The Bohemian Flats

by Mary Relindes Ellis

In The Bohemian Flats , Mary Relindes Ellis’s rich, imaginative gift carries us from the bourgeois world of fin de siècle Germany to a vibrant immigrant enclave in the heart of the Midwest and to the killing fields of World War I. Shell shock, as it was called, lands Raimund Kaufmann in a London hospital, a victim of the war but also of his own, and his brother’s, efforts to get out of Germany and build a new life in America. While his recovery eludes him, his memory returns us to Minneapolis, to the Flats, a milling community on the Mississippi River, where Raimund and his brother Albert have sought respite from the oppressive hand of their older brother, now the master of the family farm and brewery. In Minnesota the brothers confront different forms of prejudice, but they also find a chance to remake their lives according to their own principles and wishes—until the war makes their German roots inescapable. Following these lives, The Bohemian Flats conjures both the sweep of irresistible history and the intimate reality of a man, and a family, caught up in it. From a nineteenth-century German farm to the thriving, wildly diverse immigrant village below Minneapolis on the Mississippi to the European front in World War I, and returning to twentieth-century America—this is a story that takes a reader to the far reaches of human experience and the depths of the human heart.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Book Club, Fiction, Germany, World War I, Contemporary

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Mary Relindes Ellis was born in Glidden, Wisconsin. After attending a business school to obtain certification as a legal secretary, Ellis then went on to get a B.A. in English Literature with an emphasis on minority and women’s literature. Throughout her life she has worked at a number of positions: cleaning cabins at an upscale resort; assisting her mother, who was a public health nurse; working as an administrative staff support member for entomologists, wildlife and fisheries biologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, engineers, architects, and eventually as the associate administrator in the English Department at the University of Minnesota. She formerly owned a 100-acre farm, co-operated a Christmas wreath business, and grew local genotype prairie seed for prairie restoration.

She began her writing career publishing short stories. Her first novel, The Turtle Warrior, won the Wisconsin Library’s Association’s 2005 Banta Award for Literary Achievement, was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Awards, was an Official Pulpwood Queens Book Club Selection, made Amazon.com’s 25 fiction picks of 2004, and was a BookSense Pick. Her fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train magazine, The Wisconsin Academy Review, The Bellingham Review, and in anthologies such as Uncommon Waters: Women Write About Fishing, Gifts from the Wild, and Bless Me Father: Stories of a Catholic Childhood. Her essay, “The Big Cow: Writing in Flyover Land,” was published on-line by Powells.com.

Ellis has given countless informal talks, speeches, and conference calls to libraries, radio stations, book clubs, weekend retreats, and bookstore audiences. Other credits include serving as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards and the Writer in Residence at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls in April of 2008. She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and was awarded a Truman Capote Fellowship. Her second nove, The Bohemian Flats, will be published April 2014 (January 2014 in France), and she is working on her third novel

Reviews

[Karen M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the history of a German family who chose to immigrate to the United States not only for political reasons but for very personal reasons, family reasons. This is not just the story of one family but of many families that chose to come to this country for so many different reasons but the underlying factor was freedom.

This account is about generations of a family and the history not only of their births and deaths but also of the world. The story centers on two brothers who are alike and yet very different. The younger, Raimund Kaufman leaves Germany and finds his way to Minneapolis and an area on the Mississippi called The Flats which is filled with immigrant families from all over Europe. Later he is followed by his older married brother, Albert and his wife and children. As German hostility towards other countries begins so does the hostility towards the people who live in The Flats. Regardless of their treatment by the citizens of Minneapolis, The Flats sends it’s sons to fight when the United States joins the war while The Flats also continues to fight the war of prejudice against German immigrants.

The story shifts back and forth from Germany to Minnesota to Wisconsin and covers many years, 1881 to 1968 but the story begins in a hospital bed in London in 1919.

