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Title: Snow Mountain Passage by James D. Houston ISBN: 0-15-601143-3 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 24 April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A stunning contrast of extremes....
Comment: Most Californians are familiar with the infamous Donner Party. Attempting to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains before the winter storms in1846, the wagon train has fragmented along the difficult terrain, prey to the harsh weather, unfortunate decisions and other unforseeable perils. Two separate camps are forced to build shelters for the winter, to wait for rescue, with negligible food and resources.
Jim Reed is one of the driving forces behind the wagon train, hundreds of hopeful settlers willing to gamble their future for a new life in California, a land of infinite opportunities for the enterprising settlers. Reed has the grandest wagon, specially built for his wife and four children, stocked with all the household items necessary for comfort, including a cast iron stove. Tempers grow short as the dispirited families near the final obstacle, the Sierra Nevada Mountains; they will have to work together, even disassembling the wagons and goods to traverse the craggy mountain terrain. During an altercation, Jim Reed stabs another man to death and is ostracized from the camp. He travels ahead, crossing the mountains that are already covered with an early snow, a sign of the devastating winter to come. It is Reed's intention to form a rescue party, men, horses and food, and return to help the settlers to safety. Weather and circumstances combine to thwart his best efforts, putting the pioneers in grave danger before he can return.
Most novels about the Donner Party dwell on the primitive conditions where families struggle with bitter cold and starvation, desperately reverting to cannibalism to survive. The voice of the Donner Party is Patty Reed, who is only eight years old, watching her siblings and neighbors starve. In her eighties, she looks back over the years and ponders her memories, wondering how it could have been different.
In contrast, most of the story revolves around the adventures of Jim Reed after his journey through the mountains. California is in the middle of a struggle between Mexico and the US military, in an attempt to establish California as a state. Reed fights alongside the soldiers and meets influential acquaintances that will later support his bid for land. Greedy men set their sights on land too rich and fertile to be left in the hands of Mexicans or Indians, whom they plan to use as laborers. Later, when the Mormon settlers arrive, they find that California has already been plundered, divided among the most influential and powerful settlers. The prose is flawless, contrasting the extremes of fortune: Reed adventuring through the country he has longed for, rich with friendship and camaraderie and the tragic straits of starving pioneers, thankful to remain alive day by day.
Rating: 4
Summary: A different perspective
Comment: Houston's novel, Snow Mountain Passage, is interesting from the perspective that he does not claim it to be fact, just a different view of the incident that has fascinated historians since the tragic crossing of the Donner Party in 1847. His use of James Reed as a primary force in the story, with all his weaknesses, offset by recollections of Patty Reed is a solid use of material. It left me wondering who was the child of 8 and who was the adult. The novel gave me 'more of the story.' Other authors have tried to present only the facts in their accounts of the tragedy, leaving much speculation by the reader. Houston recreates the story, and identifies it as a novel, albeit one based on research. The result is readable and makes me want to go back to other accounts I've read. I admit an insatiable interest in this courageous event with so many bad turns. It makes me wonder if Patty was right about "nothing could stop" the sequence of events. Surely not with those who assumed leadership for their caravan.
Rating: 3
Summary: Why compare to Lonesome Dove???
Comment: It's a decent read, but spends entirely too much time crisscrossing various landscapes with old Jim. Imagine this story told from the point of view of Patty (exclusively) or better yet, Margaret. It's a far cry from Lonesome Dove, but an interesting summer read.
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Title: The Donner Party Chronicles: A Day-by-Day Account of a Doomed Wagon Train, 1846-47 by Frank Mullen ISBN: 1890591017 Publisher: Nevada Humanities Committee Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Ordeal by Hunger by George R. Stewart ISBN: 0395611598 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 30 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Roughing It by Mark Twain ISBN: 0451524071 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment by James D. Houston, Jeanne Houston ISBN: 0553272586 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1983 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: One Thousand White Women : The Journals of May Dodd: A Novel by Jim Fergus ISBN: 0312199430 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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