Book event:

Karl Marlantes appears at 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 15, at Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 Ninth Ave., S.F. www.greenapplebooks.com alive. Ilmari and Matti, the two Koski brothers, spend their lives eking a living out of the forest and waters. Whether describing the logging or commercial fishing industries, Marlantes shows an extraordinary knowledge of his subjects, and in the scenes dedicated to these hardscrabble endeavors, the story hums with energy.

It is with their sister, Aino, though, that their work finds its larger meaning. She’s a politically passionate woman not content to marry and settle down, choosing instead to work on behalf of the labor unions that struggled to gain a foothold as the industries of the Pacific Northwest boomed. The implicit tensions feel timeless and still relevant. When Matti tells his young wife that “Aino is right . ... In this country, you steal five dollars and you go to jail. You steal a railroad and you go to Congress,” the urgency of his voice lifts off the page.

The question for this reader is not whether the experience of the Koski family transcends time — certainly it does — but whether the novel needs all its bulk to do so. At times the story feels redundant, especially as Aino contends with the larger economical forces working against her and the other characters striving for justice for the workers.

If “Deep River” is meant to serve as a new American epic, it overreaches. But as a portrait of a complicated American era, and one family’s mighty struggle against it, the novel is both fascinating and fierce. And well worth the hours it asks of its reader.

Peter Geye’s fourth novel, “Northernmost,” will be published in February. He lives in Minneapolis. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.com

Devon Marlantes Karl Marlantes also topped 600 pages with his 2010 debut, “Matterhorn.”