Untamola Blues

Untamola is the dreamworld from the Finnish epic, Kalevala, which Damrell evokes in the fictional Lake Superior port town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. United by circumstance, random happenstance, gullibility, and plain bad luck, the mostly Finnish American and Native American characters seek a dubious fortune in a desperate, illegal venture on the high seas. But since fortune tends to favor the foolish—although seldom as they anticipated it—all get their reward. In its use of classic comedy—as a subversive, moral force exposing the limitations and strictures of self-image and societal norms—this tale is a wild, hilarious, and at the same time, poignant take on the human condition.