This is such a well-written, well researched book about the period leading up to World War I and the immigration from Europe to this country. My Dad’s parents were among those immigrants from Austria-Hungary, although they moved to Pennsylvania and later New Jersey. They came just before World War I started, raised eleven children and sent three sons to fight in World War II. This book was a very interesting read for me personally and I highly recommend it.

This book was won in a FirstReads giveaway.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spanning more than a half-century, Ellis's historical novel, follows the German Kaufman brothers and their immigration to the United States. The melting - pot community of the Bohemian Flats, clustered on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, becomes home to Raimund Kaufman and his brother Albert and family. Ellis captures the families flight from Germany and their assimilation into the American culture. Seeking to escape from his brutal fathers' insistence that he join the German Army or the priesthood, Raymond changes the spelling of his name and the course of his life, and ultimately his brother Albert's family. The brothers offer the ultimate sacrifice for their adopted county, as so many immigrants have. This is a timely tale to remind readers that we are all immigrants and our differences are fewer than our similarities. Family, community, and love of country are deeply imbedded in Bohemian Flats. Readers will be rewarded by this deeply felt historical novel and Ellis's masterful storytelling.

[John Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having gone to graduate school at the University of Minnesota in the late 1980s-early 1990s, I often biked over the area that had once been the Bohemian Flats as I went between the East and West Banks of the university. Two German brothers, Raimund and Albert Kaufmann settled in this area when they first came to the United States about 100 years before I spent time at the U. The story ranges from Germany to Minneapolis to Northwestern Wisconsin and back to Europe in World War I. I really liked how she brought out the place and history so fully. I often thought about my grandpa who arrived as a children of Swedish immigrants to Minneapolis in the early 1890s before moving with his family to NW Wisconsin. A very interesting historical novel.

[Mitch Vanyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Minneapolis resident descended from German ancestors, the geographical and ancestorial connections in the book made it particularly fun. I usually zone out and skim any sections detailing geography in a book ("he turned left onto ___ St., then right onto ___ Ave."), but being familiar with the landmarks mentioned made it more engaging and imaginable. The story wasn't riveting, and I wasn't overly impressed by the writing, but it was a fun and easy read that I would recommend to anyone wanting to imagine what it may have been like to immigrate from Central and Eastern Europe to the Midwest in the early 1900s.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

That joy came in acquiring not the tangible but the intangible.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. -Thomas Jefferson

Prettiness can only last so long but true beauty in a woman lasts until death.

Papa says the body's function is not only to work but to be an instrument of love, and therefore it is not something to be ashamed of.

There is nothing like a storm on the Sisters, especially Sister Superior. She does not roll a ship like the ocean does during a storm. She punches and punches on all sides of a ship with her waves.

But Aino knows the feeling of holding a dead child, knows that a mother is still a mother even when her child is dead, and in being so is still the protector of her child.

It is speculated that the land around Lake Superior contains some of the oldest rock in the world.

Conrad said that all a man can betray is his conscience.

[Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the historical aspect of this novel -- very interesting Minneapolis community during the turn of the century. I liked the way the author tied together events of the time: WW I, early days of immigration to Minnesota and Wisconsin, growth of the city of Minneapolis. However, the story of the Kauffmans was very disjointed. The characters were extensively developed (ad nauseum) in the beginning. The WW I sequences were weakly developed and seemed not to be well related to the rest of the novel. It was as if another (violent) short story and been superimposed on the base novel. This was an interesting account of the people who populated the "Flats" area -- their origins, day-to-day living and ongoing challenges, but not a very good novel.

[Barb Seaberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating is a 3.5. It took me a while to get into the book but once I did I found it a fairly compelling read. The back story on Raimund and the rest of the Kauffmann family was interesting and important for what came in the future. Reading about the ethnically diverse area of Minneapolis and the lifestyle there was entertaining. I wasn't sure what the point was of having Magdalena be sort of a seer; that didn't really add a anything to the story as far as I could see but it didn't detract, either. I like reading fictional accounts of areas that I am familiar with, in this case Minneapolis and Northern Wisconsin. All in all an interesting book which kept my attention.

