[Mirabell]

I have a shortish essay in the making but I'll say this, it is similar in topic to "The Guest", but the treatment is different. It is remarkably uninterested in the atrocities and barbary brought about by the civil war, although it does mention them quite a lot. I would say the fact that Jussi/Juha is the focus of the story, a deeply apolitical man, who joins the Reds in his old age and is shot by the reaction after the Reds retreated (this is said in the firs pages of the book, so I am not spoiling the end for you) shows how a people can get involved in this. I can well see how the Reds felt belittled, because Jussa/JUha is not yr typical revolutionary. He is a brute, with a rough understanding of power who, almost instinctively, seized the opportunity to be part of something big, something that will harm those who have lorded it over him for most of his life.