Hannah's Daughters

Rating:
Summary: We cant escape our heritage
Review: Whether one is of Scandianvian ancestry or some other, the influences of mother, grandmother, aunts and fathers is always in the back of our unconscious thought. We not only gather our physical features from genes but our personalities reflect years of absorption of family values, mores, morals and customs. As some reviews stated "The style of writing is Scandinavian", but that too reflects the way Scandinavians act; reserved, not to stand out, not to act better than others. Marianne Fredrickssen helped me see not only the history of life in Sweden when my grandparents were young and before they emigrated to America, but also, upon reflection, some of the family habits and customs on my other French-Dutch side through my mother's family traits. This is a powerful story for readers of any nationality who can feel deeply the emotions, fears and hopes of the characters portrayed. Women in America, in the same time periods, were not any better off, working for small wages, doing all the housework and care of the children under difficult economic and social conditions, and having to hold family life together through the depression. And not to forget men in America were often prone to drinking at the tavern and beating up on wives and children to assuage their frustrations and angers. No wonder there are still so many disfunctional families! I loved the book and have chosen it for my Book Club in March.
Young women today do not realize that they too will be the caretakers of their mothers; in spite of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.. Sons may give financial aid but it is always the daughters who tend the aging mothers, and not guilt free or without angry moments of frustration. Just wait, you too will experience some of what Johanna and Anna experienced.

Rating:
Summary: If you CAN, overlook the feminist politics......
Review: While this book took me a couple of tries before I actually read it, I did enjoy it. The dialect took some time to "get used" to, but the characters of the three women were very interesting. The underlying theme in this book was something that I do not agree with. Marianne Fredriksson is so pro-feminist-left that she takes it upon herself to decide what is worth pursuing for all women, which apparently means that women are free to make many choices as long as they are not choosing to be a full time wife and mother. She devalues this choice as one of self-obliteration. If you leave the feminist politics out of this story it is a very fascinating tale of three generations of a family from the women's perspective. The societal changes and the difficult times involved are key points in this story. The effects of mothers on sons was very dramatic reading. The portion of the story that dealt with Hitler and the Jewish people was well done. Overall I really did enjoy the story of the three women. I thought the extreme feminist political points detracted from the whole book.