Out of all the books I have read in this challenge, Giants in the Earth is perhaps the most honest story of a group of Americans. It follows a Norwegian family's struggle to make a life for themselves in the Dakota Territories in the late 1800s. There are no great over-arching plots or exciting interludes with bandits, illness, or Native Americans. It is a simple, harsh look at a family who has immigrated from their home in Norway to what they hope to be a new and improved life in America. This is not a book of American idealism or conquerors, but one of realistic struggles that many immigrants and westward expansion sojourners faced. Is the land before them the best, or does better lie over the next hill? Are the wagons in the distance friend or foe? Can I rely on my neighbors when help is needed? How does one balance audaciously breaking ground and buying provisions with the risk that a dry season or locusts could strike and lose it all? There is a simplistic beauty in the harshness of the setting and the plain honesty of these Norwegian-Americans.What is even more the author, Ole Edvart Rolvaag, is himself a Norwegian immigrant who settled with his uncle in South Dakota in the late 1800s, so it is possible some of the stories in Giants in the Earth are autobiographical. Originally written in Norwegian, this novel was painstakingly translated with Rolvaag's close assistance in order to convey the meanings and intention of each word. In this way, this book is unique - written by a European-born author in a European style, but with a distinctly American setting.
The decision on whether this is a great American novel is difficult because I had not heard of the book until my Dad spoke fondly of reading it, and I feel like a great American novel should be somewhat well-known. But maybe that is faulty thinking. This is a wonderful novel. It is not a book that I became enveloped in, but I was drawn in by the lack of wild adventures. Its beauty lay in its tight focus on the beauty of writing down the struggles of a common man. I do not believe Rolvaag meant this as a way of social commentary, but that does not mean it cannot be. It is refreshing to know that a complex journey with a family in a key moment in America's history can be so misleadingly simply written.
Great American Novel Challenge Booklist:
July 2009: Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner, publ. 1936
August 2009: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry, publ. 1985
September 2009: Moby Dick - Herman Melville, publ. 1851
October 2009: For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway, publ. 1940
November 2009: Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston, publ. 1937
December 2009: The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath, publ. 1963
January 2010: Rabbit, Run - John Updike, publ. 1960
February 2010: East of Eden - John Steinbeck, publ. 1952
March 2010: the Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton, publ. 1920
3 comments:
Interesting choice this month. I have to admit that I haven't heard of it before you mentioned it. It does make you wonder how much notoriety plays a role in what novels we collectively consider 'great.'
Where does the title come from?
The title comes from Genesis 6:4 (KJV), which states in part, "There were giants in the earth in those days..."
Sorry, I forgot to add the biblical reference in my post.
And this book does bring up the question of notoriety. How many great books in recent years have been largely unheard of due to the likes of Harry Potter, James Patterson and vampire books?
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