Fresh off the presses, the latest issue of the New World Finn newspaper has a review of my latest book, Sukulaiset: The Kindred, written by Finnish American, historian, and former director of the Seaway Port Authority, Davis Helberg. You can find the complete review in the October/November issue at p. 11. But here’s a sampling of what Davis thought of the book:
As he did in Suomalaiset, Munger not only provides illuminating historical background, he also brings us into the minds and hearts of the central characters. And that cast of characters is compelling, to say the least…(W)e also get page turning tension as the book’s protagonists endure incredible hardship or tangle with inner demons or fall in (or out of) love or discover their own surprising strengths and weaknesses…Munger, who is not of Finnish ancestry, does a masterful job of capturing the essence of the Finnish character. It is also quite clear that he invested prodigious research into Finnish and Estonian history…
A preeminent contemporary writer, E.L. Doctorow, might just as well have been describing Munger’s latest book when he said, “The historian can tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.”
That’s what I was aiming to do, folks, try to tell you what the turmoil and tension of Karelian Fever and the horrific nightmare of WW II felt like to ordinary Finns and Estonians. At least one person thinks I succeeded.
Peace.
Mark
