With the convention of finding a diary in an elderly neighbor’s attic trunk framing her story, Dallas creates a ripping good read from this fictional journal.
Beginning in 1865, a week after her wedding in Fort Madison, Iowa, Mattie Spenser confides to her diary as she and her new husband travel by Conestoga wagon to the Colorado Territories.
The building of a sod house; the births and deaths of children; the melting of narrow attitudes toward “loose” women, Indians, and Negroes; and the growth of Mattie as a person are all visible in these pages, full of what seems like genuine details of prairie life.
There’s enough about her complicated relationship with her husband to satisfy readers longing for romance and resolution. If some of the hooks in the tale, which include wife beating, incest, miscegenation, and adultery, are a bit contrived, the pace is lively and engaging.
Beginning in 1865, a week after her wedding in Fort Madison, Iowa, Mattie Spenser confides to her diary as she and her new husband travel by Conestoga wagon to the Colorado Territories.
The building of a sod house; the births and deaths of children; the melting of narrow attitudes toward “loose” women, Indians, and Negroes; and the growth of Mattie as a person are all visible in these pages, full of what seems like genuine details of prairie life.
There’s enough about her complicated relationship with her husband to satisfy readers longing for romance and resolution. If some of the hooks in the tale, which include wife beating, incest, miscegenation, and adultery, are a bit contrived, the pace is lively and engaging.
