Book Description
The companion volume to the PBS documentary film about the first—and perhaps most astonishing—automobile trip across the United States.
In 1903 there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire nation and most people had never seen a “horseless buggy”—but that did not stop Horatio Nelson Jackson, a thirty-one-year-old Vermont doctor, who impulsively bet fifty dollars that he could drive his 20-horsepower automobile from San Francisco to New York City. Here—in Jackson’s own words and photographs—is a glorious account of that months-long, problem-beset, thrilling-to-the-rattled-bones trip with his mechanic, Sewall Crocker, and a bulldog named Bud. Jackson’s previously unpublished letters to his wife, brimming with optimism against all odds, describe in vivid detail every detour, every flat tire, every adventure good and bad. And his nearly one hundred photographs show a country still settled mainly in small towns, where life moved no faster than the horse-drawn carriage and where the arrival of Jackson’s open-air (roofless and windowless) Winton would cause delirious excitement.
Jackson was possessed of a deep thirst for adventure, and his remarkable story chronicles the very beginning of the restless road trips that soon became a way of life in America.
Horatio’s Drive is the first chapter in our nation’s great romance with the road.
With 146 illustrations and 1 map
Customer Reviews:
A short book about a long journey.......2007-09-28
I enjoy reading almost anything about antique autos,the early days of the US auto industry, old car trips and stories about the history of early automobile travel in the United States. This is a wonderful companion to the PBS series video on the first successful United States transcontinental auto trip from California to NYC. Great olde tyme photos and a well presented memoir of the adventure. Of course you cannot "just" read the book...the video is a must!
Before the SUV..........2005-11-05
Amazing document about a time in American history when there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire country. In 1903, an adenturous 31 year old Doctor from Vermont, now retired and living happily with his weathy young wife (on her funds), decided he'd attempt to be the first to man cross the continent via the latest technological gadget: the automobile. Being a non-mechanic, he hired an equally spirited 21 year old former bicycle racer who had been working as a mechanic in a gasoline-engine factory in California to accompany him. Most roads were little more than muddy wagon paths, and when those stopped the travellers could only follow along railroad tracks or trust in their sense of direction as they set out across the vast plains and desert. Nevertheless, they made the trek successfully.Equally amazing, his beloved wife condoned his folly and waited anxiously at home. They wrote letters to each other regularly, and these (preserved) letters were the author's primary source of information about his daily successes and frustrations along his cross-country 'expedition'.This book, a companion to the PBS documentary film (available on DVD) is filled with rare vintage photos. Few would attempt such a journey today, even with modern GPS equipped 4x4 vehicles, and the book and DVD are both splendid inspirations for anyone who loves to share in the triumphs of those few individuals who would fearlessly challenge what has never been done simply because they believe they can succeed.I only wish there had been more more detailed excerpts from the original correspondences included in this book. Still, a splendid addition to your library... and your education!
not the narrative from the PBS show.......2005-10-26
I had it in my head that this was going to be the audio from the wonderful PBS show but I was mistaken. It is a reading of the book. I should've looked more closely. The story, however, is wonderful. The voices from the narrative on the PBS show were more engaging and lively that those on this CD but the story remains just as good.
Brief but fun.......2005-08-03
This is a brief account of the first cross country automobile trip, sprinkled with photographs taken by the "automobilist" as he traversed the nation's dirt roads just after the turn of the last century. Horation Nelson Jackson bet someone $50 in a club in San Francisco that he could cross the country in an automobile he had just bought, and do it in less than 90 days. He spent over $8,000 winning his bet (though he never collected the money).
The car (something called a Winton) had numerous breakdowns. After each one, Jackson would write his wife and advise her that "the worst is over now" after which the car would inevitably break down again. Jackson and his mechanic, Sewall Crocker, spent endless days waiting for parts and jury-rigging parts for the car. After Jackson and Crocker left San Francisco, two other cars, each with its own pair of intrepid motorists, left there also, all three headed to New York City. In spite of a number of hindrances, Jackson's Winton beat out the Packard and the Oldsmobile. Jackson even picked out a dog, named Bud, who wore goggles and rode in the front seat for most of the adventure.
