Customer Reviews

The Diary of Mattie Spenser

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sometimes your lucky day strikes and you come upon a novel that meets all your favorite topics and interests. This book was recommended to me by another Amazon.com reviewer that understood my passion for this era and took advantage of what this site has to offer to get in touch with me.

Ever since my mother passed along _Jubilee Trail_ by Gwen Bristow, I have been fascinated by the 1850's and the journey and homesteading of the western lands. While the stories of many books I have read were well done, I still wished to learn more of the everyday issues and how they managed to make do in such difficult settings. It is very evident that the author, Sandra Dallas, researched her work, for you will be delighted to learn specifics of how these men and women lived, loved, made their home and raised their children.

It is a difficult time, the end of the civil war has taken it's toll on the north and south. Men are looking to making a livelihood and forget the horrors of the war. The story centers around Mattie, a young woman who marries Luke and moves to Colorado. There, Luke challenges the land hoping to farm, and Mattie works hard to make a home in their sod house. She becomes pregnant immediately and must deliver her first child in the company of men. Mattie and Luke's marriage is stable, but Luke has some secrets and over the years Mattie discovers them. Other men see the beauty and strength in Mattie, for she is a fine lady and well respected. She easily fits in the group of men, as they discuss the issues of farming, indian revolts and homesteading. It is a very difficult life as the indians are a constant threat, alternating the kidnapping of women and children with outright murdur. Food and provisions are scarce and the risks of disease are a constant fear. Their days are long and the work is hard. There are few luxuries. A long forgotten piece of chocolate fallen into the corner of their traveling trunk serves as a treat to be scavenged and eaten. The reader is astonished at the strength these people had to have to survive in such stark and barren land. You will be pleased with the details and even more so with the plot of the story. Travel to the big city, Denver City and learn what it was like to stay in the hotel and explore the city. It is a wonderful book and I hated to come to the last page. You will, too.

After reading "These Is My Words" I found "The Diary of Mattie Spenser", another book in diary format. How lucky I was to take a chance and order this from Amazon! It was a very good read and made me stop all my other projects and read this book! I only hope Sandra Dallas has more books to come. The "Persian Pickle Club" by Sandra Dallas was also a good book.

Sandra Dallas can number me among her devoted fans. I haven't read anything yet from her that I haven't admired. And I delighted in THE DIARY OF MATTIE SPENSER; couldn't put it down.

As always with a book by Ms. Dallas, she has researched thoroughly so that her readers can truly understand the time and the place in which she sets her story.

MATTIE opens with the pioneers on the wagon train to what was then the Colorado Territory. Most of the story then unfolds on the prairie where this new bride and her husband settle. This was a place so isolated and so bleak that we now know it drove many women, and a few men, to madness.

Certainly, we understand these hardships as we sit in our warm homes, reading under the light of a good lamp. But seeing the hardships spelled out, as Dallas does here, reminds us of the extent of the woes that these people endured, and the stoicism with which they accepted their realities. Indian attacks, isolation, no plumbing, heat, light, medicine, plus childbirth fever...well, we now have a lot for which to be thankful. And the distance that, as a population, we have moved in just a century is highlighted by this diary.

Part of Dallas' skill is that she always inhabits her characters so perfectly, giving them their voices. Mattie, as Dallas writes her, is a woman of extraordinary virtues. Decent, educated, kind and capable, she accepts her bridegroom's choices and defines the old-fashioned concept of "helpmate."

Like all of Ms. Dallas' novels, this story pivots on a terrible secret, the worst secret she has written to date. I must admit that I was upset with the outcome here, though I cannot see how the diary could have ended in any other way. Still, Mattie's decision is thought-provoking in terms of today's women, and it highlights how far women have come in terms of both our rights and our freedoms within society.

I admired the concept of writing this story in the form of diary entries. Since Ms. Dallas apparently is a leading expert on Colorado frontier history, I cannot help wondering how much of MATTIE may be fact-based.

Truth or fiction, it doesn't matter. THE DIARY OF MATTIE SPENSER is a wonderful book that will stay with its admirers for years after it first is read.

