cover image The Finnish Girl

The Finnish Girl

Dennis Frahmann. Loon Town, $16 ISBN 978-0-692-23648-2

Frahmann (Tales from the Loon Town Café) takes inspiration from events in his own family to create this somber tale that begins and ends with the suicide of Lempi Makinen Lahti. The book opens in 1983 Wisconsin, with ninth grader Danny Lahti, her son, returning home from school to find his mother dead. Shocked and lost, Danny looks through papers from the bottom of a hope chest that was passed on to his mother. Each photo, newspaper clipping, and letter offers a glimpse into the lives of Lempi and others from Danny’s family. These documents weave together events such as deaths in the family by trichinosis. Misfortune stalks Lempi’s family, from her adopted mother’s suicide to Lempi’s own culpability in her biological mother’s death. The prose is unfortunately flat, with some very abrupt narrative transitions. But the very specific place, time, and sense of community may appeal to readers, particularly fans of Jerry Apps and other Wisconsin authors. (BookLife)