Location: United States
Member Since:
June 28, 2009
Archie Satterfield
Biography
Newspaperman 18 years, magazine editor 8 years, freelancer for past 22 years.
Where to find Archie Satterfield online
Website: http://www.archiesatterfield.com
Where to buy in print
Books
Smashwords book reviews by Archie Satterfield
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The World's Best Place Norway and the Norwegians
on Feb. 22, 2010
(no rating)
Solveig Torvik is one of the most perceptive and eloquent writers I have had the privilege of knowing. We worked together six years on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and I always enjoyed her commentary on things, whether in conversation or in stories and opinion pieces she wrote for the paper. Her earlier book, Nikolai's Fortune, was much on her mind in those days thirty years ago, and the long wait for it was well worth it. Certain scenes and observations from that book still haunt me. So now she has gone back to basic journalism to report on her home country of Norway, and as before, the wait is worth it. Her reporting style is close to the ground rather than lofty, and some of the most powerful sections are the direct quotes she elicits from Norwegians. Norway is a wonderful country, but she reminds us it is populated with people, and people are imperfect critters. For this reader, the weight of public opinion is almost overwhelming at times, the pressure on everyone to conform, the benevolence that comes with a social price and high expectations. Norway is a wonderful country and its citizens are very well cared for by the government and society at large. But it comes at a price of individuality that would eventually send most Americans back to this much more imperfect nation. -- Archie Satterfield