A Clearing in the Wild (Change and Cherish Historical Series #1) [Paperback]

Jane Kirkpatrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2006

Young Emma Wagner chafes at the constraints of Bethel colony, an 1850s religious community in Missouri that is determined to remain untainted by the concerns of the world. A passionate and independent thinker, she resents the limitations placed on women, who are expected to serve in quiet submission. In a community where dissent of any form is discouraged, Emma finds it difficult to rein in her tongue–and often doesn’t even try to do so, fueling the animosity between her and the colony’s charismatic and increasingly autocratic leader, Wilhelm Keil.

Eventually Emma and her husband, Christian, are sent along with eight other men to scout out a new location in the northwest where the Bethelites can prepare to await “the last days.” Christian believes they’ve found the ideal situation in Washington territory, but when Keil arrives with the rest of the community, he rejects Christian’s choice in favor of moving to Oregon.

Emma pushes her husband to take this opportunity to break away from the group, but her longed-for influence brings unexpected consequences. As she seeks a refuge for her wounded faith, she learns that her passionate nature can be her greatest strength–if she can harness it effectively.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Here begins another of Kirkpatrick's trilogies about the settlement of Oregon, this one set in the early 1850s. At stage center is a restless young female, Emma Wagner, in the midst of a quiet, then not so quiet, rebellion against the world of men. First up, there's the dour patriarch of Emma's religious colony, who thinks that childbirth is God's punishment to women for original sin. But Emma is clever and marries the colony's number-two man, Christian Giesy. Though pregnant, she manages to accompany Christian on the hazardous trail from Bethel, Missouri, to the coast of Oregon, where the patriarch has determined the colony should move. Along the way, Emma develops her own theology: colonies may not be such a good idea; good neighbors and equality of the sexes are better ones. The sequels will no doubt treat what the patriarch thinks of all this. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Jane Kirkpatrick is the award-winning, best-selling author of two nonfiction books and eleven novels, including A Name of Her Own and the acclaimed Kinship and Courage series. Jane is a winner of the coveted Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center and National Cowboy Hall of Fame. A licensed clinical social worker as well as an inspirational retreat leader and speaker, she lives with her husband on 160 acres in eastern Oregon. Visit Jane's website at www.jkbooks.com!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press; 1ST edition (April 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578567343
• ISBN-13: 978-1578567348
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

If you'd like more information about me, please come visit my website at www.jkbooks.com and click on my blog. My dog also has a blog and you can find out what it's like to be Bodacious Bo, too. A monthly newsletter called Story Sparks is my way of sharing books about authors I enjoy as well as commenting on life and love. You'll find out more about me than you probably ever wanted to know! You
One item not listed on my lists of books is my selection included in an anthology called "Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West" published by Houghton Mifflin I also have a piece in Storytellers II, a book published a few years ago by Multnomah Press and a few short selections in Daily Guideposts of a few years back. My first novella, "The Courting Quilt" is part of a collection that made the New York Times bestsellers this past September in a collection called Log Cabin Christmas. The rest of my writing, as they say, is history. Or it was until my first contemporary came out this fall. Called Barcelona Calling, it's the story of a writer who loses her way as she seeks fulfillment thinking she'll find it with fame. It's a laugh out loud book according to reviewers. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A feisty heroine in a fascinating setting, May 25, 2006

By 

Cindy Swanson (Rockford, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Clearing in the Wild (Change and Cherish Historical Series #1) (Paperback)

The story--based on actual people and events--centers around Emma Wagner, a young woman who is part of the Bethel colony, a close-knit religious community ruled by a charismatic and autocratic leader, Dr. Wilhelm Kiel.

Spirited, outgoing and opinionated, Emma has trouble buckling under in a community that scarcely allows women to speak, much less contribute an opinion. When one of the main men in the colony falls in love with her, conflict inevitably arises between Emma and Kiel, the leader. And then, Kiel decides to send Emma's husband on a trip to Oregon, and the conflict really begins!

The Bethel colony is fascinating becauses of its paradoxes (a ruffle on a woman's petticoat is a sin, but the colony makes and sells whiskey...severe plainness in home decorating is a must, but the colony has a brass band and enjoys dancing parties complete with beer-drinking), and the arbitrary and heavy-handed leadership of its leader.