[Michele Bergstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently two book clubs gathered in the basement meeting room of a local library to listen to Mary Relindes Ellis, via Skype, talk about her research into, and own personal history of, her amazing, detailed and well-written historical novel, The Bohemian Flats. She was fascinating and well-versed in her subject, and as entertaining to listen to as her book is to read. I would highly recommend this book for its portrayal of energetic and believable characters, and for the history of the diverse people who inhabited that now-gone area of Minneapolis along the banks of the Mississippi River. It's an unforgettable story.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was slow to get into, but HOLY COW did it turn out to be good. It's about a family, one of which leaves Germany and finds himself living in the Bohemian Flats area of Minneapolis along the Mississippi River. It gives such a fabulous and rich history of the immigrants and the city of that time, and how the immigrants started a life of their own in the U.S. The characters were so well developed, but I was left wanting to know a bit more about some of them. But overall an excellent book.

[Cc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this book this morning. I loved it. The main characters are from a German family who makes there way to Wisconsin and Minnesota just before WWI. It follows their story and how they are affected by the changes and especially by WWI. My grandmother actually came from Germany as a 16 year old and I can just imagine her on the ship and train coming to Minnesota. Good story and good character development that just kept me reading.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book by a Wisconsin author. It follows the Kaufmann family from Germany to Minneapolis/St. Paul and a bit of Wisconsin as well. One of my Book Club buddies said, "It is almost like poetry." Her characters and descriptions of the geographic settings are very memorable. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to others.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story of German immigrants to Minnesota. It seemed that most of the story is about the branch of the family who later moved to northern Wisconsin and settled there on a farm. While somewhat predictable, it was a good tale and held my interest. Good summer read.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which combined my love of Minneapolis and the Mississippi with my interest in WWI. It was a bit slow to get into and was dry and rushed in a few spots, but overall was an excellent narrative and history.

[Bernadette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This outstanding work of historical fiction gave me a whole new perspective on early life in Minneapolis, on the River Flats below the University of Minnesota where I was a student in the late 1960s. Author Mary Relindes Ellis traces the Kaufmanns, a family of German immigrants from their beginnings in 1881 Augsburg, Germany, to their life in the Bohemian Flats shanty neighborhood on the banks of the Mississippi River in 1896 and generations forward to mid 1960s. Some family members relocated to land in fictional Chippewa Crossing in northern Wisconsin, the area where the author was born and raised. These three locations are beautifully interwoven to reveal the customs, cultural heritage, language and extreme difficulties faced by immigrants who were unwelcome and often ridiculed in all three settings. Brothers Raymond and Albert Kaufmann leave Germany because their older brother Otto inherits family property as is the law there, leaving nothing for the younger boys' future. After much hard work, Raymond becomes a professor of history at the University of Minnesota and is the unofficial leader of the Flats. Albert loves farming and saves up to take his family to work land in Wisconsin. The extended Kaufmann family is tragically hurt by both World War I and II, as they are conflicted by loyalty to America and to their native land. Author Ellis does a brilliant job of sharing these heart wrenching feelings; some of her best writing details these wartime scenes.
The Bohemian Flats was notable in that people from Ireland, Norway, Central Europe learned to live harmoniously. Ellis writes, they "broke down old ethnic disputes and hatred that lingered from Europe. It was our fists swinging against poor housing and absent, parsimonious, and tyrannical landlords, patched clothes, long hours of manual labor in the mills and breweries, sometimes living on a diet of nothing but sauerkraut and potatoes. Laughter was our only defense, the psychological serum that protected us." But the City of Minneapolis eventually uproots the Flats in the name of progress. This is an excellent read published by University of Minnesota Press.