This is a rather short book. It took me perhaps an hour and a half to read. It's full of illustrations and has a map showing the route Jackson took. It's also very interesting, covering a part of American history that I imagine many people had never heard before. I recommend it.
Unabridged Audio CD.......2005-05-30
Having recently read the "Lincoln Highway", I was interested in learning more about the earliest travel across the country by automobile. I opted for the audio CD so we could listen to the story while in the car.
Often, my mind wanders when listening to audio books. However, that wasn't true for this audio book. The story of this historic trip, as well as the narration by various individuals, has retained both my interest and attention.
I would recommend that anyone not familiar with the means of travel at that time and road conditions, become familiar with it before beginning with the audio CD... Next, I plan on watching the video DVD of Horatio's Drive.
Average customer rating:
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Four Wheels and Frontiers: The First Overland-Singapore to England
Roy Follows , and
Jayne E. Follows
Manufacturer: Ulric Publishing
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First Overland
ASIN: 0953757781 |
Book Description
Two English Colonial Police Officers were engaged in a lethal war fighting Communist Terrorists in the Malay Emergency when they decided to make an overland journey from Singapore to England. One year later, in February 1958, they purchased an ex-army Willy’s Jeep from a local scrap yard and set out for England. This book reflects their true spirit of adventure with no mobile phones, no G.P.S., no sponsorship, and limited maps.
Customer Reviews:
An incredible feat........2007-09-20
There are a number of cars which stand out in my own mind as classics. The E-Type Jaguar, Morris Minor and the original Mini. From the USA, I would have to include the Model T Ford and the 57 Chevvy.
Then there was that mass produced, and often overlooked, hero of just about every World War Two movie ever made, the American Willys MB Jeep. It was not a big vehicle but it was certainly robust. Just attend any of those gatherings in the UK where fans of the vehicles and uniforms of WW2 gather, and you will find far mare Jeeps than any other vehicle from that period. That alone is a testament to a well made car.
These vehicles were, however, runabouts and not designed for the arduous conditions and continual testing demanded by author Roy Follows and his fellow colonial police officer Noel Dudgeon. Just imagine the scene; It is 1957 and these two men are actively fighting communist guerrillas in the Malaysian jungle and discussing their next trip to England for some well-earned leave. Somehow, the decided to drive that 13,000 miles and chose to use a Jeep.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing was in "deciding" to go out and purchase a Jeep - rather than use one just because they had one.
What followed was the most remarkable journey. After all, their's was a small vehicle with a soft, convertible roof (i.e. no roof rack) and they pulled no trailer. They drove through jungles, removed boulders from rivers so that they could pass, they crossed rivers on ferries which had never previously seen anything larger than a cow and bribed the guards at outposts so remote that even they had never previously seen a vehicle.
It was 13,000 miles of the most gruelling, yet rewarding and always exciting of journeys. The funny part was that they even joined the Singapore Automobile Association in case of breakdown - though, of course, they never called and asked for their help.
Roy Follows writes in an immensely readable and enjoyable style. If you know of anyone who has a passion for vehicles and adventure, this is the book for them. Buy it for them, but don't open the pages before you pass it on, because you will not be able to put it down.
NM
Book Description
Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition is this remarkable account of Alexander Mackenzie--the explorer who beat Lewis and Clark across the North American continent. Mackenzie accomplished this feat an astounding twelve years before the Corps of Discovery. Drawing extensively on the journals of Mackenzie and other turn-of-the-century explorers--and featuring historical and contemporary photographs, illustrations, and maps--Hayes presents a lively portrait of the explorer who both preceded Lewis and Clark and provided an impetus for their expedition.
Customer Reviews:
First Crossing.......2007-09-25
This book is a welcome collection of facts about the stupendous exploits of Alexander Mackenzie's Canadian exploration. But the words are curiously bleak & dispassionate, and separate panels of information on the pages, intrude into the flow of the narrative.
