MY FATHER'S HOUSE

The daughter of a Swedish immigrant explores home and community in this family history/memoir.

In 1907, Karl Johan Artur Gustafsson was about to leave Torsås, Sweden, for good. Though the 17-year-old boy was extremely close to his mother, Ingrid, and had a lot of love for the small town where he was born and raised, Karl also knew that opportunities—and money—were extremely limited in “this poverty-stricken area.” Karl would follow his older siblings to America, a “strange faraway place” but, as he understood it, one full of possibilities. After a celebratory send-off and with the knowledge that he likely would never see Ingrid again—along with the secret that he never knew who his father was—Karl journeyed to the larger city of Sölvesborg, to work and save money, and then to the United States three years later. Karl, whose name was changed to Carl Arthur Gustafson on Ellis Island, was happy to reconnect with his siblings. He quickly settled in Bristol, Connecticut, graduating from college, attending service at the local Lutheran church, and falling head over heels for his landlord’s daughter, intelligent and driven Jennie Anderson. In 1917, Jennie and Carl married and, over the years, had three children: a son, Harvey; and two daughters, Thelma and the author. They built a home at 187 Stafford Ave. in 1929, and the next five decades were full of war, hardship, joy, and triumph for the immigrant and his family. In this engaging book, Mona Gustafson writes of her mother, father, and siblings—as well as herself as the youngest child in the family—in the third person. The author includes photographs of key figures and locations along with high school and college yearbooks and newspaper clippings of weddings, farewell parties, and graduations. This rich material grounds the novelistic account in events both historical (the Depression, two world wars, and Vietnam, among them) and everyday (college acceptances, anniversaries, and proms). While lengthy, spanning almost 50 years and running nearly 500 pages, the potent story of the Gustafsons is also the story of America, a land populated with the descendants of hopeful immigrants in search of a better world.

A pleasant and powerful account of faith and family.