We Sinners (edition 2012)

In this portrait-in-the-round of the religious Rovaniemi family - mother, father, and nine children - each section focuses on a different child, though not every child gets a chapter (it's a slender book). The publisher's blurb in an accurate summary:

"A normal family in many ways, the Rovaniemis struggle with sibling rivalry, parental expectations, and forming their own unique identities in such a large family. But when two of the children venture from the faith, the family fragments and a haunting question emerges: Do we believe for ourselves, or for each other? ...The children who reject the church learn that freedom comes at the almost unbearable price of their close family ties, and those who stay struggle daily with the challenges of resisting the temptations of modern culture."

Quotes:

It was funny how kids were like that, how they drew different amounts of your attention. You cared for them equally, but you didn't show the care equally. You couldn't - you only moved your attention from one crisis to the next. (35)

...being in a family of eleven made her want to cry...the way that responsibility divided by eleven meant no one was really responsible. (39)

...but he was as good as his father at winning by waiting. (52)

...always she would carry the burden...the shame of having birthed something that could not be happy in this world... (63)

"Listen, you have a family who loves you. Family is all that matters. I've lived in three countries and eighteen cities and I've got a collection of golf pencils to prove it and let me tell you, it's never the place, it's the people." (106-107)

What was that like, she wondered, to know you were wanted, not because of everything you did, not because of everything you gave? (108)

It was a game in which the rules were never expressed and yet were very clear to all the players. (122)

"Never say never," Julia said, because it seemed kind, but she thought, never. It was not the kind of thing you could go back on, she reflected. Now that she had seen the world, now that she had been in it - she could not go back. (129)

"What happened?"
"Nothing happened. I don't believe anymore."
"Why not? Why can't you?"
"I don't know." She didn't know how to say, I don't want to.
...
"I don't want you holding my baby anymore," Brita said softly.
...
"It doesn't work like that-"
"It does work like that. There are sides, Julia." (131)

"You can't expect people to change if you never ask them to." (134)

We Sinners is a collection of stories about the Finnish-American Rovaniemi family, located in the upper Midwest, mostly Michigan. The family of 11, 2 parents and 9 children, are members of the Laestadian Church, a conservative fundamentalist faith. In fact Warren, the father, becomes the minister of their congregation in the first chapter of the book.

After the first chapter, which deals mostly with the parents, their beliefs and parenting style (though style is too flattering a word), each following chapter deals with the various children in a coming of age format. Each child struggles with the social limitations and constrained behavior required of them by conservative church doctrine. Some leave the church, some do not, but all are equally haunted by the experience of growing up in a family where the church was placed above all else. It is interesting that none of the children simply drift away from their religious upbringing. This is a black and white faith, with no room for shades of gray in belief.

The final chapter, titled "The Whiskey Dragon", is not about the Rovaniemi family but it takes the reader back to the Lapp region of Finland in the 1840's at the birth of Laestadianism. The environment is cold, dark, and harsh. The Lapp people are easily susceptible to alcoholism. And fines are incurred for failure to attend religious services. I'm not quite sure what to make of Gunna, the main female character of the story. Since she has no descendents, she cannot be an ancestor to the Rovaniemi family. But she does reject Laestadianism and appears to be headed for self destruction at the end.

I look forward to reading more of this author's work. ( )

We Sinners tells the story of the Finnish Rovaniemi family and their nine children. They are the members of an extremely conservative, fundamentalist church, which was founded in 19th – century Sweden, and is based on Lutheranism. This particular branch puts their emphasis on daily practiced forgiveness - to be cleansed of their constant sins, but they also prohibit drinking, TV, cinema, dancing and participation in events outside the community. I think that religious belief is particularly often difficult to explain as it is a highly subjective question, depending on one’s worldview and the way we are brought up. However, the author managed to convey the spirit of this family well by letting every member present a short and sparse part of their life.

The story is told by the different voices of the Rovaniemi family, due to that the book actually felt less like a novel, but more like a series of short stories However, the different voices of the Rovaniemi family managed to convey how people feel when their belief sets them apart from everyone else and how choices can lead to guilt and despair. We see the children, how they grow up and how they struggle to understand one another whilst remaining connected to each other as best as they can. Eventually, the family splinters apart when various member of the family start asserting themselves.