What is needed now is for someone to take on the story, light it up with the raw romance of the period, paint the picture of the landscape, add colour photos of the places in the text, tell us about the man, and keep the size of the book down to normal.
Let us see the landscapes in all their glory.
The raw detailed story of the man remains to be told.
Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs.......2003-04-14
First Crossing by historian Derek Hayes is the amazing story of Alexander Mackenzie, and his trailblazing journey across the North American continent before civilized society conquered the North American wilderness. Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs in black-and-white and color, the deftly researched and meticulously reported details of Mackenzie's voyage vividly reconstruct an 18th Century expedition of truly insurmountable bravery and pivotally important discovery.
Not much new!.......2001-10-04
OK, there is some new information here. Mostly it seems that Hayes has helped illustrate the travels of Mackenzie, something that was not available previously. Barry Gough's book is notoriously lacking in any illustration of Mackenzie's voyages and Mackenzie's own book is virtually without useful illustration. Maybe having read the previous two books makes me jaded but Mackenzie's voyages can only be retold so many times.
Hayes has presented us with a slightly new take on telling the story with pictures, maps and historical vignettes but I hunger for a more thorough job. Perhaps more in the nature of Moulton's "Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition". Finding someone willing to wade through Mackenzie's rather impenetrable prose may be a challenge.
Notwithstanding the above this is probably the best explanation of Mackenzie's voyages since the original journals.
Average customer rating:
- Great book for a sequel!
- Unforgettable...
- beautiful and inspirational
- fine writing, real, intelligent, and interesting characters
- Don't Bother to Buy this Book - Boring!
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Walking West
Noelle Sickels
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0312132085 |
Book Description
In the wet spring of 1852, a small band of Indiana farm families sets off for California, lured west by the promise of a better life. Men, women, and children, the Muller party crosses treacherous rivers, slogs through mud and thunderstorms, and hauls wagons up and down mountains and over baking deserts in a seven-month journey across our raw continent.
Among them is Alice Muller, a reluctant traveler forced to leave home by her husband Henry's dreams of prosperity. But the Mullers greatly underestimate the hardships they will face, and it is ultimately Alice who must draw on the deepest reserves of body and soul to lead the little group of bone-weary emigrants through their final miles. In doing so, Alice changes from a dutiful farm wife into a woman capable of deep commitment, strong actions, and profound self-knowledge.
Customer Reviews:
Great book for a sequel!.......2000-06-27
It's been about five or six years since I read this book, but I really enjoyed it. I liked that it was from the women's point of view rather than the rough and rowdy men's point of view (which we get entirely too often). Women had far more to do with settling the west than they have ever been given credit for. Though this novel was not action-packed it was quite enjoyable. There was not a single part during the entire book that I was "bored." It took off and historically rendered a phenomenon that has not been written about enough either in fiction or non-fiction--the woman's impact on the westward movement. I am still, however, awaiting a sequel. I was hoping the oldest girl's boyfriend (I can't remember her name) would eventually come back for her once he has made it on his own. I would also like to see the matriarch become a power in the early west. Come on, Ms. Sickels. Please get a sequel going.
Unforgettable..........2000-06-08
Wow...There is a beauty and precision in this langauge that is so rare. This book is brimming with unforgettable characters and settings and scenes that will take you on an emotional ride. The way Sickels is able to bring each and every one of her characters to life is so refreshing. She is able to involve her readers by getting us attached to even the most minor of characters. This book is full of family, love, joy, hardship, pain, and loss -- all come full circle with a strong basis of impressibly well-researched history and well-developed settings. This is a book about strong women and strong wills. This is a book that will break your heart but also warm it. Noelle Sickels is an amazing writer with not only an obvious passion for the beauty of the written word, but also a way of carefully weaving an intricate and well-developed story that stays with us always.
beautiful and inspirational.......1999-12-31
I found this to be one of the most intriguing and inspirational books that I have recently read. The characters are vivid as are the hardships that they endure. I could not put this book down. The sad moments are unbelievably touching and the happy moments brought tears of joy to my eyes.
fine writing, real, intelligent, and interesting characters.......1999-08-13
It is truly hard to isolate one passage in this book that stands out more than the rest, for there is so much fine writing here. This is a history one can believe in; no outbursts of incomprehensible violence nor impulisve torrid love affairs just for the sake of titillation. This is a book for connoisseurs of language, syntax and history. What's more, this is a book for women ravenous for self-images. Alice is full-bodied, courageous, intelligent, and amazingly, in love with a husband who does what no other literary figure has ever done: he takes the time to make love to his wife; to do what pleases her. How odd!
