Review by Choice Review
A posthumous translation into English of a series of articles written by the eminent Swedish novelist, Vilhelm Moberg, in the 1950s and 1960s after he spent extended periods of time in this country. These articles are an interesting addition to the historical immigration novels he produced earlier, which evoked great popular interest here as they did also in Sweden. But these observations and judgments are neither literature nor history. They are, rather, a travel account punctuated with highly personal interpretations of the nature of Swedes in America as well as the American society in general as both had evolved by the mid-20th century. Written from the perspective of a socially radical Swede who saw much to praise and about as much to damn in the modern US, they provide a refreshing look at this country by a sensitive, articulate "outsider." The translation is excellent, as is the translator's extended introduction, which sets the work in historical perspective and traces the course of Moberg's growing disenchantment with both the nature of American values in general and those that his immigrated countrymen came to manifest here. Recommended especially for academic and public libraries with an interested Scandinavian-American clientele. -K. Smemo, Moorhead State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review