Why a Booktrail?
1960s: Finland in the 60s had a lot of stories to tell
Wonderful Women by the Sea
What you need to know before your trail
It’s the early 60s when life was good and the living was easy..or so the song said. For Rosa and Isabella, two young Americanized stars-to-be in Finland, it certainly seems that way. But its the sixties and the world is changing a – Tupperware parties are giving way to the women’s movement. The social and political upheaval that explodes across the world in the turbulent summer reaches the Finnish shores..
Travel Guide
Finland in the sixties seemed like a dreamy place to be. Families would meet up at their summer homes to chat and reminisce and this book features that melancholy style and dream like quality.
The story is told by Thomas, a small child and son of Isabella and Kayus. Then they meet Renee, the daughter of Rosa and Gabriel. Isabella and Rosa become fast friends and their love of glossy magazines leads to a long friendship. The American lifestyle and Elizabeth Taylor are brought to Finland…
The beach where they meet up for the summer sounds as idyllic as they come. Beach life to them is a way of the world and they want to keep such feelings and images in their minds as long as they can. they sit on the beach –
“believing that they could buy the roar of the sea and the happy laughter on the beach, glowing skin, cool evenings, and hot days when the sun has gone down behind the trees, shimmering mosquitoes in the last rays of the sun trickling through the trees over the bay.”
Such is their love of the beach and the kind of life they want to lead is reflected in the book title and cover image which could be a moment of one day captured for eternity.
Despite the care free and calm atmosphere of the novel, there is a storm brewing and events in the world around them are not going to stay away for long.
“Time is going on somewhere….but in another place. The feeling is not pleasant.”
Life in the sixties was a time of change and American women in Finland were no exception.
Where Next?