There is an amazing cast of characters and Sickels rescues them all from banality or ridicule. But this is not a book about character alone; this is a book about place, as well. The West is truly the frontier land, and still is, and this book captures that feel of endless space, and loneliness, and beauty.
Savor this book; roll it around in your mind like a fine wine. Take the time.
Don't Bother to Buy this Book - Boring!.......1998-12-30
I thought this would be an interesting book, especially since it had something to do with people migrating from my home state, Indiana. I got so bored I couldn't finish the book, which I hate to do. I like to give the author a chance to tell their story, but this was too much. If you plan to read this, memorize the characters first. You'll be lost if you don't - walking west!
Customer Reviews:
Wheels across the world.......2007-08-03
I'm delighted that this classic of adventure travel has finally been republished for a new generation of "off-the-beaten-track" travel enthusiasts.
Back in 1958, when I was in my 20's, I bought a paperback edition of the book and read and re-read it until it literally fell apart. It inspired me and some friends to ship a VW Kombi van to Bombay in 1964, and then head off overland to London. It was perhaps the most exciting few months of my life, and gave me a lifelong fascination with the less-travelled roads of the world. May it also inspire you!
And now, along with this new edition of the book, Teeafit in the UK has released a DVD of the original colour movie footage that Slessor's crew took along their way to document their epic journey. Unreservedly recommended!
Just as a footnote, if you enjoy this book, you will also enjoy "Long Road to London" by Peter Jeans, who rode from Sri Lanka to London on a motor bike in 1963.
5 stars is an understatement.......2006-03-04
The book is as good as the comment from this gentleman in Canada, and more. It is one lesson of history after another of geography after another of sociology.
Yes, it has a new edition, with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough. ISBN 1-904955-14-2.
Get it if you are either a Land Rover enthusiast or simply enjoy well written travel stories.
A darn good travel story.......2005-05-05
I just don't believe nobody has reviewed this book before me. But OK, lets cut to the chase. This was published back in 1957, and it's the story of six Oxford & Cambridge university students who picked up a couple of Land Rovers and drove overland from the UK to Singapore. The notable thing about this book is that these six were among the last known people to drive over the old Burma Road from Assam in India into northern Burma, & thence thru Burma to Thailand. An event that is covered by only a few pages in the book, but it's downright historical, because shortly afterwards Burma closed itself off and insurrections broke out among the the tribal people in Assam & the frontier district of India. As far as I can find out, nobody's driven through since.
The books well written in an "intrepid english adventurer" style and it's entertaining pretty much all the way through. My copies an old one, published in 1959, I have no idea if it's ever been republished but it's certainly worth the read if you can lay your paws on it and you like this kind of travel story.
Average customer rating:
- Notable historical account
- Very interesting reports
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The Butterfield Overland Mail: Only Through Passenger on the First Westbound Stage
Waterman L. Ormsby
Manufacturer: Huntington Library Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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900 Miles on the Butterfield Trail
ASIN: 0873280954 |
Book Description
This is the classic firsthand account by Waterman L. Ormsby, a reporter who in 1858 crossed the western states as the sole through passenger of the Butterfield Overland Mail stage on its first trip from St. Louis to San Francisco. Ormsby's reports, which promptly appeared in the New York Herald, are lively and exciting. He describes the journey in close detail, giving full accounts of the conveyances, the accommodations, the other passengers, the country through which they passed, the dangers to which they were exposed, and the constant necessity for speed. Serving as a frontispiece is a fold-out reproduction of the earliest known through timetable of the Overland Mail Company.
