Review by Heartstrings Website
Heartstrings
by Inna Larsen
Published in 2002 by Port Town Publishing
American Historical; 1899
ISBN 0-9716239-5-3
Immigrating to America, the fabled land of milk and honey (where new beginnings and new opportunities help to bring new hope to the persecuted and the poor) has born bittersweet fruit for Nils Bjørnsen, a handsome fiddler from Voss, Norway. Working in the stockyards of St. Paul, Minnesota is a bloody, dehumanizing experience, but he had even fewer choices in the old country, so Nils is grateful for the work and the feeble wages.
It would be nice to work in a factory or mill, but his English is not so good and his hours at the stockyards are long, and thus, preclude searching for another job. At any rate, Nils would rather spend his days off seeing the sights of St. Paul than dwelling on the labors of his week -- or the past six months, for that matter.
A chance meeting on a street corner will introduce Nils to Anna Katz, a Jewish immigrant who fled from Russia eight years ago with her family to escape the Cossacks. Her vivid green eyes sparkle with intelligence and passion for her cause: Anna is a seamstress at a local garment factory trying to convince her fellow workers to join a union and demand better wages, working conditions and health benefits.
Sensing a kindred spirit in Nils, Anna invites the handsome "Norskie" to a union meeting, and allows him to walk her home afterwards. Nils is everything Anna has been looking for in a man -- hard working, intelligent, and possessing a musical talent similar to that of her father's -- but her strict Jewish upbringing, and her mother's vehemence, will threaten their blooming relationship.
Religion and the ties of one's community can be divisive forces, after all, pressuring one to act in a certain way, a respectable way, an acceptable way...and to sever all connections with one's heart's desire.
Inna Larsen's prose is tuned to a perfect pitch in this heartfelt, genuinely moving novel. Heartstrings will play with a reader's emotions -- a deft pluck here, a sprightly trill there -- until a beautiful, two-part harmony is achieved, and a reader is vibrating pleasantly like a finely played instrument. Ms. Larsen's plotline is one near and dear to her heart, I think. It celebrates the adaptability and perseverance of immigrants the world over, and has a buoyant, joyous soul.
Nils and Anna are characters that inspire a reader's respect and admiration, so full of life and vitality, they fairly leap from the pages. Convictions will be tested, loyalties strained, and deception will defy the veracity of truth, but amidst the controversy and turmoil surrounding Nils and Anna's courtship will also stir the best qualities of humanity: faith, hope and love. Although the difficulties they face are unexpectedly harsh, they never topple beneath the strain, never give an inch, and never lose hope. The world at large may disapprove of their relationship, but Nils and Anna are willing to fight such disapproval and bigotry with their dying breaths. (The soothing properties of Nils' hardingfele helps to alleviate the couple's rising tensions by providing an almost magical escape into music).
Heartstrings is a novel that's both hard-hitting and tenderly romantic: Ms. Larsen's characterizations lend a poignancy and a humaneness to the storyline not often seen in genre fiction, whereas Nils and Anna's love for each other manifests itself as quietly and unobtrusively as the dawn. Such delightful, dazzling contrasts are the stuff readers' dreams are made of!
Reviewed by C.L. Jeffries
Date Posted: October 8, 2002
by Inna Larsen
Published in 2002 by Port Town Publishing
American Historical; 1899
ISBN 0-9716239-5-3
Immigrating to America, the fabled land of milk and honey (where new beginnings and new opportunities help to bring new hope to the persecuted and the poor) has born bittersweet fruit for Nils Bjørnsen, a handsome fiddler from Voss, Norway. Working in the stockyards of St. Paul, Minnesota is a bloody, dehumanizing experience, but he had even fewer choices in the old country, so Nils is grateful for the work and the feeble wages.
It would be nice to work in a factory or mill, but his English is not so good and his hours at the stockyards are long, and thus, preclude searching for another job. At any rate, Nils would rather spend his days off seeing the sights of St. Paul than dwelling on the labors of his week -- or the past six months, for that matter.
A chance meeting on a street corner will introduce Nils to Anna Katz, a Jewish immigrant who fled from Russia eight years ago with her family to escape the Cossacks. Her vivid green eyes sparkle with intelligence and passion for her cause: Anna is a seamstress at a local garment factory trying to convince her fellow workers to join a union and demand better wages, working conditions and health benefits.
Sensing a kindred spirit in Nils, Anna invites the handsome "Norskie" to a union meeting, and allows him to walk her home afterwards. Nils is everything Anna has been looking for in a man -- hard working, intelligent, and possessing a musical talent similar to that of her father's -- but her strict Jewish upbringing, and her mother's vehemence, will threaten their blooming relationship.
Religion and the ties of one's community can be divisive forces, after all, pressuring one to act in a certain way, a respectable way, an acceptable way...and to sever all connections with one's heart's desire.
Inna Larsen's prose is tuned to a perfect pitch in this heartfelt, genuinely moving novel. Heartstrings will play with a reader's emotions -- a deft pluck here, a sprightly trill there -- until a beautiful, two-part harmony is achieved, and a reader is vibrating pleasantly like a finely played instrument. Ms. Larsen's plotline is one near and dear to her heart, I think. It celebrates the adaptability and perseverance of immigrants the world over, and has a buoyant, joyous soul.
Nils and Anna are characters that inspire a reader's respect and admiration, so full of life and vitality, they fairly leap from the pages. Convictions will be tested, loyalties strained, and deception will defy the veracity of truth, but amidst the controversy and turmoil surrounding Nils and Anna's courtship will also stir the best qualities of humanity: faith, hope and love. Although the difficulties they face are unexpectedly harsh, they never topple beneath the strain, never give an inch, and never lose hope. The world at large may disapprove of their relationship, but Nils and Anna are willing to fight such disapproval and bigotry with their dying breaths. (The soothing properties of Nils' hardingfele helps to alleviate the couple's rising tensions by providing an almost magical escape into music).
Heartstrings is a novel that's both hard-hitting and tenderly romantic: Ms. Larsen's characterizations lend a poignancy and a humaneness to the storyline not often seen in genre fiction, whereas Nils and Anna's love for each other manifests itself as quietly and unobtrusively as the dawn. Such delightful, dazzling contrasts are the stuff readers' dreams are made of!
Reviewed by C.L. Jeffries
Date Posted: October 8, 2002