Helpful Score: 5
I have read this book 3 x's over 35 years. It is one of the best books I've read regarding how it really was for women as settlers on the prairies. It is a very different take on the tragedies of their lives and the characters and their struggles are very real. It is easy to understand why so many women didn't survive mentally.
Helpful Score: 3
Life was hard for men settling the west, but it was even harder for women, children and families. Some women reached the limits of their endurance and lost their minds as a result. The Homesman tells the story of a small comunity that engaged a 'Homesman' to escort several unfortunate women to their families back in the eastern states. Mary Bee Cuddy, school teacher, 'plain as an old tin pail', is the 'Homesman' for her small community. For help on her jouney, she engages a 'lowlife army deserter' she manages to rescue from hanging.
Tail of hardships of the trail as well as personal loneliness and overwhelming isolation that lead to unexpected and unfortunate outcomes. This well-written and intriguing novel portrays vivid characters and western life in an unusual story. Not a romance nor a typical western.
Tail of hardships of the trail as well as personal loneliness and overwhelming isolation that lead to unexpected and unfortunate outcomes. This well-written and intriguing novel portrays vivid characters and western life in an unusual story. Not a romance nor a typical western.
If you like stories of the American frontier and history, this is for you. This has a very surprising ending. Paul Newman said "I hope the film is as good as the book."
Fascinating story with a strange ending.
This book is soon to be released as a movie. I hope the movie does the book justice. The storyline is wonderful, women out west go insane from the trauma of prairie life, losing babies, being attached by animals, being stuck in a sod hut for months at a time in blizzards with no human contact, etc....a criminal and spinster are engaged to take them back east to family and friends who can care for them and along the way encounter more obstacles and tragedy. Makes you realize how lucky we are now. Quick read - 2 evenings for me! Highly recommend!
