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My Viljandi: Estonian Small-Town Blues
312 pages, Paperback
Published July 20, 2021
3 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Justin Petrone
16 books27 followersA native New Yorker, writer and journalist Justin Petrone has been living in Northern Europe for more than 20 years. With a dozen books to his name and hundreds of articles, he specializes in travel memoirs and experimental dream fiction. His work has appeared in Standart and Edasi.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 3, 2021
With this latest book, Mr Petrone confirms the suspicion that has passed his literary best-before date. His published literary niche has always been particularly narrow: for the most part, just personal anecdotes, i.e. Estonia through the eyes of an American. And though his earlier works could be at times rather naïve and somewhat ethnocentric, readers were at least left with some insight on how Estonia ‘ticks’. In this respect, his earlier books managed to arouse some degree of interest. My Viljandi, Mr Petrone’s tribute to self-indulgence, arouses none. Estonian speakers who are also avid readers of Kroonika (an Estonian gossip magazine) might revel in Mr Petrone’s literary catharsis; others may do better to pass.
May 27, 2025
It was quite a complicated situation life had put me in. I had split up from the author, Justin, but we weren't sworn enemies and had remained on friendly terms. I was quite firm about not being the
editor of My Viljandi, but Justin had written more than 600,000 characters and it seemed that he didn't have an editor, so I decided to take it on. How else could it be done? I have been the editor of
all his books to date. Maybe that's more significant than a personal relationship in my personal life. I feel and know his work, his style, who else knows what...
But then I had a block as an editor.
His manuscript seemed so melancholic and so oddly structured to me. It was made up of tiny fragments and it was hard to find the big story at first. Maybe I just didn't want to admit that there was no other way, and that this story was a "surviving divorce" story (maybe the author didn't want to admit that either, and that's why this mosaic of fragments was a deceptive front to the story). And don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising, this manuscript enchanted me in its own way in
its confusion. Justin is a master at creating moods and he has a surreal sense of humour....
But I still was blocked. The manuscript was stuck being editing for a while. And I realized that the same bittersweet feeling I have for Viljandi, I have for Justin. After all, Viljandi is my birthplace, and
I remember walking there ("My Estonia 3") and feeling that this is where I belong, this is where I grew up. But life turned out differently. We moved away from Viljandi, got divorced, Justin moved
back, wrote the manuscript for "My Viljandi" about the years that started after he moved back. And I was the editor of that manuscript.
During the editing process, I made sure to ask him to write in more of my favourite character, the guilt-free, sanguine Head Chef. The hilarious stories that happen to him enrich the rest of the story for me. And I edited out almost half of the rest of the story, all sorts of bits and pieces, because otherwise the book would simply have been too thick. I hope that with the help of these fragments, another book will come from Justin in the future.
And what is this "My Viljandi"? I'm so intimately involved with the manuscript, I have a relationship with the subject, so I really can't imagine how this book will be received. Justin's "My Estonia" 1,2 and 3 are all fairly straightforward stories, the first part is perhaps the simplest and funniest, and there are darker notes later, especially in the third. Justin's darkest book is probably his novel "Montreal Demons".
And how will people look back on "My Viljandi"? Is it his most somber work? But let's not forget the Head Chef, there's always some humor...? And at the end of the day, the story is still hopeful. If nothing else, the protagonist was captured his own talent when he and the boatman finally plunged into mist and love.
As I was writing, I found myself thinking about how important a female character is to Justin. Someone strong, mystical and crazy. He has more than one in "My Estonia", apart from Epp, for example, the artist Sigrid. And he has them in "My Viljandi" - at least four colorful characters. Not every male writer succeeds in bringing women to life. (The prototypes' protest about simplifying-and-over-simplifying is another matter altogether. Being a prototype is simply fate.... What can you do, art requires objects. And the writer survives by writing.)
I also found myself wondering how a former "My Estonia 1" young world explorer has become an old man with a lifetime of experience, giving advice to world explorers in Estonia. Point one: get used to the wood furnace, never mind that it takes so long every day. Point two: get used to the sauna, never mind that men strip and beat themselves naked in their own home. etc. If that's the case, maybe it's a funny book after all?
And it's definitely a book about life after divorce in a very concrete way. In fact, my own book about my farm life is also in a way about life after divorce, but the post-divorce factor is quite deep in my
text. If you can look, you will see. There are always stories around us, and there are many angles to each story. Justin's and my story, for example, can be looked at from this angle: how two backpackers became an active global success story. And how this family split at the cusp of middle age crisis: the man chose writing in cafés and the woman chose farm life. Not that one is better than the other. We all make choices through life. Viljandi - it's a small town, people who know almost everything about each other and meet every day in a café. That is one possible Viljandi, and one possible lifestyle. This is what Justin's book is about. "Viljandi, it's one big college dormitory" he says somewhere.
