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A review by midknytowl
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel
2.0
Not exactly what I was expecting, based on the title. There are women's diaries of the westward journey, but they're added to the back almost like an appendix (which wasn't clear in the introduction that that was the format). The majority of the book is the author summarizing with occasional excerpts from the diaries, almost like you would when writing a research paper for school.
The order also felt rather mushy. I made it through the first section (75 pages) before I gave up, and there's not a strong narrative throughout. She talks about a general thing, then gives an example of one woman's entire journey with a slight focus on the general thing, before switching to another woman and kind of doing the same thing. (For example, she might want to talk about how about how being pregnant wasn't really mentioned in the diaries, then will tell you about Mrs. Whoever left from this place at this age, saw these things, wrote about this, gave birth on this day, then arrived at this place in this situation. Then it would go to Mrs. Someone Else and the summary of her entire journey, with an extra few sentences on the childbirth part.)
The problem with this is that it doesn't carry that continuous thread throughout and just ends up jumbled. It could have been organized by the different legs of the trail, or more specific for each woman. Actually, organizing it by the subject like she kind of does would have been great too, but then make each section specifically about that thing and focus on it in a clear, easy to follow way. Everything was too summarized and I felt like I was reading the introduction the entire time.
That probably sounds all jumbled too, but that's what this book did to me. ;)
I'm sure the author researched the subject extensively and I don't doubt her knowledge, but her ability to convey that information is severely lacking. 1.5 stars.
The order also felt rather mushy. I made it through the first section (75 pages) before I gave up, and there's not a strong narrative throughout. She talks about a general thing, then gives an example of one woman's entire journey with a slight focus on the general thing, before switching to another woman and kind of doing the same thing. (For example, she might want to talk about how about how being pregnant wasn't really mentioned in the diaries, then will tell you about Mrs. Whoever left from this place at this age, saw these things, wrote about this, gave birth on this day, then arrived at this place in this situation. Then it would go to Mrs. Someone Else and the summary of her entire journey, with an extra few sentences on the childbirth part.)
The problem with this is that it doesn't carry that continuous thread throughout and just ends up jumbled. It could have been organized by the different legs of the trail, or more specific for each woman. Actually, organizing it by the subject like she kind of does would have been great too, but then make each section specifically about that thing and focus on it in a clear, easy to follow way. Everything was too summarized and I felt like I was reading the introduction the entire time.
That probably sounds all jumbled too, but that's what this book did to me. ;)
I'm sure the author researched the subject extensively and I don't doubt her knowledge, but her ability to convey that information is severely lacking. 1.5 stars.