Down From Basswood

by Lynn Maria Laitala

Down from Basswood is a collection of 23 interconnected short stories in the form of portraits about people of northern Minnesota, particularly Finnish immigrants and their interaction with natives.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0968905447
• ISBN13: 9780968905449
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Aspasia Books
• Length: 211 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Down from Basswood

Well written book and worth reading. Misleading cover page. This is not just short stories. These are the stories of individuals and these peoples lives connect.

Aspasia Books Blurb for this collection of stories

Down from Basswood presents 27 authentic human tales from the Northern Minnesota lake district involving native Americans, Finnish immigrants, and other pioneers. Laitala is a master at telling gripping life-stories. "The stories in Lynn Maria Laitala's Down from Basswood spring forth from a profound understanding of the Finnish immigrant and the Native American and the values and experiences they share in the northern regions of Minnesota. She cuts to the depth of her characters' souls, offers truths, and serves the reader up intense, yet delightfully human, insights". - Börje Vähämäki, Editor, Journal of Finnish Studies " Every culture has its storytellers. Among those are a few who have the ear, the background, and the ability to absorb the particular dialogue of that culture, and even rarer, the skill to transfer that dialogue to paper for others to read. Such an author is Lynn Maria Laitala, who has chronicled the fascinating lives of those incredibly rugged north country folk among whom she was raised and whom she brings to life with sparkling insight, love and humor. It is a book all northlanders should read -- indeed must read. And it is a book that makes a fine gift to outsiders who might wish to better understand the unique mix of immigrant and Native American which forged the culture of the northern frontier". - Bob Cary, Editor, Ely Echo DOWN FROM BASSWOOD AUTHOR PRESERVES NORTH WOODS STORIES Lynn Laitala, an award winning author and historian from Bennett, Wisconsin, was recently interviewed in the Duluth News Tribune, about her remarkable historical fiction short story collection, Down from Basswood, published by Aspasia Books. Lynn Laitala is well known to North American Finnish audiences as the former editor of the Finnish American Reporter and the New World Finn, and for her many published short stories. Down from Basswood is a masterly rendition of the Finnish American experience in northern Minnesota. The following is an abridged version of the interview published in the Duluth News Tribune, on March 17, 2002. History: "My father worked for Central Co-operative Wholesale in Superior when I was born. Our family home was in Winton, just north of Ely. I spent my first six years between Winton and Superior. Then my father got a job in Minneapolis, and I moved back and forth between the different worlds of the friendly north and the not-so-friendly city. "I attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I left with a Masters degree in history and returned to Ely, where I worked for the Minnesota Historical Society doing oral interviews. That was my re-education into the history of the north. The stories people told me did not fit easily into the historical theories I had learned in college. Also, they usually told the best stories when the tape recorder was shut off. I started to write fiction in an effort to preserve a glimpse of the world in border country as it was for Finnish immigrants, Indians and their desc

beauty and vision

Every once in a while you read a book that touches you deeply, informs your ideas about the world, makes you more sensitive and thoughtful, and becomes part of the fundamental lens through which you look at the world. Down From Basswood is exactly this type of book. You can't shake this book - it becomes a second skin.

wonderful, haunting story

Ths story is truer than the non-fiction histories one finds. The Finnish immigrants and the Native American Indians of this part of Northern Minnesota are presented in an unforgettable way. A lovely book, a gem. Something to own, so you can reread it, which you will want to do.

Opened my eyes...

I loved this book! It's a beautifully written series of stories that definitely have the ring of truth. More importantly, these stories gave me a better understanding of the people of the northern Minnesota area, and what it was like to live a life here.