Banal seriousness

I had never before read any books from Marja-Leena Tiainen and I can promise that there will not be any others. I have better use for my time.
   The book which I read was 'Kahden maailman tyttö' (direct translation would be 'Girl of two worlds'). It tells about, 17 years old Tara, who is an immigrant. She would like to live like normal Finnish girl, but her brother and father have their own plans. In the end Tara has to run away to a shelter.

The novel handles interesting, important and serious issues, like honor violence, but it don't make justice for them. It keeps a processing of those things in the level of newspaper writing. Characters do and think things, but it haven't any kind of affect to the reader.
   The most irritating character is Tara. She's a stereotype of young girl: she is quite good at school, like languages and fashion, dreams about eternal love and looks gorgeous without known it. She also seems to be little indolence: she just wander through the happenings and she only emotion seems to be horror mixed with agony.
Language is almost as horrific as the main character: because it is a book for youngsters, the writer tries to use youthful language, with awful consequences. There is some 'youthfull' expressions in the text, like 'galtsu' (abbreviation from IRC-gallery). Youngsters really don't use this kind of language.
   The novel try to be a serious story about serious subject, but end up to be banal and ridiculous. There's many better ways to spend your time. For example staring a fly on ceiling.



Mark: 4

Ordinary war

A famous cover of "The Unknown Soldier"

VäinöLinna's “The Unknown Soldier” is a Finnish classic. Many quotes from those soldiers have become common phrases in Finnish and our national broadcasting network, YLE, shows every Independent Day a same film, Edvin Laine's black-and-white version about the novel. 

Once “The Unknown Soldier” raised a furor: it was something new and provocative. It bring up many taboos of Finnish culture. Their part of the jeering get Russians, officers and members of the women's auxilitiry service as well as patriotic fervor and the war itself.

“The Unknown Soldier” follows the story of a machine gun company's third platoon. The storyline follows a course of Finnish Continuation War against Russia 1941-1944. Story and characters based on mainly real happenings, war stories and people. Platoon reminds much Linna's own platoon, where he served in Continuation War.

Characters are a colourful punch of people: there is a ladies' man, a coward, a psychopath, a miser, a communist, a bully... “The Unknown Soldier” isn't a portrait about Continuation War, primarily it is a portrait about ordinary people in war. All characters are human: they make mistakes and some questionable things, but they're also loyal and encouraging for one another. They rebel against officers, grumble about almost everything, swear, drink etc.

Rahikainen, Lehto ja Määttä in Edvin Laine's fi

“The Unknown Soldier” is a powerful and impressive tale. Despite of its topic and historical aspect, it has definitely something to give for a modern reader. It's not groundlessly maybe the most important Finnish novel. Different dialects make the novel first hard to read, but soon you use to them and they help you to identify characters. I can warmly recommend it to everyone.

Mark: 9+

In my bookshelf right now

Now when I have again time to read I have visited in library:

• Anu Holopainen's newest "Varjoja" (Shadows). It's sequel to her feminist fantasy series "Autumnland". It's, like all Holopainen's books, available only in Finnish.
• Marja-Leena Tiainen's "Kahden maailman tyttö" (Girl of two world). It tells about Tara, 17 year-old immigrantgirl, how have to run away to a reformatory. This book is available only in Finnish, but some of her other novels are traslated to Swedish, Danish, Estonian and Lithuanian.
• First part of the Väinö Linna's trilogy "Under the North Star". This important Finnish trilogy follows the life of a cotter family. It has translated to Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Russian, Estonian, French, Czech, Turkish, Croatian, Polish, Bulgarian, Chinese and English.
• Goethe's "Faust". A tragic play about Faust and Mephistopheles (the Devil). Translated to many different languages.
• George Orwell's novella "Animal Farm", where animals of the farm make a revolution. Traslated numerous languages.