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read! Lots of Minnesota history allusions.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many things I liked about this book: tale of immigrants coming from Germany, European history including Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm and the Great War as a backdrop to the story, sites and sounds in Minneapolis and the Midwest, and most of all, the mixing of cultures on the little riverfront stretch of land up river from the University of Minnesota East Bank campus known then as the Bohemian Flats. Amongst all of these, the stage is set for the story of the two Kauffmann brothers, Albert and Raymond, as well as their extended family. I understand what led them to leave Germany and what they had to do to succeed in the United States. I know better what it would have been like for Albert to never again see his mother or for his wife to only exchange letters with her sisters and parents. I realize how difficult it was for them to observe from afar the tumultuous political climate back in Europe that has ramifications for their family still there.

Lest I dwell too much on the bigger picture, the book is also about struggles within the family stemming from the relationship of the two brothers with not only their domineering father but also another brother who sees their journey to America as traitorous. It's also about the suspicions of people whenever someone around them is different or does the unexplained.

I hope to read the other book with the same name published by the Minnesota Historical Society to learn more about the Bohemian Flats.

[Margaret Hoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an unusual but enjoyable book. It started out feeling a bit stiff to me, but once the characters were firmly in place, it seemed to flow better. Reading about the history of the flats down by the Washington Avenue bridge was fascinating! These immigrants made a vibrant community out of poor housing at best. Being able to follow them as the story moved to northern Wisconsin and then back overseas for WW1 was intriguing. But it all ended up back at the flats, which was satisfying. I recommend this book, especially to Minnesota readers.

[Vicki Marlowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was based on some true characters, and some real events. It's a great book, "From a nineteenth-century German farm to the thriving, wildly diverse immigrant village below Minneapolis on the Mississippi to the European front in World War I, and returning to twentieth-century America—this is a story that takes a reader to the far reaches of human experience and the depths of the human heart."

[Deb M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. Mary Relindes Ellis tells a story that keeps you tuned in. The characters became like family. I wanted to know what was happening on their life journey. I am familiar with the Bohemian Flats area and history in Minneapolis. I am of Russian/German descent and am certain that contributed to my interest. In the end, this is one well written book, accurate and worth your time!

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! I'm a sucker for historical fiction, especially when a good portion of the story takes place in my own backyard. After reading this, I really wish this area, the Bohemian Flats neighborhood, still existed; it would be an amazing place to explore.

[Dawn Ashenbrenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had such potential but I think the author tried to cover too much, between immigration and WW1 and the family dynamics and Finnish folklore and relations between native people and the church--ugh! I liked the book but it was exhausting to read!

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for library book club. Very good.

[Laurel Deloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book club Book. Thias is the best book that Joan has recommended. The integral story of an unusual community across from the Uinvesity of MN . Thois is rthe place where the immegrants serttled on entering the state. A. cohesive community from several Northern Europe, and then any area that had need for leaving "home". THe novel then follows one family through three generations fdreom Gwermany to Wisconsin.

ISynopsis: The Bohemian Flats, Mary Relindes Ellis’s rich, imaginative gift carries us from the bourgeois world of fin de siècle Germany to a vibrant immigrant enclave in the heart of the Midwest and to the killing fields of World War I.

Shell shock, as it was called, lands Raimund Kaufmann in a London hospital, a victim of the war but also of his own, and his brother’s, efforts to get out of Germany and build a new life in America. While his recovery eludes him, his memory returns us to Minneapolis, to the Flats, a milling community on the Mississippi River, where Raimund and his brother Albert have sought respite from the oppressive hand of their older brother, now the master of the family farm and brewery. In Minnesota the brothers confront different forms of prejudice, but they also find a chance to remake their lives according to their own principles and wishes—until the war makes their German roots inescapable.

Following these lives, The Bohemian Flats conjures both the sweep of irresistible history and the intimate reality of a man, and a family, caught up in it. From a nineteenth-century German farm to the thriving, wildly diverse immigrant village below Minneapolis on the Mississippi to the European front in World War I, and returning to twentieth-century America—this is a story that takes a reader to the far reaches of human experience and the depths of the human heart.