Customer Reviews:
Notable historical account.......2006-11-07
While not exactly high adventure or edge of your seat reading, Ormsby's description of being the first through passenger on the Overland Mail Route nevertheless depicts history in the making for trans-continental communication.
Ormsby details road and climate conditions, passenger accommodations, geography, availability of forage, wood and water, speed of travel and miles covered in the first attempt to deliver the mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. The projected travel time was twenty-five days and this initial attempt was accomplished in twenty-three days. A commendable achievement for those days.
The author also examines how the government finally decided on the chosen route. Overall an insightful read of an important historical event of our times.
Very interesting reports.......2003-12-20
Very interesting reports about the short lived butterfield overland route, recommended reading.
Book Description
In the first book to focus on relations between Indians and emigrants on the overland trails, Michael L. Tate shows that such encounters were far more often characterized by cooperation than by conflict. Having combed hundreds of unpublished sources and Indian oral traditions, Tate finds Indians and Anglo-Americans continuously trading goods and news with each other, and Indians providing various forms of assistance to overlanders.
Despite thousands of mutually beneficial exchanges between whites and Indians between 1840 and 1870, the image of Plains Indians as the overland pioneers' worst enemies prevailed in American popular culture. In explaining the persistence of that stereotype, Tate seeks to dispel one of the West's oldest cultural misunderstandings.
Customer Reviews:
an American myth exposed.......2007-03-23
The first chapter deals with the preconceived ideas of many of the emigrants, brought on by a plethora of books about Indians. From James Fenimore Coopers' The Last of the Mohicans to the Beadle's Dime Novel series to the fearful warnings of trail guidebooks, those who had never seen Indians read about them and formed stereotypes. The book next describes first encounters at river crossings near the beginning of the overland journey and follows with anecdotes of trading between emigrants and Indians. The next topic is Indian assistance to emigrants, then mutual friendships through gift-giving and social exchanges. The book discusses the phenomenon of white outlaws along the trail, whose actions were often blamed on the Indians. But significant material is devoted to those white people who looked beyond the prevalent stereotypes and made efforts to befriend native people and treat them with kindness.
Other topics treated in the book include the slaughter of bison and other wildlife along the overland trails, and the epidemics that accompanied the emigrants. A lengthy chapter is devoted to Indian massacres, real and supposed. The bulk of the chapter covers supposed massacres, in the forms of false alarms, exaggerated and fabricated tales, and white complicity in "Indian" attacks.
Another chapter deals with captivity narratives. Many accounts are examined, and many of these, especially later reminiscences, are found to be lacking credibility. But true accounts from journals are examined also. The last chapter discusses treaties and annuities, retributive justice, and the role of the army along western trails as cooperation degenerated into conflict. Still, incidents of friendship between Native Americans and white emigrants continued even while war broke out and the era of the overland trails came to an end.
Throughout the book, the personal narratives and eyewitness accounts lend credibility and readability, and statistics help to put these accounts into perspective. This book is very well-researched and documented, with 29 pages of endnotes and an extensive bibliography. This book provides a well-rounded and very human history of the overland trails.
Folklore of Indian Atrocities is Busted.......2006-04-25
Movie scene 1957 -- Pioneers in covered wagons observe Indians on horseback upon a ridge. The white women and children start to panic as the men quickly move the wagons into a defensive circle. Children are hidden under bedding inside the wagons; men scramble to hurry the horses within the circle while mounted warriors dressed in war paint move down the hillside. Horses secured, the white men now lay prone behind wagon wheels and stacked boxes as they nervously watch the warriors move towards them.
The Indians ready arrows and begin their fearsome yells as they lead their Appaloosa ponies into a full gallop. The white men take careful aim with their polished Winchesters and open fire dropping warriors with each shot. The white men are eventually overcome, killed, and scalped. The movie fades to black as the Indians leave the scene of the bloody massacre with captured women and children in tow. We can only fear the worst from their situation.
