![]() ![]() ![]() As well as Aino’s story, this is a chronicle of the “Wobblies”, the Industrial Workers of the World union, in a period when conflict between workers and the status quo in the US was violent and naked. The novel is a stalwart refresher on how tough life must have been when to post two letters on union business cost more than a week’s wages. There is also Askel, a childhood friend and fisherman who has a long, complex relationship with Aino. ![]() The themes of idealism, materialism and God, guiding forces of America itself, are personified in this one family. Aino’s brother Matti is a tough, aspiring businessman who embraces the Darwinian crudity of American capitalism their brother Ilmari builds a church and also explores the lore and spirituality of Native Americans. We witness the traumas of Aino as a sort of proto-Rosa Luxemburg, who with her brothers escaped tsarist persecution and deadly poverty in Finland for America. Inspired by Marlantes’s own family ancestry, Deep River is a massive American saga, a historical epic of documentary detail spread across the early 20th century – and 700 pages. ![]()
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