[Stephanie Pieck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel tells the story of the three sons of a German farmer and brewer. By tradition, the eldest will inherit the farm, while the younger two will go into the priesthood or the army. But the eldest, Otto, is stupid, lazy, and vindictive. The middle son, Albert, is keenly intelligent yet loves the land and the animals. At thirteen, he is accepted for private tutoring to supplement his regular schooling at one of the best gymnasiums in Augsburg. Three years later, the youngest son joins Albert, although his passions (both intellectual and sexual) are more difficult to rein in. The boys' tutor nurtures them in ways their father cannot and insists they must go to America because there is no future for men like them in Germany.
This is the foundation upon which the novel rests. Readers are carried along as the agricultural Germany, the military Germany, and the artistic, intellectual Germany struggle, while thousands leave the country and head for America, carrying little more than their dreams, their penchant for hard work, and their stubborn refusal to give up.
Love, war, joy, sorrow, revenge, idealism, and the splintering of communities that has swept through America and rendered much of it bland, shallow, and intolerant, more interested in making money than anything else. Following one extended family through these transformations puts a human face on the forces that shaped societies on two continents over a century. The resulting novel is deeply moving, perhaps most deeply affecting for people whose ancestors came to America with similar stories—German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Czech—and settled the Midwest and other regions, putting their stamp on small-town and big-city America, a stamp that, despite the relentless march of "progress," can never be completely erased.

[Linda Bogaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for Peace book club. The story of one family who immigrated from Germany to a milling community on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Have been thinking and learning a lot about the founding of my hometown and the immigration of ancestors from Netherlands to Iowa, which made this book interesting to me. Also now living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area helped make it more intriguing.

One line by Frau Richter stood out to me in light of immigration problems over the years until the present--the more things change, the more they stay the same --
p. 119, 2nd paragraph:
"If it is true what they say about America, you can live without anyone caring what you look like, where you come from, what you know."

How many immigrants then and now, believed it to be true,
but found out differently when they got here?

Things may or may not have been better here,
but definitely not perfect.......

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting historical fiction about the immigrants who settled in Mpls. on the river below the university in the late 1800’s. It’s a family saga that begins in Germany. The family leaves Germany and settles on the Flats where many immigrants live. Eventually part of the family purchases farmland in northern Wisconsin. The immigrants help each other, live together, and do well. People deal with family situations. Young men enlist in WWI. Some of the family sees family in Germany. By the 1950’s the Flats have disappeared because the city has evicted everyone snd demolished the houses. It’s a fascinating piece of history that most people know little about.

[Kari]

I love this story. It spans three generations of two families who blend through marriage. I fell in love with the characters and could almost touch the places. I especially the flats. And the story moves. The pace is admirable. The author reveals the Bohemian Flats, full of people from many different countries who encounter prejudice and hardship as they pursue a better life, to be rich in relationship and community and experience. A place their children want to return to. The characters rise up off the pages. A full fleshed out story and a pleasure to read.

[FRANK BOYCE · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. Having read a lot of war/historical fiction this book is a genuine banger. I live in Minneapolis and loved the historical and specific geographic and seasonal details the author included.

I think for some the prose may be a bit clipped and distracting from the beautiful characters and rich discussion on the state of American in the early 20th century.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys historical fiction and discussions of American culture.

[Joan Maclin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but would have enjoyed it more had my reading of it not been interrupted and thus spread out. The story is a fascinating one and well told, though in some ways I found it odd that it was told out of chronological sequence. As a resident of the Twin Cities, it was helpful to envision the environs in which much of the story is anchored. And in 2017 with dramatic change in our policies toward immigrants, it raises many questions about the reality of our "melting pot" lore.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, particularly the sections set in the titular Bohemian Flats. Recognizing street names and landmarks that are local to me is fun. I did struggle with the frequent changes of narrator/perspective. It would have been much easier if the author would have noted the changes at the beginning of each section. Sometimes it took me a few paragraphs to figure out who the focal character was or even that there had been a change.