Unknown Soldiers (Penguin Press Translated Texts) by V??in?? Linna (2016-04-28) Paperback

Where to start? How about with a simple I LOVED THIS BOOK! Beause I did. I'm always looking for good war lit, and Vaino Linna's UNKNOWN SOLDIERS is better that good. It is classic. Looking it up, I find that it is still one of Finland's most popular books, and it's been in print there since 1954. My copy is a Penguin Modern Classics edition, English translation (2015) by Lisa Yamaguchi, who did a bang-up job of presenting Linna's story in an accessible, eminently readable style, certainly not an easy task, with all of its slang and various Finnish dialects.The story covers three years in a Finnish Army machine gun company, from its haphazard training cycle, following the three-month "Winter War," through its long slog in a full-fledged war with Russia, on the eastern front in the early years of WWII. (Yes, the Finns were on the side of Germany, something I re-learned several years ago when I read Henrik Tikkanen's memoir, A WINTER'S DAY.) There are more than a dozen well-defined central character's in Linna's story. If there is a 'hero,' it would probably be Lt Koskela, a pragmatic platoon leader of few words who leads by example, and earns the respect of his men. ("But above all, the men felt he was one of their own because he was just like any one of them.") And there is Rokka, an older (30), clownish private who has no patience for officers, military regs or discipline, but is an efficient and cool-headed killer in combat. Rokka reminded me somewhat of CATCH-22's Yossarian. Indeed there are numerous points of comparison between the two books. Linna's martinet-like Lt Lammio, for example, comes off almost as ridiculous as Heller's Lt Sheiskopf. And yes, there is plenty of military-style humor here, although as the war drags on and the Finns, starving and ill-equipped, are finally forced into full-scale retreat mode, the story gets darker and darker and descends into horror-filled, hellish scenes. Linna himself, I discovered, was profoundly moved by Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, and that influence too is obvious here, although UNKNOWN SOLDIERS is, nevertheless, an animal all its own.The names here, with so many major characters, are sometimes a problem - Koskela, Rokka, Heitanen, Rahikeinen, Kariluoto, Karjula, Maata, Honkajoki and more, most of them with mysterious diacritical marks. It was difficult keeping them all straight, but then Finns might have problems with American names too.Once again, I did love reading this book, was completely caught up in the lives of these men. I understand perfectly why UNKNOWN SOLDIERS is still, more that sixty years later, one of Finland's most read, and most popular, books. This is war literature at its finest. My very highest recommendation.- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA

Great book about tough brave men at war!

I bought this book to read, prior to watching the new movie version, which just came out. I have no ability to judge the quality of the translation from Finnish, but it seems to be well-written, with only a small number of odd turns of phrase.The book follows a contingent of soldiers as they man their machine guns in defense of the Finnish border against the Russians. The main characters are quite well-developed and I felt like I 'knew' them, their backgrounds, their motivations, and their feelings about being in the war. It is not much of a spoiler to reveal that some of them don't make it back, and I felt genuinely sad because they were so well-described by the author. Finally, the Finns had to deal with complex politics during that time; the Russians were their enemy, already having taken some of their land during the previous Winter War, so they were uneasy allies with the Germans, who obviously had questionable motives toward Finland.A fine addition to the, "War is Hell" genre.

Fascinating narrative. I read the book after watching the movie and really enjoyed the details and parts not represented in the film. I can understand how the war left an imprint for generations and lost count of the characters who died by the middle of the book (with seemingly few replacements). The deprivations of war will be foreign to those who are used to ample everything (think American logistics) and they only increased as the war went on.As a social commentary, I was surprised by the blattant misogyny whenever the Lottes were mentioned. I can understand the anti-elite position and perhaps the former is an extension of the latter. There are fewer references in the film but they are present.

I really enjoyed reading the new translation of Unknown Soldiers. Being a WWII buff and a veteran. I noticed how realistic the characters, battles and places in the book are. I plan to order the first translation to see the difference. I highly recommend this book.

I have inherited this book in Finnish from my dad, who had fought in the Continuation War. My ability to read Finnish is very weak, so I purchased this English translation of it. As I understand Finnish, it took a while to get into the contrived accents. It worked at a certain level, especially with Rokka, perhaps not so much with the lisping Lt. Col. I think not rolling your rrr's would give a different sense than lisping. However, I think the accents were represented as well as they could. Overall, I enjoyed the book and the characters in it. I may give the Finnish version a stab now that I've read this.

This is probably the most realistic, gruesome account of warfare I've read of. And so sad. The novel takes place in the Finnish Continuation War where the Finns have a tenuous alliance with Germany against the Soviet Union in order to win back territory lost to the Soviet Union in the Winter War. Some of the characters seemed a bit more like "charactures" as from Dickens. I enjoyed reading something different from a relatively unknown part of history.

One of the best "war" novels I have ever read . . . particularly from the grunts' point of view. I just wish I could get hold of the author's other novels without spending an arm and a leg.

On time and as described

Es Verdad

Finnish literature (and indeed cinema, unless you like Leningrad Cowboys!) is little known in the UK, no doubt partly because Finland seems to be a different world (a daunting-looking language and daunting-looking weather, to start with) to most Brits."Unknown Soldiers" will not necessarily wholly bridge that gap, but is a very readable novel of fighting men (a mixture of characters) caught up in the little-known war of Finland against the USSR in 1941-44. There are universal types that I'm sure most will recognise (I suspect especially if they've been in the services themselves). Like many war novels, there is a mixture of comedy, tragedy and farce, without either laying it on too thick or making the whole thing seem like a parody. The author's writing style is easy enough to understand without being facile or corny, and I suspect that the translator has done an equally good job here (some translations of war literature, even histories, can leave a bit to be desired, from my own reading).My only caveat would be that it would help the reader to have at least a superficial acquaintance with the history behind the conflict presented here, including why Finland ended up allied with Hitler's Germany but also why Finland struggled with such things as Russian tanks and a shortage of manpower.

Libro interessante di un Autore sentito citare per caso, che descrive una guerra dimenticata tra Finlandia e URSS.A livello di Eric Maria Remarque

the translation does not reflect the profoundness of the languages, the culture and the sadness of this unnecessary war. sounds too much like us micky mouse