Fast forward to 2006 and the book: "Indians and Emigrants: Encounters on the Overland Trails" by Michael L. Tate. It ain't nothing like the movies. Hollywood would never make a movie from this book only because they couldn't imagine the world believing in it. Tate's sweeping grand adventure should be read attentively for its profound evocation of myth vs. reality regarding the relationship between the two races, which met on the plains of America in the 19th century. The vast majority of those meetings were actually cordial and beneficial for both parties.
Vastly researched with primary evidence, Tate presents winning arguments for such a reality. Factors which contributed to the white folklore of Indian atrocities were the emigrants complete misunderstanding of the Plains Indian culture, "...fanciful series of books and pamphlets written mostly by amateurs who knew little about Indians or frontier life", and the grossly exaggerated "Goldilocks Syndrome."
Peering through countless diaries and petitions to Congress, Tate found very few accounts of Indian atrocities, which included murder, rape, and kidnappings of women and children. Backtracking the many stories of three-year-old blonde daughters (Goldilocks Syndrome) being raped and kidnapped, Tate confirms that this syndrome was and is nothing more than a falsehood or half-truths - it definitely is not history. Proven to be exaggerated and/or fabricated by second hand print in newspapers and cheap-thrill books are supposedly first-hand accounts of atrocities. Additionally, Tate verifies accounts of captives refusing to return to their old way of life with their white relatives.
Reading through these astonishing revelations one has to wonder if the Indians had more to fear from the whites. Tate documents accounts where Indian villages actually fled the approach of emigrants along the major trails.
Revisionist historians writing today are on campaign to perpetuate the myth of old Hollywood. Their selective documentation leads one to conclude they choose cheap thrills from yesterday just to sell a story in a magazine or a book. Yet, their campaign of falsely ascribing warriors to terrorists further embolden those who still embrace racist views toward Indians. Tate, on the other hand is honest in his reporting - he does not ignore those instances where Indians committed atrocities against whites. There is no attempt to create a false utopia on the plains or to remodel a warrior into a terrorist. Tate's analysis reshapes the stereotypical mold of Indian depredations against emigrants along the trails to its proper shape: exactness.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent, tight, well-written, engaging!
- This book was absolutely amazing.
- Beautiful combo of earthiness and spirituality
- An exciting page-turner that leaves you feeling full!
- An exciting page-turner that leaves you feeling full!
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The Promised Land
Ruhama Veltfort
Manufacturer: Milkweed Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
United States
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ASIN: 1571310223 |
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, tight, well-written, engaging!.......2002-07-08
I loved this novel! The telling of the story from alternating points of view is engaging and well-done. I especially enjoyed the characters arriving in the US at New Orleans & going to St. Louis (during 1840s)-- a change from immigrant stories beginning in New York.
This book was absolutely amazing........1999-06-16
Ruhama Veltfort's The Promised Land should be added to the list of Great American Literauture of the 20th Century. As an African-American woman I was expecting (a friend recommended the book to me) to read a "good" novel about a group of people I know little about. I started the novel with an open mind and trust in my friends' choice in literature and finished the novel with a deeper understanding of myself. The depection of the Polish experience and the Jewish culture was sincere, exciting and riveting. I was able to recommend the book to several Jewish acqaintences who validated its authenticity. The development of the characters was powerful and Veltfort's insight into the human mind taught me more about how people can react to situations in fiction as well as in "real" life. I was glued to the book and read it in one sitting. I cannot say enough about Veltfort's mastery of her art.
