REVIEWS: 'The Winter War,' by Philip Teir, and 'Hubris,' by Alistair Horne

By Philip Teir, translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally. (Anansi, 298 pages, $16.95.)

Philip Teir's fine novel about the deterioration of a marriage suffers from occasional lapses into cuteness — the opening sentence, for instance: "The first mistake that Max and Katriina made … was to deep-freeze their grandchildren's hamster." This briefly sends the reader in the wrong direction; this is not a wacky novel about the foibles of parenting. It is a tender, funny, utterly convincing story about a brittle, unhappy wife, a fearful-of-aging husband, and their two adult children.

Max is an academic who is uncomfortably aware that he is past his prime. When he is interviewed by a captivating and highly ambitious magazine reporter (a former student of his), he lets flattery and ego get the best of him. His wife is busy and long since detached from him. She is not, however, blind.

The story is set mostly in Helsinki, Finland, with a few chapters set in London, where one of the daughters studies art. Its various points of view give richness to what is at times a chilly narrative. References to the economic and class distinctions between Finland-Swedes (the wife) and the more provincial Osterbotten Finns (the husband) might not resonate with most American readers, but the emotions of the suspicious wife, the lonely ex-pat daughter, and the conflicted husband — those are universal.

LAURIE HERTZEL, senior editor/books

By Alistair Horne. (Harper, 382 pages, $28.99.)

One of Britain's most renowned military historians has written a fascinating book, yet one that ultimately fails to live up to its promise. "Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century" sets out to chronicle the world-changing events shaped by the folly of fallible men at war.

Similarly, the 1939 Battle of Nomonhan in Manchuria (Horne actually suggests it should be considered a small war), foreshadowed the tactics that the Soviets would later use to defeat Hitler's armies outside Moscow, turning the tide of World War II.

Horne describes these and other key battles with a marvelous command of detail, while ably illuminating the larger tableaux of which they're a part. But his choices, for the most part, are unsurprising and don't really cast new light on his grand theory of hubris.

We already know that Hitler ignored his generals' advice and invaded Russia, a colossal blunder. We know the arrogance that led to disaster for the French (and later the United States) in Vietnam. We know the catastrophically bad decisions that led to Japanese destruction by American naval aviators in the Battle of Midway.

Horne's book is well worth reading for the crisply presented history. But as a grand examination of the ancient Greek sin of hubris, it fails to make a new case.

JOHN REINAN, west metro reporter