Finland managed to fight two wars with the Soviet Union during the 20th century; once it was attacked, and in the second, it was the attacker, an ally of Nazi Germany. There was never any doubt that Finland could win either war; the best Finland could do was to ride on the coattails of a Germany victory. In fact, the Finnish offensive action during the second war was limited and basically was aimed at regaining the territory lost during the first war.
This novel does not tell any grand tale of strategy. It does not paint the Finnish soldier as a “deep woods warrior” which was a popular propaganda phrase of the time. It does tell the story of a group of mostly young men, mostly farmers, who are drafted to fight in a war that none of they understand. It is a tale of boredom and terror, or cowardice and bravery as charters are introduced and are killed off in a very realistic, off handed manner. The men complain about the food or about their officers, they complain about their lack of proper weapons and they miss their homes. In short, it is an excellent novel of men in war, especially a small section of a small war in a far away corner of the world.
The author fought in what was called the “Continuation War” from 1941-45 and was a squad leader. The vision of his characters is that men at the squad level; they know nothing of the strategy of the war and are more concerned with getting a hot meal or with being upset when they are marched and counter marched, seemingly going around in circles. Some are brave, most simply want to stay alive while a few fight with a purpose, to defend their new homes that they had to build with their own hands after losing their old homes in the prior war.
Getting use to the Finnish names may slow the reader down at first but the novel moves well and there were no excess passages to dull the reading. Recently back in print, it reflects a nostalgia that was popular when it was first published just ten years after the events in the book.
