Customer Reviews

Free Land

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Homestead Act promised people "free land" if they lived on it and worked it for five years. This book by Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura and Almanzo Wilder, is about the enormous price of that free land.

Though Rose clearly draws her source material from the experiences of her parents and grandparents, she tell a far different tale than that of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books. I always visualize this story as being that of a young couple living on the far opposite side of town from the Ingalls. One might expect to see Pa, Ma, and Laura in the distance walking down the street, but this is not their story. Many tales you may read about in biographies of Laura are told here in fictionalized form.

"Free Land" is somewhat darker than the Little House books, and is an adult's story (though nothing is terribly inappropriate for younger readers, very young children may not care for it) with some of the harsher aspects of the pioneering life shown more vividly. It is also told from a young adult male's point of view, and so deals often with his struggles to be a responsible provider for a growing family--you can see both Almanzo Wilder and Charles Ingalls in him--while balancing against his desire for freedom and adventure.

Rose and Laura were very different writers and, in reading this book, you'll probably find yourself doubting--as I do--the claims that it was Rose who really wrote the Little House books. Their styles are too different. Rose Wilder Lane is a fine writer in her own right and this book, and her others, are well worth reading.

"Free Land" is a worthy novel in its own right, and as a suppliment to the Little House books it is a fine reading experience.

Free Land was written well before Laura wrote her books. If you have read any of the biographies about Laura, many of these stories will be familiar. Rose took stories that she heard her parents tell about when they were growing up, and she spun them into a fiction based on fact story that most will enjoy. I have read that she consulted with both her mother and her father over this book about conditions, prices and numberous other things to provide accuarate as well as entertaining information.

The Homestead Act promised people "free land" if they lived on it and worked it for five years. This book by Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura and Almanzo Wilder, is about the enormous price of that free land.

Though Rose clearly draws her source material from the experiences of her parents and grandparents, she tell a far different tale than that of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books. I always visualize this story as being that of a young couple living on the far opposite side of town from the Ingalls. One might expect to see Pa, Ma, and Laura in the distance walking down the street, but this is not their story. Many tales you may read about in biographies of Laura are told here in fictionalized form.

"Free Land" is somewhat darker than the Little House books, and is an adult's story (though nothing is terribly inappropriate for younger readers, very young children may not care for it) with some of the harsher aspects of the pioneering life shown more vividly. It is also told from a young adult male's point of view, and so deals often with his struggles to be a responsible provider for a growing family--you can see both Almanzo Wilder and Charles Ingalls in him--while balancing against his desire for freedom and adventure.

Rose and Laura were very different writers and, in reading this book, you'll probably find yourself doubting--as I do--the claims that it was Rose who really wrote the Little House books. Their styles are too different. Rose Wilder Lane is a fine writer in her own right and this book, and her others, are well worth reading.

"Free Land" is a worthy novel in its own right, and as a suppliment to the Little House books it is a fine reading experience.

Rose Wilder Lane was a famous journalist then novelist long before her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, ever started the Little House books. She was Laura's inspiration, writing coach and editor. Meanwhile Rose conducted her own research and wrote Free Land during this time. It's about the period in the 1880's when there was a homesteading rush in the plains. This book tells the story of one unnamed community in Dakota Territory and its settlers. If I had never read the Little House books and didn't know very much about Laura Ingalls' family-I might have really, really enjoyed this story. It's compelling, not overly dramatic or romanticized and historically accurate. The "heroes" of the story, the Beatons and the Peters, are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Without giving away spoilers, the only technical problem I had with reading is the anti-climatic ending. On the other hand, I have read the Little House series plus documented speeches given by Laura. Rose's novel is a complete retelling of Laura's Dakota stories (plus others)-with some fictional embellishments. Some of the names are the same, some are altered slightly-and a couple of relationships are switched around. But it's Laura's story alright. She even inserted stories that Laura was prohibited from doing (to keep her books appropriate for children). So, while I already felt for the characters while reading. I couldn't help but feel that Rose cheated her mom. The writing styles are definitely different. I can say that I "enjoyed" Laura's style much more. She has a flair for detail, which makes the mundane very exciting-and tangilble. Whereas Rose skips a lot of detail to tell more story, to give more meat to the plot.

I have to disagree with the reviewer who said Rose was not capable of writing longer fiction; that basically she should have stuck to writing short stories. FREE LAND is a fine novel that disproves that theory. The author mingles various facts about her parents and her grandparents and creates a compelling story of people homesteading in the late 1870's. This doesn't make her a lesser writer; it makes her imaginative and creative. Haven't many famous authors taken stories from their family's past and created great fiction?

Rose Wilder Lane is a very underappreciated author, and is today better remembered as the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The temptation is to try to compare RWL's writing to her mother's Little House books, and to expect her writing to be like Laura's: don't do it! Enjoy it without any preconceived notions.

