Customer Reviews

Rose Wilder Lane: Her Story

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

 

 

This is a sad tale about Rose's life during the years right after leaving Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri and moving to California. The cover illustration has nothing to do with the story, and is rather misleading because this book deals with Rose becoming a city girl in an era when most people traveled by train or street car. Rose seems to be very isolated in California, and her few friends are a sordid crowd from which she meets her future husband, Gillette Lane. After falling in love & marrying, Gillette becomes mixed up in several financial schemes causing the couple to have legal and personal issues. Rose has to deal with much of the aftermath on her own, as she realizes the magnitude of her husband's actions. The book left me with such a desolate feeling.

This book is simply a reprint of Rose Wilder Lane's novel, "Diverging Roads." I read this book a couple months ago and had heard it was based on Rose's life, but did not follow it precisely. Roger Lea MacBride has taken this novel and changed the fictional names Rose used in her novel to the real names. So I was a bit disappointed since I had already read it. Either way, if you purchase this book or the other, it is very interesting and a good read.

As a fan of all things Little House, I was excited to learn this book existed. I'm always interested in learning more about this family. While the book is definitely worth reading, I was a little confused by Roger Lea MacBride's introduction to the book. He implies that the truth is not held to very strictly, and that this is a fictional autobiography. Hmmmm? I'm glad he was honest about that so that I didn't believe otherwise, however, I wish it were the complete truth. I still read it with interest and enjoyed every minute of it.