Digital audiobook narrated by Michael Prichard

Subtitle: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride

Brown looks at the events that led to and resulted from the infamous Donner Party trapped in a blizzard in the mountains near present day Lake Tahoe. I think that most people today have at least heard of the Donner Party, and for most of us the single thing we remember is their descent into cannibalism, but Brown gives us a more complete picture. We learn of their goals, hopes, and dreams, of their preparations and survival skills. We also learn about their mistakes and disagreements.

He chose to focus on one particular young woman, Sarah Graves, who was a 21-year-old newlywed when the group, which included her new husband, her parents and younger siblings, set out from Illinois bound for California, and who survived the ordeal. Brown did extensive research, interviewing descendants, pouring over historical reports, and actually replicating parts of the journey so that he could get a real sense of walking through waist-high fields of prairie grasses, experience the blinding whiteness of walking across salt flats in summer, feel the bitter wind of a snowstorm in the mountains. This made the tale more personal, even visceral, and helped this reader feel connected to Sarah and the entire Donner party.

Michael Prichard does a marvelous job of performing the audiobook. Nonfiction – even narrative nonfiction – can be dry at times but his delivery kept me engaged and interested in hearing the story. ( )

The tragedy of the Donner Party of 1846 has been told numerous times in varying degrees of research and detail. In this 2010 version, Brown opts to narrate this disaster and survival story from the perspective of Sarah Graves, a new bride traveling west with her family and her new husband. They make the catastrophic choice to join up with another trail party whose fate would still be remembered with a shudder more than 150 years later.

Brown has presented a thoroughly researched, balanced and well-written portrayal of the circumstances, personalities, decisions and aftermath. It's funny — this is the fourth Donner Party narrative I've read now, and in each instance there has been a fanciful part of my brain that feels hopeful that *this time* they will make different choices that lead to a less tragic outcome. Alas, that never happens. I do feel rather an expert now on the subject, though. ( )

This was a tough book to read. Most have heard of the Donner Party, but this book covers the expedition in detail, mostly through the experience of Sarah Graves, a survivor. Mistakes, bad advice and motives contributed to the disaster. The lost and desperate emigrants resorted to not only cannibalism but also murder. Is this heroic? The author closes the book with this: " hope is the hero's domain, not the Fool's Because if we dare to hope even when doing so might undo us- we leave the worlds we create behind us, swirling in our wakes eternal and effervescent with the beauty of our aspirations. "
Something to think about. ( )

I read Alma Katsu's book [b:The Hunger|30285766|The Hunger|Alma Katsu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1497803277l/30285766._SY75_.jpg|50762090] a couple of years ago, and I loved it. It's a fictionalized horror story of the Donner Party's journey. It's an excellent book. But, while it is well researched, it's fiction. I've been curious about the real story since then.

This is an extremely well-written history of the Donner Party and the difficulties faced by so many American emigrants who went west in search of a destiny they believed was manifest. Their story is dramatic and horrific enough to be gripping. It's a tale of survivalist adventure that rivals that of any modern descent into a deep cave or a trek up a dangerous mountain.

I appreciated Brown's account because it was written without modern judgement. He wrote about them as people of their time in history and location. It enabled me to understand them as they were, not as people who understand the world as we do. They set out to change their futures and the futures of generations to come.

In his epilogue, Brown retraced their route. It was a heartfelt journey that allowed me to connect the past to the modern day. My heart broke for all of them: the heroes, the scoundrels, the loving, the children, the young, the adults, the living, and the dead. It also allowed me to see that they were just one group among so many. The epilogue drew Sarah's story to a satisfactory close. Everyone's history eventually comes to a close sooner or later. That's epically clear in Indifferent Stars.

After I finished reading the book, I sought out their diaries online and was delighted to find the diaries of Patrick Breen at the Online Archive of California (oac.cdlib.org). I will find additional sources of original information. Not for the sensationalism of cannibalism, but for the people who survived a series of horrible mistakes and a harrowing price for making them.

I'm so glad I read this book.

I'll clean the spelling and grammar mistakes later. Tired. ( )

Absolutely fantastic - highly recommend. ( )