The Finnish work lahti has two meanings: slaughter or Lahti, a city in central Finland. In his novel Lahti Arto Salminen tells two stories, in which someone or something gets slaughtered, and which somehow happen in Lahti.
In the longer story, young soldiers are sent to a military exercise in the forests. To their surprise, the Finnish army is fighting a war on pigs, or actually testing the effects of various sub-machine guns on humans using pigs as guinea pigs. In the shorter story, dreams and livelihoods of small scale entrepreneurs are being slaughtered by giant malls and their superior logistics. In the end, the stories mix together, and the ending is not happy.
Salminen write well, shortly, always to the point, with no extra words. The whole novel fits in 160 small pages, but does not feel shorts. The text is packed with meaningful observations on globalization, the art of war, and the central role logistics plays in war and in life in general.
Consider for example Salminen's observation on the role of the Finnish army. He lets on of the characters, colonel Tässinä, tell how the Finnish army would not even try to fight the invaders (Russians). Instead, the army would willingly lose the war, retreat in the forests, and do its best to make the life of occupiers miserable. Central ways would be bombing of public places, both to frustrate the occupiers and to make sure that the Finns would be afraid and against of the occupations. Or, in the other words, turn Finland in another Iraq. Given that the book was written in 2003, this opinion is very far sighted.
The book is worth reading, both for its literary merits and its insights in the art of war.
On the Hornet (F-18) fighters, colonel Tässinä says:Hornets are peacetime toys, decoration for military parades, far too expensive to be destroyed. And the Russians would destroy them without problems. So, we will hide them in the forest.
They are important, though. They give the air force reason for existence. And they send the enemy a message, that since we are ready to waste billions for no reason, we will for sure come up with something insane if war breaks out.
27.01.2007