We come to care deeply about Emma, who comes across not only as feisty and outspoken, but refreshing and courageous.

As always, Jane Kirkpatrick breathes life into a small portion of history, through meticulous research and beautiful writing. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a thoughtful, thought-provoking read, June 1, 2006

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Clearing in the Wild (Change and Cherish Historical Series #1) (Paperback)

Jane Kirkpatrick is one of historical faith fiction's best literary prose-masters, and this first installment in a new series, A CLEARING IN THE WILD, is a welcome invitation to explore the settling of the west. This is more than a historical tale, however. Based on her research into a true story, Kirkpatrick opens up to the reader endless questions about gender roles, the values and pitfalls of community, the dangers of power and problems of blind allegiances, the troubling balance between following the courage of one's convictions and selfishness, and the riddle of how a good God can be resolved with personal tragedy and suffering.

In the 1850s in Bethel, Missouri, a Christian community seeks to live in harmony with each other yet separate from worldly things. Through first-person narrative, we discover that young 17-year-old Emma Wagner of the community is in love and ready to tie the knot with Christian Giesy, 20 years her senior and only a year younger than her father. The leader of the religious colony, Father Keil, is against the match, and his word is usually law among the group. But Emma's strong will prevails.

Emma chafes against conformity and longs to express her individuality. Her dress is plain, yet she sews a double row of ruffles into her crinoline where no one but herself and her husband can see them. (Says her new husband, who loves her independence even as it troubles him, "It's a good thing to do, when you feel overcome by the rules.") She discovers that Christian has wanderlust, and in the way of all newly married women must readjust her thoughts of her beloved. "That momentary insight changed the way I looked at him, altered how I thought he saw our marriage too. Like a woman riding on a pillion behind her husband, we traveled the same road but arrived at our destination with very different views. We had different hopes, it seemed, save that we each said out loud we wished a family."

By resorting to shading the truth, Emma wangles a spot with the Bethel Scout's exploration of the west to the coasts of Oregon and Washington. They hope to relocate the community further from the perils of too-close civilization, finding a "place of separation" as they had once done by moving from Pennsylvania to Missouri. What Emma hasn't told her husband or anyone else is that she's pregnant.

Kirkpatrick immerses her readers into the rich details of the religious colony of this period, from strudels to Schellenbaums (a Turkish bell tree) to German proverbs ("Begin to weave/God provides the thread.") The colony seeks to follow "The Diamond Rule" --- better than even the golden rule in that colonists are asked "to be in service, to treat others as we wished to be treated, and to go beyond, to help others live even better than we did." Good words for reflection. There are snippets of wisdom interwoven throughout the story that also prompt deeper thought, as when Emma's little son Andy keeps running toward a trench. ("I wondered why it is we are pulled to that which is dangerous, to places we should best leave alone.")

If you are a reader who demands lots of fast-paced action and climactic tragedies, then this is not your book. If, however, you like a thoughtful read, give Kirkpatrick's novels a try. She's won numerous awards (including the general market "Wrangler Award" from the Western Heritage Center and National Cowboy Hall of Fame). Book groups will find that there are plenty of topics for discussion in this well-crafted, multilayered novel. A sequel is already in the works, in which Emma's journey of self-discovery will continue.


--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby. Contact Cindy at [e-mail].

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An evocative tale of a young woman standing up for her individualism, June 6, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Clearing in the Wild (Change and Cherish Historical Series #1) (Paperback)

Set in the 1850s and based upon true events through the tiny community of Bethel Missouri and its people, A Clearing In The Wild by novelist Jane Kirkpatrick is the engaging story of Emma Wagner. As the young Emma becomes less and less restrained by social barriers in an evocative tale of a young woman standing up for her individualism against the social, cultural, and religiously based strictures imposed upon women of the era. Jane Kirkpatrick's epic novel is characterized by memorable characters embedded in an original and engaging plot that rivets the readers total attention from beginning to end. A Clearing In The Wild is a welcome acquisition for any community library, and will result in readers seeking out Jane Kirkpatrick's many previous novels including A Land Of Sheltered Promise (1578567335), and her three volume "Tender Ties" series from WaterBrook Press.