Red Moon over White Sea by Laila Hietamies (1992 (English Translation: 2000). Aspasia Books. ISBN 0-9685881-4-x)
My pal Gerry Henkel, editor of The New World Finn, handed me a copy of this novel a few months back when we were talking about Sukulaiset: The Kindred, my latest work in progress. Set in Karelia, the U.S., Estonia, and Finland, Sukalaiset is a massive undertaking; my attempt to chronicle the events in Finland-Karelia-Estonia from 1918 to the present through fiction. Because Red Moon takes place in Viena, a Finnish speaking enclave of Russian Karelia just before the fall of Czar Nicholas II, Gerry thought it would give me some insight into the region, its people, and its history. He was right. But more than that, Red Moon is a whale of a good yarn as well.
Well-written, with believable characters and dialogue, the real beauty of Ms. Hietamie’s prose is the landscape. It has been said by others that one of the hallmarks of my own writing is my ability to call upon various settings as if the forests, lakes, farms, and rivers are characters in my tales. As the writer being referenced, I don’t have sufficient distance from my own work to comment upon that observation. But I can heap similar praise upon Red Moon: I felt as if I was riding, walking, and rowing the paths, roads, and lakes of early 20th century Karelia as the story of Anna Lisa Huotari and her grandfather, Ilja, unfolds and as they negotiate the dangerous politics and intrigue of pre-Soviet Karelia. The plot has a predictability to it but, given the quality of the overall story and Hietamie’s prose, that is but a minor distraction in this very fine read.
4 stars out of 5.
