Reception
The novel received mixed reviews. Conservative critics, most notably Toini Havu in Helsingin Sanomat, condemned it for adopting a purposely low vantage-point and ignoring the bigger picture. Linna was accused of making an unnecessary spectacle of dragging the country's patriotic ideals through the mud, and indeed his purpose had been to take such idealism down a peg. Other critics recognised Linna's achievement, however, and the public immediately took The Unknown Soldier as their own. It remains one of the best-selling books of all time in Finland. It is claimed that the book is a tribute to the Finnish men in World War II: anti-war without being defeatist.
Read more about this topic: The Unknown Soldier (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)