Friday, June 12

1000 white women

I've been in a dry spot recently with reading. I've picked several books up, but nothing has kept me. Yesterday a friend told me she finished a book called "One Thousand White Women" and couldn't put it down so tonight I went to the bookstore and bought it.

The book itself is comprised of an intro, a prologue, seven books, a codicile, and epilogue. i am in the middle of the second book and can't put it down. The author writes from the perspective of a woman who was locked into an institution by her rich parents in the late 1800 for being sexually active. She is given the chance to get out of the looney bin and go off west to marry an indian and bear him children and records her observations along the way. A little over 100 years later, a relative back east decides to research his family and sets out to find the truth about his crazy relative and get ahold of her journals. The book is written as if the author had found the journals and is publishing them for all to read.

theis book is loosely based on truth in that the Cheyenne people did ask for 1,000 white women in exchange for 1,000 horses. However, the exchange never took place as Grant, among others, was outraged at the request. The author takes the "what if?" route and tells the stories of all the women who went west. He mixes historical fact with stuff he made up willy-nilly, which must have been fun for him. For a man, the author writes women well and I cannot wait to find out what happens to May Dodd.

i'm glad to have broken my dry spell.

5 comments:

vq said...

You sold me! I'm going to find it tomorrow. It sounds really fun.

I just read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which sounded from the title like some kind of YaYa sisterhood sort of southern womanhood book, but is not at all. It was very good--I read it pretty much in one sitting.

schell said...

Jilly, I like "white women". SOmeone else here didn't....maybe Tree. I'm glad you like it too.
Verb, I heard that was good. I'm going to have to borrow it from the library!

Gail said...

I loved The Guernsey and for about two months kept wondering what happened after the end of the book. Not many books hang around in my brain for long, but this one did.

I'll be looking for 1000 women...

Sonya said...

Yes, I didn't like 1000 White Women. Hated it. When you're all done (all of you) with it, I'll tell you why I didn't like it and see if you agree.

But loved Guernsey L&PPPS.

sheila222 said...

If I can find it, I'll read it again. The good news is it'll seem like a whole new read!