What does the author, Tomi Astikainen, has to say about The Sunhitcher?
How would you describe the book briefly?
The Sunhitcher is a book about hitchhiking. And I don’t mean just flagging down cars to move from place to place. No, hitchhiking here is a metaphor for life: daring, taking chances, letting go and seeing what the universe has in hold for us. It’s about letting the destiny decide who comes your way and seeing that there are no strangers; just friends who haven’t met yet. It’s about voluntarily becoming dependent of other people and trusting that everything goes fine.
The Sunhitcher describes in detail how it feels to lead a moneyless life and it has quite a bunch of societal critique also, but essentially The Sunhitcher is a love story. It’s about finding love within you, in your relationships and in life in general.
Tell us about the writing process.
I was not even supposed to write this in the first place. I was on the road thinking I could go to some inspiring place and re-do Mind Your Elephant. But if you hitchhike some 90.000 kilometers completely without money you are sure to meet so many interesting people and run into various silly situations that you can’t just help but be inspired.
So, this fictional character, Remmus Reverof, was born out of that inspiration. Yes, it is partly my pseudonym but this is not entirely a true story. It would be not one book but a whole library if I was to capture everything as it has happened. You just meet too many amazing people on the road to tell all of their stories. I hope this serves a nice mixture, though.
You know, my laptop broke down on the way, and I ended up writing this piece on dozens of different computers. Whenever I had a chance to use a laptop I would just quickly jot down my thoughts the way Remmus would see them. So that’s why it’s very diary-like.
Sometimes I felt like Norman Bates discussing with his mom. It’s not that easy to write about this fictional character who gets his life force from you… and still you’re supposed to do your own thing, enjoy the moment and live life on the road. I am so lucky we didn’t become schizophrenic.
What is your opinion about the end result?
I like the way how this book takes the themes of Mind Your Elephant and brings them alive through this guy Remmus Reverof. He has ego issues. He definitely needs to work on his relationships. And he’s absolutely pissed off at society.
Yet, out of all the books I’ve written I think this one is the most difficult to approach. On one hand it’s so far from the so-called reality most people face. And on the other hand, I didn’t want to write an ordinary travel book. If you expect sightseeing and stuff like that, then don’t read this.
I wanted to offer a different perspective; how you can appreciate those small seemingly unimportant glimpses of reality – like what kind of food you eat or the beauty of a sentence someone said – rather than marveling at Coliseum, Alhambra and the like.
My biggest challenge was to make it readable and short enough while preserving those small details. I guess it was Antoine de Saint-Exuper who said “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” The editing part was hell and took such a long time but I’m forever grateful to all those countless people who provided feedback and ideas. Again, it’s not my book anymore. It’s our book.
Who should read the book?
I guess The Sunhitcher feels more familiar if you are a traveler yourself or if you’re leading some sort of an alternative lifestyle. However, my humble wish is that this could open people’s eyes to see that you can actually lead a very fulfilling life without money.
I hope that those who like what they read would pass this to their friends and relatives who are bogged down by the veil of normality. I’m happy that so many people got inspired by the web version already. One guy, for instance, dropped the book in midway, started moneyless traveling himself, and finished reading only after returning. I hope more people will say: “Oh, wow! To hell with these imaginary concepts like money. I don’t need them to limit my options anymore. Let me just do my thing and help others without expecting anything in return.”
Hitchhiking is one of the ways to get in touch with what is real. The Sunhitcher is a salute to all hitchhikers out there. Kids, don’t try this at home. Hit the road!