Rose Wilder Lane describes the character and thoughts of a man consumed with a passion for living and an intense desire to gain control over his environment and independence from his immediate society. She does so in stages and in gradually increasing intensity throughout the body of this work, reaching to a climax of revelation in what the meaning of pioneering truly was.

Lane's hero, David Beaton, is a self-made man with home-grown ethics of pride and personal responsibilty, but pragmatic enough to recognize that he isn't like his father, a man who scraped the majority of his years out on a small sections of tough, tree-clogged land. James Beaton bought his home and family life with blood, sweat, and tears, always refusing to accept debt and charity; he struggled, holding onto tenacious individualism, in order to be able to look around himself and claim ownership of everything he had accomplished. David, however, sees the chance to accelerate his life, not by any less of a dose of hard work, but by taking on risk out on the Dakota praires during the claim rush of the 1880's.

By his disciplined saving and hard work as a young man, David acquires enough money to apply for his own claim and betting his wits, muscles, and guts against the high chance that a wheat crop will fail. His father disapproves, but David's determination carries him with his new bride, the beautiful Mary Lathrop, out to Dakota Territory several hundred miles west to begin adult life on his own terms. The conflict with his father's ideas inflames David's personal battles with insecurity, and forces him to draw from within himself his desires and address who he really is and what he really wants.

Lane's tale shows the struggles of a young man carving out his place in the universe, accepting his tools, but not accepting his environment as master over him. There is a constant pressure and urgency to Lane's hero, as he constantly realizes that this is "his" life and he must not just survive, but conquer all that rises up before him. Finnancial troubles, merciless weather, despair, and loneliness are constant challenges to David's pride and hope for the future. Lane paints her hero as a man fueled and motivated by something deep inside himself -- a confidence of the way things OUGHT to be. Sometimes hanging on solely by his belief that his blessings require him to stay the course, David is an interesting contrast to the contemporary, designer-clad, urban warrior in search of insurance policies and "meaning" to a life filled with options for anything, smartphones, Facebook, personalized everythings and advertisers' opinions on how disposable incomes should be spent.

What Lane achieves is to reveal an economic reality--that the core of why we have what we have is because the indomitable human spirit (an unfortunate casualty of the hazy success of our first world economy) was at one point tapped to create the building blocks of industrialized society. Only stressors and the ability to manage them and the human mind, not comfort (being the reverse of mass-marketing's mantra) is the engine of human growth and the secret to the joy of living. Only when we are stretched do we grow and only when we are in acting in faith do we truly feel alive. Free Land holds the answer to what society's frustrated post-industrial philosopher and psuedo-intellectual are looking for: desire, coupled with clarity of action, pushes mankind toward accomplishment and domination over the physical world; it is thus whereby we gain independence.

Free Land reminds me of the stories my parents would tell me about their lives when they were getting on their feet. Ostensibly, the intent of the story is to entertain. But there is also an underlying lesson about the virtue of hard work and determination.

Lane keeps the action moving, her characters come alive, and the story is compelling. I especially loved the incidental tid-bits about what daily life was like in the late 1800's. I look forward to buying more of her books.

Having been a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder since I was a girl, I was eager to read this book when I came across it in my local library. What a find! In Free Land you get a first hand look at what the settlers of the prairie lived through. Some of the stories in this book are similar to the ones in the Little House series (especially Shores of Silver Lake, I believe), but they are written for an adult audience with more detail. After reading this book I felt I had visited the treeless praire of the late 19th century. I think any grown Little House fan would enjoy this book. After reading it I now see why many beleive Lane co-authored, not just assisted her mother in writing the Little House books.

Rose Wilder Lane was a popular regional novelist in the first half of the 20th century and is also known for later political essays. I was interested in this novel by the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder both because I learned Lane had helped her mother write the "Little House" books, and because "Free Land" was mentioned in a critical essay in "Middlebrow Moderns" as perhaps Lane's best novel.

"Free Land" gives a detailed picture of the hardships and joys of life in the 1880's in South Dakota. The main characters are well drawn, and the action moves fast enough to keep the reader turning pages. Lane shows much of the narrative from a rather silent man's perspective--and how his wife deals with his uncommunicativeness. The irony of the title becomes slowly evident in the few results the characters gain even from good farming skills. I enjoyed it for a glimpse into an earlier era in the history of the northern Plains--not too sugar-coated, but some.

I found this book excellent. While it contained a great number of similarities in the characters and the story line to those in the Little House Books, the story was still a great read. You were never sure how it was going to end, as the story wound around and you were left wondering whether two of the characters would end up together or not. The writing brought to life the people, the land and the hardships experienced by those who settled the mid west. Excellent, and will read again.