Beautiful combo of earthiness and spirituality.......1998-11-17
This is a most beautiful and original book. I have never read one quite like it, but would greatly like to. The narrative line is strong, the characters very real, the places come alive in all their smells and sights, and it is a fine piece of storytelling. One has to say this up front, because this is a book about mysticism, about the experiences and ecstatic knowledge that lie beneath the forms and rules of a religion, and about how a creative spirituality can arise in individuals that leads them to break out of the boundaries of their inherited culture. In other words it is an intellectually serious book. It steers clear of sentimental spiritual claptrap. In the story, terrible things happen to people we have grown to love. But it is neither an `intellectual' book (i.e. inaccessible, hard work to read) nor a grim one. The narrative is strong because we care about these people and they are on a great quest, but also because the earthy details of their lives are as important to the author as their mystical experiences. One of the joys of the book is to look at a familiar scene - the American South and the frontier West - through unfamiliar eyes. E.g. Chana, the leading female character, only slowly understands that the black women with whom she does the chores in a rich Jew's house in St. Louis are slaves. The most terrible thing for these believers is not perhaps the pogroms or the starvation or the Indians, but the dangers inherent in the freedom and prosperity of the new land. "How am I to raise my sons here...?" asks one father. "Here there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, and all are gone to the devil in their crazy pursuit of riches." And the elder son himself says, "I ain't a Jew! ... I don't have to be nothin' I don't want to be. What else are we going West for?" If I have any criticism of the book it is that the ending, which brought tears to my eyes, nonetheless seemed to half-sidestep some of the issues raised about prosperity and keeping the faith. The beautiful spareness of the language of the book, without a wasted word, was too spare for me at the end. But perhaps, then what I really want is the sequel, about the survivors and their granmdchildren, and how they preserve the unity of body and spirit in the dangerously prosperous times in which we live.
An exciting page-turner that leaves you feeling full!.......1998-11-13
From the first sentence, I was hooked. Without warning, Veltfort deftly drops the reader into a tiny village in 19th Century Poland. This strange landscape, as alien as Dune, is made comfortable by its warm, vibrant characters with their universally human fears, aspirations, and ideals. It was empathy for these odd people, a reluctant Rabbi, his wife, and a few followers, that made it a pleasure to learn their language and religion, and a delight to behold the world through their eyes. There's lots of excitement as this often not-so-merry but always entertaining band struggles to survive the hazardous journey from war-torn Eastern Europe to the still untamed American West. With so much action and adventure to stimulate the imagination, and so much drama to tug the heart, it's easy to forget that how well the book re-awakens your spiritual core with every page. Although this is a story about Orthodox Judaism, with overtones of Jewish mysticism, its messages are transcendent, non-denominational, and full of understanding and love for God. Extremely well written, I literally couldn't put it down while I was reading it, and can't get it out of my head now that I'm done. My only disappointment is that this is a first novel-I can't rush out and get more by the same author.
An exciting page-turner that leaves you feeling full!.......1998-11-10
From the first sentence, I was hooked. Without warning, Veltfort deftly drops the reader into a tiny village in 19th Century Poland. This strange landscape, as alien as Dune, is made comfortable by its warm, vibrant characters with their universally human fears, aspirations, and ideals. It was empathy for these odd people, a reluctant Rabbi, his wife, and a few followers, that made it a pleasure to learn their language and religion, and a delight to behold the world through their eyes. There's lots of excitement as this often not-so-merry but always entertaining band struggles to survive the hazardous journey from war-torn Eastern Europe to the still untamed American West. With so much action and adventure to stimulate the imagination, and so much drama to tug the heart, it's easy to forget that how well the book re-awakens your spiritual core with every page. Although this is a story about Orthodox Judaism, with overtones of Jewish mysticism, its messages are transcendent, non-denominational, and full of understanding and love for God. Extremely well written, I literally couldn't put it down while I was reading it, and can't get it out of my head now that I'm done. My only disappointment is that this is a first novel-I can't rush out and get more by the same author.
Books:
- How to Read a North Carolina Beach: Bubble Holes, Barking Sands, and Rippled Runnels
- I Don't Know How She Does It
- India - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!)
- Inside the Titanic (A Giant Cutaway Book)
- Island Life: Inspirational Interiors
- Journey to the High Southwest, 7th: A Traveler's Guide to Santa Fe and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah
- Journey to the High Southwest, 7th: A Traveler's Guide to Santa Fe and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah
- Julie, or the New Heloise: Letters of Two Lovers Who Live in a Small Town at the Foot of the Alps (Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Works. Vol. 6.)
- Ka Lei Ha'aheo: Beginning Hawaiian
- Living & Eating
Books Index
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