The Way West

Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: An outstanding story of American pioneers. This book is timeless. You feel like you are part of the wagon train on this incredible journey over the Oregon trail in 1845. This isn't some light Hollywood yarn. It is an immensely satisfying story rich in character development. You just don't want it to end. A classic.

Rating:
Summary: comment
Review: Basic Review

I was told to read the way west as a highschool [kid]. I'm glad I did! I havn't read The Big Sky the first in the series I only knew that is was a series after I read the way west but I still eaisly followed. Guthrie is an author that convey feelings and messages is little words a compelling gift. He also has a way with discription and makes understand the characters personality and way of thinking completely. I have long since been interested in the Oregon Trail and life of the pioneers and will gladly read the whole series. This book tells the harsh truth but without sentiment meaning it didn't bring tears to my eyes but made me stop and think. By the end of the book I was thankful for modern times though it made me reflect on modern families.

About the Book

The book starts out telling the story of Lije and Becky Evans and son Brownie after they get "the fever". They decide to go west to Willamette Valley Oregon to help settle the territory for America (joining a wagon train with people of different backgrounds and storys). Dick Summers and ex-mountain man agrees to go along and piot the train it encreasingly becomes his story. He falls in love with the mountains and old trails once more they don't understand it is part of him and at first envy how he knows and can do everything with little. If it were not for him the train would of gone through more trials and hardships than it did. He becomes best friends with them and there is a sence of loss when the mountains reclaim him. I want to know what happens the Evans family Guthrie wrote it that way and I was amazed I would like and appreciate a book written in 1950. I recomend this to everyone and history buffs finding it hard to get good books on the Oregon Trail before 1850+. The Way West had found a place in my heart and I declare it a classic by my standards for teens to adults. I know that everyone will approve and enjoy this book. It took me a while to read but once I got started I couldn't put it down!

Rating:
Summary: Honor for The Way West
Review: Basic Review

I was told to read the way west as a highschool [kid]. I'm glad I did! I havn't read The Big Sky the first in the series I only knew that is was a series after I read the way west but I still eaisly followed. Guthrie is an author that convey feelings and messages is little words a compelling gift. He also has a way with discription and makes understand the characters personality and way of thinking completely. I have long since been interested in the Oregon Trail and life of the pioneers and will gladly read the whole series. This book tells the harsh truth but without sentiment meaning it didn't bring tears to my eyes but made me stop and think. By the end of the book I was thankful for modern times though it made me reflect on modern families.

About the Book

The book starts out telling the story of Lije and Becky Evans and son Brownie after they get "the fever". They decide to go west to Willamette Valley Oregon to help settle the territory for America (joining a wagon train with people of different backgrounds and storys). Dick Summers and ex-mountain man agrees to go along and piot the train it encreasingly becomes his story. He falls in love with the mountains and old trails once more they don't understand it is part of him and at first envy how he knows and can do everything with little. If it were not for him the train would of gone through more trials and hardships than it did. He becomes best friends with them and there is a sence of loss when the mountains reclaim him. I want to know what happens the Evans family Guthrie wrote it that way and I was amazed I would like and appreciate a book written in 1950. I recomend this to everyone and history buffs finding it hard to get good books on the Oregon Trail before 1850+. The Way West had found a place in my heart and I declare it a classic by my standards for teens to adults. I know that everyone will approve and enjoy this book. It took me a while to read but once I got started I couldn't put it down!

Rating:
Summary: comment
Review: id like to compare this book to zane grey &louis lamour &possibly emily dickinson as style goes the characters were efficeient the plot strange &the theme essential subjectively &objectively speeking +_)(*&^%$#@!~a-z&0-9...

Rating:
Summary: As good as the original, a masterpiece of literature.
Review: Rarely is a sequel, whether it be a movie or book, as good as the original. But, rest assured that this is not the case of "The Way West," A.B. Guthrie's follow-up to "The Big Sky," and the second of six books in The Big Sky series. How good are these two volumes? Well, the first has been designated "the best novel of the American West" by the Western Literature Association. "The Way West" won the Pulitzer Price for fiction in 1950. Which is the better book? Impossible to tell, they're almost like two books in one. "The Way West" begins where "The Big Sky" ends in 1846 as Dick Summers, a true mountain man introduced in the original, is living as a farmer in Missouri. His sickly wife has just died and he is urgently asked to be the guide for a wagon train departing from Independence to Fort Vancouver in Oregon. What follows next are months of exciting adventures among the Indians, rattlesnakes, stampeding buffalo, raging rivers, and other obstacles they have to surmount in the quest to the west. The pacing of "The Way West" is similar to "The Big Sky." Quiet passages wherein we get to really know the many principal characters of the book interspersed with tension filled episodes of action. The details of the trek, the dialogue, the characters are so real that this book compels the reader to keep turning pages late into the night. It's amazing to discover and reflect on what these settlers went through to expand our country from sea to sea. I can't say enough good things about these two books, and once I take a breather, I'll move on to the next book in the series.

Rating:
Summary: The Way West
Review: The book was deep and poignant. I was often moved beyond words. I hated to close the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Broad and Deep
Review: This sequel to The Big Sky continues the story of Dick Summers. It would be very beneficial to first read The Big Sky. I actually found The Big Sky more interesting and if possible, better-written, than The Way West. Both books are extremely interesting and hard to put down. The Way West tells the story of a wagon train on its way to Oregon. Dick Summers, an experienced mountain man, agrees to lead the group to Oregon. This takes place in the early days of the Oregon Trail when men were still working out the exact route they would take. There are six Big Sky novels of which The Way West is the second. I am currently reading the third book in the series, Fair Land, Fair Land. It is every bit as good as the first two. All of these books are historically accurate and, once again, very hard to put down. I highly recommend The Way West!! Enjoy!!