It has been five years since I picked up this book in the library on a whim and the story has stayed with me ever since - so much so that I finally decided to look it up here and see what others had to say. It's certainly not great literature but there is something about Dallas's straight forward manner and story presentation that is compelling and very believable. I'm amazed that I can still remember most of the book. Mattie's attempt to make a go of life in the wilderness and all the obstacles - both emotional and physical - that she encounters are page turners. A few years later I discovered an even better book along the same lines: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.

I enjoyed this book , but would not consider it a "great read". I found the content to be very interesting, but I generally do not enjoy the Diary format, and I ws a bit bored with Mattie's style. In addition, I felt as if the adventures and misadventures of Mattie Spenser were too numerous to be believable. I think that the major obstacle, besides the hard work of settling a new land, and the dangers of doing that, would have been unbelievable boredom and loneliness . I just finished Willa Cather's My Antonia, which is a classic written in 1918, dealing with the same subject, and the difference in styles is very dramatic. Cather writes literature. Dallas writes a good story.

I have now read three of Sandra Dallas' four books and have loved all three. This book is about a young woman who heads west to Colorado, married to a man she hardly knows. I kept forgetting at times that it was not a true story. The book details the hard life on the Colorado plains, her husband's wandering eye and heart and her heartbreaks and triumphs. This is NOT a romance novel but more like a history of one pioneer woman, her friends and her life. After reading Ms. Dallas' first two books, I e-mailed the author to tell her how much I have enjoyed her novels and she actually answered the e-mail back herself! I was really surprised at that. She is currently working on another book to be out sometime next spring and I am anxiously awaiting its publication. This is just a good solid read, hard to put down...

I got this book from my local library after reading Alice's Tulips. Being a quilter, I am familiar with Dallas' love of quilts and history. I found this book very well written. A masterpiece of historical fiction. I was gripped and found it difficult to put the book down. I really enjoyed the format, it helped to anchor the book and draw you into Mattie's world. Definitely has its heart wrenching moments, so have a box of tissues near by. At first I was disappointed with the ending but upon reflection of the book I realize that it has the perfect ending. Maybe not what you would be hoping for but it follows the tone of the book regarding women's hardships and the tough selfless decisions women have to make, a suitable and understandable conclusion to a wonderfully written novel. I have decided to add this book to my library as I truly enjoyed reading it and would like to read it again.

I picked up this book on a whim, always interested to read a Diary-type format as they read quickly and yet you feel "sneaky" and intrusive somehow reading what you would normally view as personal text. Mattie Spenser was really a rebel in her own day, questioning why women had to constantly submit to every whim and demand of a man. The book is interesting throughout - yet as a woman living in the 90's - I sure woulda changed the ending! Thank God women have come as far as they have. Great read Sandra Dallas.....keep 'em coming.

"The Diary of Mattie Spenser" is an exceptional book! If you're looking for a sugarcoated tale of a woman's life in the West, then look for another book. Dallas' book illustrates the nitty-gritty things women endured while traveling west and once settling. The standards women needed to abide by were treacherous and merciless. I felt an array of emotions while reading this: pity and strength for Mattie, repugnance and detestation towards Luke, ardor and fondness for Tom, etc. Women may have been the "lesser" sex, but men could not endure what the women had. I recommend.

Being a diary writer for more than 30 years, I am drawn to books written in diary format. This book portrayed a woman reaching spinster status, who was suddenly asked to wed and travel west to the Colorado frontier by a man she never expected was "interested" in courting her. The book continues through the travails of cross country travel, including an Indian attach, to settling on the plains where life is hard for anyone to survive, but particularly for her female acquaintenances.

I disagree with a previous reviewer who indicated that author never developed the other characters. In defense of the author, and from my own journalling experiences, I must state that that reviewer must never have kept a journal. This format is definitely not for everyone. But it is a true, one sided, narrative that is very typical of journal writing. Everything is seen through the eyes (writing) of the main character. Being in the first person, it is going to be prejudice at times. But there is also a frankness that cannot be gained from other forms of writing. I could feel what she was feeling.

My only regret was that Mattie took so long to find out why she was chosen a bride to Luke Spencer. Some reviewers called her a forward thinker, ahead of her times. But I found her to be completely naive to the the ways of a man and woman.

I don't want to give too much away, but if you like diary style writing, and history of the frontier, read this book!!!!!