The Emigrants

by Johan Bojer

Book Overview

Bojer's novel of Norwegian emigration in the 1880s tells of young villagers who leave the Old World to seek a better life. Their trek takes them to homesteads in North Dakota, where they find that breaking the sod and surviving blizzards are easier than feeling at home in this new land.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087351260X
• ISBN13: 9780873512602
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
• Length: 365 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

The land of milk and porridge

It is often said that America is composed of a vast mosaic of cultures. This pattern is confirmed when we look to the significant number of Scandinavians who made their homes along the endless plains of our upper Midwest. Johan Bojer provides us with a microcosm for this epoch. In the 1880's a band of Norwegians, mostly poor and disenfranchised in their homeland, emigrate to the Red River region of the Dakotas with high hopes of lassoing the American dream. Yet the harsh reality of the new land soon squelches any sense of euphoria. During their first year as homesteaders, thoughts frequently yearned back to Norway's resplendent mountains, azure-blue fjords, and quaint rustic villages in the face of a monotonous, alien nothingness. What they would do just to have a few morsels of herring or cod. But now only a never ending diet of milk and porridge..yuch! If wild wolves or coyotes were not eyeing their emaciated livestock, wildfires scorched the land of its plant life. The extreme elements were worst of all. Contemplate the endless winter months spent in barren homes built of sod and heated by burning dried animal dung. To think, even the organizer of the expedition succumbed to exposure while searching for his wayward livestock during a devastating blizzard. Nevertheless, in the years ahead the settlers, for the most part, acclimate and prosper in their new environment. And, believe it or not, in one generation alone the primitive colony is transformed into a burgeoning town with a church, retail stores and links by rail and roads to the the rest of America--a sharp contrast to the 'Old World' where everything seemed to evolve at a snail's pace. I think this novel provided an important link in understanding the Norwegian contribution to the American cultural experience. Yet I don't think Mr. Bojer did as effective a job in bringing alive the characters and setting that he had done in a number of his other novels. First, I felt Bojer was a little too sketchy in describing the nuances of the Midwest. He left me with the feeling that his somewhat stereotypical discriptions of the animal life and environment was derived from book-learning rather than through actual experience. Also, I felt that he could have done a better job at the beginning of the book in providing a more thorough description of the backgrounds and natures of the multiple characters. I found myself always referring to the editor's synopsis on the back cover of the book to find out how each character fit into the mix. For further information about Johan Bojer see: 'Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature' (Second Edition) pg. 99

Powerful story of Norwegian emigrants

Johan Bojer was a Norwegian novelist who came to America briefly a few years before writing this book to gather information about the immigrant experience, especially of the Norwegians who had settled on the northern Plains. The resulting novel is a classic account, full of life and tragedy, and hope for the future. Erik Foss, after living in America, returns to Norway to convince a group of farmers of the advantages of living in America. Poor and disadvantaged, the group sails off anyway and settles in the Red River Valley. The hardships they face are dramatically told - the droughts, sick cattle, crop failures. Foss gets lost in a blizzard searching for lost cattle; his feet become frostbitten and he dies. Another character is blinded when an oil lamp explodes. A third is a drunkard and gambler. But many are able to go beyond the adversity and prosper: wheat is soon growing from horizon to horizon, they begin to earn money for their labors, one goes off to school in St. Louis and returns a minister. They become Americans, though they keep alive their old Norwegian customs. Powerfully written, the book is profoundly emotional and moving. A classic of its kind.

Fascinating Presentation

A look at the life of early american pioneers through the eyes of emigrants from another country. After reading so many books on American Pioneers, I found it interesting to read about the reasons someone from another country would want to come to this one and eak out an existence on the bleak ,completely different new frontier.