It was quite fascinating to see that those children who choose to stay in the church were just as miserable as the siblings who left. Although, the ones who left were never shunned by their family, they were showered with the disappointment of the faithful in the faithless. The children who remained in the church found themselves immensely often adrift in a world of restrictions and rules, which gave them the feeling of shallowoness and lonelyness.

The final chapter, “The Whiskey Dragon”, kind of stands out for disrupting the story, as it is not related to the story of the Rovaniemi family itself. It sort of tells the story of the founder of this conservative church, without shedding any particular light on the story itself.

Well, my response to the story most often varied from fascination, irritation, shock, anger, and the belief that for a church who preaches love, understanding and forgiveness – well, there wasn’t any. The parents wanted to encourage the individuality of each child and yes, they loved them a lot, but that didn’t quite work that way. Sometimes I was horrified how their beliefs held them back and at times even disabled them as much that they were unable to show any compassion. Definitely a remarkably, compelling read I can recommend this book to anyone interested in the different aspects of how beliefs are interpreted and integrated in our modern world. ( )

We Sinners by Hanna Pylvainen is the story of the large Rovaniemi clan, Warren and Pirjo, and their nine children. More than that, though, it is the story of their faith, a fundamentalist version of Christianity that originated in Finland, Laestadianism. The Rovaniemis' church is impressively strict, demanding that its congregants forgo dancing, TV watching, drinking, listening to popular music, and using birth control. In the tradition of some evangelical churches, it relies on lay preachers rather than the formally educated and ordained. The church community is small and insular, and rather more a main character in Pylvainen's story so central is it to her characters' lives.

In We Sinners, Pylvainen explores the Rovaniemi family member by member, from those who embrace their faith whole-heartedly to those who can't wait to escape to a world free from the narrow confines of it. It probes the psyches of both parents who each question their dedication to God, Warren when he faces the possibility of being called upon to preach and Pirjo, when it seems like something so simple as a television set could derail her family's focus. It follows the children as they explore the lives they've been effectively denied, dating boys outside the church, experimenting with drinking, finding themselves and being excommunicated from everything they've ever known because of the selves they find. Some choose to leave, and some choose to embrace the church and the, strict, if comfortable way of life they have grown to appreciate.

Pylvainen's short novel is not short on profundity. Many might choose to villify this church, but Pylvainen, instead, chooses to show a more balanced picture of the trials and rewards of faith and readers emerge on the other side of her narrative forced to decide for themselves which is the better way, if indeed there is one. For some of the children, the comfort of living in a community with faith that they all have in common draws them in inexorably as they grow to adulthood. For them, the longed for words of absolution become a comfort and a necessity. Their large families rise up around them, for better or worse. The others attempt to find solace in "worldly" relationships where it eludes them, they trade their family and faith for freedom, but find that freedom from their faith isn't all they ever dreamed. All find themselves haunted by the faith of their childhood and, it seems, that none find exactly what they're looking for at the end of either path.

We Sinners is a quiet but powerful book that explores the vagaries of a commanding faith from inside and out. Pylvainen's prose is stark but illuminating, shining a light on a topic that rarely gets so much balanced attention. While Pylvainen briefly explores each of the family's members to great effect, the focus always remains on the fundamentalism that both unites and divides and how the choice to stay or to go always leaves someone standing on the other side of the glass wondering if they failed to choose the better way. We Sinners' portrayal of faith might not be for everyone, but anyone who wants to understand what makes a fundamentalist Christian family tick would do well to give Pylvainen's thoughtful debut a look. ( )

I really enjoyed We Sinners. It's the story of a family in the Midwest, The Rovaniemis, who belong to a deeply deeply traditional Lutheran church and the impact their religion and faith (or lack thereof) has on each family member. The story is told through a series of vignettes; each chapter is centered around one of the 11 family members (mom and dad plus 9 kids) and the book dips in and out of different times in their lives. It's a quiet, lovely book, with fantastic writing and something that just grabs you by the hand and keeps you turning pages. There's not a lot of "action," and yet so much goes on in these snapshots of the Rovaniemis that I could not help but get wrapped up in their lives, their struggles with their faith, and the battles and comforts of family. A beautiful read. ( )