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A review by marciapoore
Unto a Good Land by Vilhelm Moberg, Gustaf Lannestock
5.0
I have a goal to read all the books in this tetralogy, which is about Swedish emigrants that come to North America and settle in the Minnesota Territory. The first book deals with Karl Oskar Nilsson and his wife Kristina in Sweden and the difficult life they led there, which ultimately caused them to emigrate, along with 11 others. The second book starts with their arrival in New York in July 1850 and ends with the one-year anniversary of their departure from Sweden, April 14, 1851. The first book was slow reading, and I found that the second book dragged a bit at the beginning. However, once the Swedish emigrants arrived in Stillwater, Minnesota and began settling near Taylors Falls in the Minnesota Territory, I couldn't put it down. I find books about pioneers fascinating, and I marvel at how these people survived and thrived despite all the hardships they endured.
Six of my great-grandparents emigrated from Sweden (the other two from England), and, although they didn't seek land in an unsettled region of the Midwest but rather settled in Chicago, I still imagine that they had similar struggles. One of the struggles was finding contentment in their new home and not longing for their homeland. Kristina struggled with this more than the others, and one poignant moment in the last chapter is when she finally is able to confide her longing for Sweden to her husband. Karl Oskar admits that he, too, has had that longing come over him, but when he felt that way, he would tell himself, "One day our children will thank us for emigrating to America." He goes on to say that "she [Kristina] must think ahead, of their children, and their children's children in time, of all the generations after them. All the ones who came after would feel and think and say that she had done right when she moved from Sweden to North America." I am sure my great-grandparents felt that longing, and I would like to say to them that I am thankful that they emigrated. We now have five generations born in the USA and are grateful for the life we have here. But we still remember our Swedish ancestors and keep alive their memories in traditions handed down through the generations.
Six of my great-grandparents emigrated from Sweden (the other two from England), and, although they didn't seek land in an unsettled region of the Midwest but rather settled in Chicago, I still imagine that they had similar struggles. One of the struggles was finding contentment in their new home and not longing for their homeland. Kristina struggled with this more than the others, and one poignant moment in the last chapter is when she finally is able to confide her longing for Sweden to her husband. Karl Oskar admits that he, too, has had that longing come over him, but when he felt that way, he would tell himself, "One day our children will thank us for emigrating to America." He goes on to say that "she [Kristina] must think ahead, of their children, and their children's children in time, of all the generations after them. All the ones who came after would feel and think and say that she had done right when she moved from Sweden to North America." I am sure my great-grandparents felt that longing, and I would like to say to them that I am thankful that they emigrated. We now have five generations born in the USA and are grateful for the life we have here. But we still remember our Swedish ancestors and keep alive their memories in traditions handed down through the generations.