Review 99: Deep River

Deep River by Karl Marlantes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book read: December 9-23, 2019

This was an epic of a book. A long tome covering only one generation of the Koski family, through decades (1890's-1930's) and with some years closely detailed. It is a linear book, without jumping around in time, which I do enjoy in a book.

The first part of the book covers the family while they lived in Finland, already the eldest child, Ilmari, off in America establishing himself and writing letters home. Aino, the middle child, becomes political, radicalized and determined to change her country to independent (from Russia) and Socialist. When she must move to America her goals do not change much. The youngest, Matti leaves Finland before Aino, though she follows not too long later, after being tortured and her boyfriend killed by the Russian who rule Finland.

When the Koski’s siblings leave Finland separately, all are young teenagers. With Ilmari settled, they other two make their way to him. Despite having a farm and blacksmith shop already running, he can’t afford to feed his reunited siblings, so they too must find work. They all end up deeply into the logging industry.

It is astounding at the young age how much these three do, along with their friends, with working in the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. Askel Langstrom, Matti’s friend also joins the Koski’s after fleeing Finland. He dreams of returning to fishing, while also being a logger. Aino won’t give up her politics, tries to unionize the loggers, and organizes strikes once joined with the International Workers of the World with the goal of One Big Union. As the years roll by they find spouses and love, soon children are born. And there are some that die.

The detail in the book is quite remarkable. The writing is plain and straightforward and there lies the one major downfall of the book. The writing style was a bit flat and sometimes the descriptions were way off from what one may expect. Such as when Aino is an older woman, maybe in her 40s now, and still keeping up with the latest fashion and acting like a school girl, it seemed unlikely given how he never cared what people thought given her politics and personality. And it is with the women that was the weakest depiction, despite one being a main character and viewpoint.

Regardless of the faults I did enjoy this book, and give it a high rating. Perhaps others may be bothered more severely than I with its faults, and given the length of the book be more skeptical.

I read that Marlantes is working on another book, which is continuing the same family, focusing on one adult son of one of the Koski brothers. It may be a while before that book is available given the length of this writer’s books, but I will be willing to continue read the Koski saga.


I will close with quote from Aino, found on page 453: " 'Everyone is equal' is..a myth. It's economic Calvinism. If you're one of the elect, the right parents, the right schools, the right connections, you get into capitalist heaven. The rest are damned at birth."


Final note: I was excited about this book. I did get an advanced review copy from NetGalley. Then at the ALA Annual convention I was so happy when the author was there signing books, so I got that which was still an advance review copy. Well, I meant to read the book right away, but the length was daunting. I was tempted to listen to the audiobook from the library, but again, length. The library where I work bought a hard copy of the book. I checked it out and ended up reading that copy, a hardback book. (wanted to keep my signed copy pristine) It was way too heavy to carry, so I read it at night before sleep until I had a stretch of time during the holidays at home, when I blew through the rest of the book, about two-thirds, in just a few days.