Deep River

by Karl Marlantes

Lemminki Matti, not fully aware of what was happening, retained a vague uneasiness about the future. As he grew older, he realized the wealthy feared the future less than the poor. How wealth was attained was less important than gaining it.

I quit reading this book about 1/3 if the way through as it was too depressing., thus the low rating.

He’d named all his children after heroes and heroines of The Kalevala, the national epic poem of Finland.

“Living in fear is not living.” “Neither is living without a husband.” “When a woman is humiliated, it doesn’t make her less a woman. When a man is humiliated, there are only two choices for him, fight or live in shame.

“We hire teachers to teach what we want our children to learn, not what the teachers want them to learn.”

The majestic westward-flowing river went without a name for millions of years, but for nearly four thousand years she was called Wimah, Big River, by the first immigrants to her shores. Since 113 years before Aino’s arrival, she has been called the Columbia.

How could God be so cruel? But he had sent Jesus to save him, so he wasn’t cruel. He was just. He decided to stop thinking, because no one should question God.

Fools fight each other. Men fight the common enemy.”

It amazed Aino that the loggers not only ignored the danger but seemed proud to ignore it, relying on their skill and stamina to win a daily wager against death or maiming—all for about twenty cents an hour. But men did what was expected of them or they weren’t men. It was that simple.