Western Passage

Rating:
Summary: Good book for history buffs!
Review: I enjoyed the book emensly. Very interesting perspective of day to day log and viewing it from the eye's of the heroine who has never seen such things before. Exposing the new country through her eyes and not filling in with geographical information made it seem as though you were along on the journey with her. For those who have been to some of the places like the Dalles, Farwell Bend and the three island crossing Idaho it makes it all the more colorful. I thought the biographical info in the appendix was great, but was a little dissappointed that the two main characters were left out. I hope another book is written to continue the heroines story. The book fairly defines what the term "pioneer spirit" was.

Rating:
Summary: The first trip on the Oregon Trail
Review: My wife was the first in our family to read this novel. She was enthralled with it, identifying well with the emphasis on a woman's perspective on this most difficult of journeys. When she finished it was my turn. What a treat. This novel is very enjoyable, and an easy read. While I admit to being particularly interested in the details of such a journey and the landscape as described by the author, I think most anyone would find it interesting. The scholar in the author is also evident by the research done to gather the material for the book. A day-by-day "log" was an interesting approach. It provided both the details of what was seen and what happened, it also gave the reader a sense of the length of the journey. About the time we got to the Snake River Plains, I tired of reading about yet one more day on the trail - then I realized how tired the travelers must have become, making the story of the journey more real for me. Additionally, it was easy to identify with the people, both Abbey and Jacob. Hope we get to learn more about their fate in the new land in a future book.

Rating:
Summary: Jane Newton
Review: To begin with, the very comfortable spacing of print, and 12-point font, makes for easy reading. The story opens with interest, and holds one's attention page after page, until the unwanted end (I wanted the book to continue). Even the Appendices were interesting, especially Appendix A which I consulted regularly and with gratification. The story is just terrific, both as fiction, and I believe a great deal of non-fiction. The book gives the sense of utilizing episodes from many diaries and other sources. The characters, both fictitious and otherwise, are likeable as well as "human", and virtually all the development of scenes so credible. It's a nice, "clean" book-good for grandchildren in almost all respects.
I appreciate that the author did not try to fill in with information about the Oregon Trail that was learned after 1843; it made the story much more realistic. I read Western Passage with a road atlas, an Oregon topographic map, and a plastic, raised contour map. To my surprise, I learned a lot about our geography. The tale of their remarkable achievements is so vivid and yet so "daily" that it brings both the achievements and the natural humdrum of travel alive. This latter quality is rare in fiction, at least in interesting fiction. The writing is so clear and straight forward, and just plain readable, pleasant, and lively.
The details about all the supplies and equipment acquisitions, and organizational problems was fascinating, as well as that of the trail-breaking for wagons all the way along. It's hard to take in how numerous the people, wagons, and livestock were. One of the especially interesting features was the efforts emigrants made at organizing a trail government, and the vagaries through which it went. It had enough detail to make it real to the reader, but not so much that it took away from the momentum of the story and journey.
My husband and I are looking forward to getting copies for each of our descendant families. J. Newton