Douglas Hoff’s series about Norwegian immigrants in the early 20th century is timeless in its appeal. These coming-of-age, true stories in novel form, while perfect for young adults, are books that older adults can also enjoy immensely. I certainly did.
‘Honoring Anna’
The first book begins with a description of the main characters’ lives in Norway. Anna’s mother died when she was quite young. She dreamed of escaping from a hated stepmother and her estranged father, a tyrant, to America.During a month-long journey on a ship to America, she meets Rasmus Johnson, who was a master carpenter in Norway. He had proposed to his childhood sweetheart, Astrid, telling her that his dream was to start a family in America. At the last minute, though, Astrid told him that she wouldn’t go.
Rasmus and Anna fall in love on the ship. When they land, they plan to take up temporary residence at a boardinghouse in New York City and marry immediately.
But once in New York, just before he is to marry Anna, Rasmus receives an apologetic telegram from Astrid’s family, saying that Astrid is on her way to meet him in New York. Even though Rasmus loves Anna, he has a question of honor to consider.
‘Honoring Anna, Book II: The Winds of Time’
The second book has been described as “‘Little House on the Prairie’ on steroids.” It offers a glimpse of what homesteading was like day to day, at the whims of the weather and the dictates of the land.
In Norway, Iver Olson’s only dream is to become a farmer like his father. Iver can’t inherit his family’s farm because he is not the oldest son. He knows that his dream will never come true in Norway, so he decides to go to America.
Both Iver and Anna wind up in South Dakota, where they meet and marry. Life is difficult. It is a constant struggle in an often hard and unforgiving environment.
Hoff does a wonderful job portraying a bleak existence with the isolation, extreme weather conditions, and constant physical labor. The prairie has unique challenges, which Hoff presents in descriptive language. When Anna finds a heifer attacked by wolves, Hoff wrote: “The merciless wolves had literally eaten the heifer alive, gnawing the meat out of her hindquarters and rectum, leaving her to die an agonizing death.” Anna gets a rifle to put the dying creature out of its misery, while wiping her frozen tears away.
Anna is severely impacted when she visits neighbors and helps them with their sick sheep. She unknowingly contracts brucellosis, a bacterial infection that spreads from animals to people. Later, Anna delivers stillborn twins. She has to store the stillborn children in the granary for the winter for burial in the spring. Although she and Iver previously had three healthy children, Anna is never able to bear children alive again. She blames herself for these deaths. Years later, she discovers that the disease caused the deaths.
An exciting chapter describes Iver’s encounter with wolves in which his wagon is wrecked. The incident could have easily ended in Iver’s death and that of his two small sons. However, the attack leaves Iver in a coma, and Anna must send him on a train bound for Minnesota to a family doctor she knows. Iver takes nearly a year to recover, leaving Anna to care for the children alone.
When Iver finally returns, he and Anna go to a bank to talk about money needs and plans for the next year. There, they learn about the Great Depression. The prairie couple goes home sad about what is happening but thankful that they hadn’t borrowed the money to buy more land. They owe no one.
In 1933, the Dust Bowl begins. Here, Hoff does another superb job describing this phenomenon. He wrote: “Hot, dry winds were whipping through the Dakotas, and they unsympathetically sucked up the fertile farm soil that was meant to be in the fields. The wild, wicked winds ate the topsoil like a hungry beast.”
The years pass and the reader follows Anna and Iver through World War II.
The last book in the series, which the author is completing, will continue where the second ended. The first two works are captivating; I look forward to the next.
Talking With the Author
Linda Wiegenfeld: What did you like best about the books? Douglas Hoff: They perfectly capture the foundations of character this country was built on.America was built on their backs, and they were true American heroes. We must never forget what they went through to make our current lifestyle possible.
When I started uncovering the adventures of her grandmother Anna, the story became so captivating and so completely drew me in that I felt it needed to be memorialized for future generations.
Anna had a story of unyielding faith, love, and honor. But I think that the honor of those immigrants is what most compelled me to do the several years of research and start writing.
