth-seeking journalist who creates problems for himself and the local Finnish authorities.

Charles Lawson - another character in the book - a typical hero of a crime novel. He saves on conversation, but is wasteful in money. Charlie has an expensive hat on his head, fashionable boots on his feet, and he himself is dressed in a luxurious suit. This is how the author of the novel described this character.

Joan is a young woman whose pretty face is the perfect brain substitute. She is not thirty, but she has already managed to be widowed more than once. Fortunately, the life of each of the husbands was well insured. And Joan is beaming with happiness and constantly displaying the famous Hollywood smile.

The characters described above have little in common. However, their life paths intersect after a former journalist andby the will of fate becomes an American chiropractor.

Emigration

There is some grotesqueness in the depiction of the life of US citizens in the book "The Fourth Vertebra" by the Finnish author M. Larney. But it is based not on speculation, but on the personal experience of the writer. Larney had the right to talk about the “wild capitalism” of the 50s, since it was this period of his life that he spent in exile. The satire of the author of the novel "The Fourth Vertebra" is subjected to American intelligence services, suspecting Jerry Finn of smuggling, espionage, and distribution of pornographic literature. The writer also sneers about new religious rallies, advertising campaigns and other phenomena that his hero witnessed during the first days of his stay in the New World.

This is not the Old World for you

This phrase was regularly repeated by the doctor with whom Jerry was to work. The newly minted emigrant could not but agree with this statement. The mere method of treating a chiropractic left Jerry extremely perplexed. Dr. Rivers - and that was the name of the representative of alternative medicine - tortured his patients. His "therapy" delivered incredible psychological and physical suffering to the patients. But for Rivers, profit came first, which he achieved, despite the fact that his method of treatment was nothing short of quackery.

Jerry arrived in the US to become an assistant to a chiropractic doctor. From the first hours of his life in New York, he had to plunge into a mysterious, hitherto unknown world, in which all human aspirations were reduced to earningof money. Jerry Finn was destined to become a recruiter of new patients in order to increase the income of his patron.

Chiropractic

Dr. Rivers miraculously heals Americans suffering from various diseases. His methods equally manage to overcome both migraine and male impotence. But even those patients who do not get rid of their diseases after visiting the chiropractic, continue to make an appointment with him. Moreover, they recommend the services of a miracle doctor to their relatives and friends. What is the secret of Rivers' success? It's all about advertising. After all, it is she who makes people buy even what they do not need.

Jerry, despite his innate indecisiveness and European upbringing, quickly delves into the wisdom of American business. And already a few days after meeting a chiropractic doctor, he promotes revolutionary methods of treatment. And their essence lies in the treatment of the spine in a rather unusual way. The doctor adjusts the vertebrae, the wrong position of which is allegedly the cause of thousands of diseases. Jerry also begins to treat the afflicted. Sometimes he is visited by thoughts that his activities resemble charlatanism. But the money that flows like a river dispels all doubts.

Joan

One day at the reception, a newly minted chiropractor meets a beautiful young woman who later became his wife. Joan is a typical American of the fifties. At least according to the Finnish writer Larni. Becomingunwillingly a swindler, he daily receives in his office women suffering from all sorts of diseases. The worst of them is a chronic headache caused by years of idleness.

Joan is only interested in money. However, like other characters in the book. She does not know where Finland is, she has no idea what other European countries exist. Joan constantly chews gum and drinks Coca-Cola. There is nothing in her refrigerator but corn flakes that taste like cellulose. Joan almost forcibly marries Jerry to herself. After all, he makes good money. Besides, he is a doctor, and there are no poor doctors in America. But already on the first day of marriage, Joan puts forward a demand: her husband must insure his life for a large sum.

Charlie

A we althy eighty-year-old lady once came to see Jerry. Despite her advanced age, she was in perfect he alth. However, she suffered from the fact that the young husband did not want to fulfill his marital duty. Finn failed to cure a twenty-six-year-old man from a cold attitude towards a woman who was half a century older. Also, on that day, he acquired an enemy.

The name of the wife of a rich lady was Charlie. And he was Joan's brother. He had a criminal business with his sister. They worked according to the following scheme: Joan married a we althy man, then her husband insured her life, and soon unexpectedly passed away. The merry widow set about looking for a new husband.

Family life

The naive and soft-hearted Jerry Finn was caught in the network of intruders. And the main task of Joan was to convince her husband of the need for life insurance. She managed to achieve this with the help of her brother Charlie. And that, in turn, thanks to his gun.

Under threat of physical harm, Jerry signed a statement in which he expressed his desire to insure his life in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. Despite the fact that Charlie showed extreme aggression, and Joan constantly talked about her husbands who died suddenly, the idea that his beautiful wife was plotting to get rid of him never occurred to the protagonist of the book. And only after Rivers hinted to his Finnish colleague that the ill-fated family was running a criminal business and the whole of Brooklyn already knew about it, Jerry was somewhat saddened. The plot of the novel is fascinating, but readers are perplexed by the characteristic features of the main characters, namely Finn's naivete and his wife's stupidity.

Finnish emigrant against American gangster

Jerry still found the strength to destroy the criminal plan of Joan and Charlie. However, the trouble is that this plan belonged to the brother. Charlie had considerable criminal experience, he had serious problems with the police, and, according to Joan's stories, he supplied illegal smoking mixtures to American schoolchildren. And therefore, even when Jerry's wife gave up the idea of becoming a widow once again, it was not so easy to prevent the atrocity. ATThe denouement of Larni's work has detective storylines. In addition, Jerry loses a highly paid job. He enters into an unequal battle with an American gangster, having only a children's toy - a hammer - as a weapon. But the story of the Finnish immigrant has a happy ending.

Quotes

Worth reading in full is the novel The Fourth Vertebrae, or the Unwilling Fraudster. The quotes below are proof of Martti Larney's subtle humor. And although the Finnish writer's book deals with the life of Americans in the middle of the last century, these sayings are still relevant today.

1. “People save time by believing that time is money. Despite this, many of them have much more time than money.”
2. “He loved pigeons and children. After all, the former mean peace, while the latter bring parents tax cuts.”
3. "Advertising has miraculous powers. It makes a person believe that he needs a thing, the existence of which he did not even suspect before.”
4. "Marriage is a game where two people play and both of them lose."
5. "A woman is like a weapon: you can't play with her."
6. "Experience is a good teacher. And that's why he's paid so poorly.”
7. "The US imports scientists from Europe, sending radio programs and stew in return."
8. "Everyone can become rich if they only imagine themselves to be rich and start living in debt."
9. "You can pour wine over everything but the truth."