Word: linna
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...UNKNOWN SOLDIER (316 pp.)-Voino Linna-Putnam...
...Winter War of 1939 when Finland thrilled the world by holding the Red army at bay for 3½ months. The second, and the subject of this impressive novel, took place 15 months later, and found Finland alongside Hitler in his invasion of the Soviet Union. Author Linna, a textile worker who served in that war, writes with a ferocity and explicitness certain to jolt the half-patronizing image of "plucky little Finland" held by many Americans...
...Author Linna's bitter book is a huge bestseller in Finland. American readers should be impressed by his terse descriptions of infighting, and grateful for the absence of the detailed flashbacks to peacetime life that have become the curse of war novels. There are some stereotypes but also some fresh, vivid portraits: Rokka, the veteran of the Winter War, who will fight his own way or not at all; Honkajoki, the eccentric pedant, who infuriates his officers by carrying a longbow into battle; Lahtinen, the Communist sympathizer, who wins a medal for bravery, yet takes a perverse pleasure...
...These were good men," says Author Linna of both the dead and the living. Fate had laid the whip of defeat across their backs, but it also released them from responsibility for the future, and they were content to sit back and watch the victors destroy their victory. Says one exhausted survivor when the fighting is over and the politicians take command: "Speeches aren't going to help anything. When your powder's all gone, it's better to keep your mouth shut than to go spouting about the rights of small nations. A dog raises...