What next? New pages, new books.
editor of My Viljandi, but Justin had written more than 600,000 characters and it seemed that he didn't have an editor, so I decided to take it on. How else could it be done? I have been the editor of
all his books to date. Maybe that's more significant than a personal relationship in my personal life. I feel and know his work, his style, who else knows what...
But then I had a block as an editor.
His manuscript seemed so melancholic and so oddly structured to me. It was made up of tiny fragments and it was hard to find the big story at first. Maybe I just didn't want to admit that there was no other way, and that this story was a "surviving divorce" story (maybe the author didn't want to admit that either, and that's why this mosaic of fragments was a deceptive front to the story). And don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising, this manuscript enchanted me in its own way in
its confusion. Justin is a master at creating moods and he has a surreal sense of humour....
But I still was blocked. The manuscript was stuck being editing for a while. And I realized that the same bittersweet feeling I have for Viljandi, I have for Justin. After all, Viljandi is my birthplace, and
I remember walking there ("My Estonia 3") and feeling that this is where I belong, this is where I grew up. But life turned out differently. We moved away from Viljandi, got divorced, Justin moved
back, wrote the manuscript for "My Viljandi" about the years that started after he moved back. And I was the editor of that manuscript.
During the editing process, I made sure to ask him to write in more of my favourite character, the guilt-free, sanguine Head Chef. The hilarious stories that happen to him enrich the rest of the story for me. And I edited out almost half of the rest of the story, all sorts of bits and pieces, because otherwise the book would simply have been too thick. I hope that with the help of these fragments, another book will come from Justin in the future.
And what is this "My Viljandi"? I'm so intimately involved with the manuscript, I have a relationship with the subject, so I really can't imagine how this book will be received. Justin's "My Estonia" 1,2 and 3 are all fairly straightforward stories, the first part is perhaps the simplest and funniest, and there are darker notes later, especially in the third. Justin's darkest book is probably his novel "Montreal Demons".
And how will people look back on "My Viljandi"? Is it his most somber work? But let's not forget the Head Chef, there's always some humor...? And at the end of the day, the story is still hopeful. If nothing else, the protagonist was captured his own talent when he and the boatman finally plunged into mist and love.
As I was writing, I found myself thinking about how important a female character is to Justin. Someone strong, mystical and crazy. He has more than one in "My Estonia", apart from Epp, for example, the artist Sigrid. And he has them in "My Viljandi" - at least four colorful characters. Not every male writer succeeds in bringing women to life. (The prototypes' protest about simplifying-and-over-simplifying is another matter altogether. Being a prototype is simply fate.... What can you do, art requires objects. And the writer survives by writing.)
I also found myself wondering how a former "My Estonia 1" young world explorer has become an old man with a lifetime of experience, giving advice to world explorers in Estonia. Point one: get used to the wood furnace, never mind that it takes so long every day. Point two: get used to the sauna, never mind that men strip and beat themselves naked in their own home. etc. If that's the case, maybe it's a funny book after all?
And it's definitely a book about life after divorce in a very concrete way. In fact, my own book about my farm life is also in a way about life after divorce, but the post-divorce factor is quite deep in my
text. If you can look, you will see. There are always stories around us, and there are many angles to each story. Justin's and my story, for example, can be looked at from this angle: how two backpackers became an active global success story. And how this family split at the cusp of middle age crisis: the man chose writing in cafés and the woman chose farm life. Not that one is better than the other. We all make choices through life. Viljandi - it's a small town, people who know almost everything about each other and meet every day in a café. That is one possible Viljandi, and one possible lifestyle. This is what Justin's book is about. "Viljandi, it's one big college dormitory" he says somewhere.
What next? New pages, new books.
November 29, 2025
I am also an American living Viljandi, and I frequent many of his favorite spots that he talks about in the book. I run into him nearly every time I visit the Greenhouse Cafe. You truly cannot go to a cafe without seeing him! I have been meaning to read this book for a while, and my first thought reading the book is that I was surprised by the way he characterized Viljandi.
His description of Viljandi is overlayed with his personal struggles and headspace post divorce. Although this darker characterization differs from my perception, I enjoyed reading it because his writing was raw and visceral. In the book, the city and Justin’s own emotions are one in the same. I also enjoyed reading about places, people, and events I know and love. If you want to know some of the cool places to hang out in Viljandi- read this book.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I recommend giving it a go and picking a copy up from the cafe!
P.s. Hi Justin! Awesome book!
His description of Viljandi is overlayed with his personal struggles and headspace post divorce. Although this darker characterization differs from my perception, I enjoyed reading it because his writing was raw and visceral. In the book, the city and Justin’s own emotions are one in the same. I also enjoyed reading about places, people, and events I know and love. If you want to know some of the cool places to hang out in Viljandi- read this book.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I recommend giving it a go and picking a copy up from the cafe!
P.s. Hi Justin! Awesome book!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews