Customer Reviews

Walking West

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Walking West is a good 50 pages thinner than it would have been if our hero, Christopher Portman, had undertaken his cross-country trek on horseback. Along the way, people react with surprise that Portman has come so far on foot. I'm thinking dismounted journeys were probably fairly common in those days (1850s).

You have to worry about feeding a horse. Sure there was grass everywhere. But horses are known to turn up their nose at certain grasses. Other types of grass might make your horse sick. The critters are mighty skittish. They're apt to bolt at trifling sights and sounds. For example, if he hears a noise that he just THINKS is a snake, he's long gone, maybe with you hanging on for dear life. What if it throws a shoe? Blacksmiths were probably few and far between.

No, having a horse brought a whole new level of complication to the lives of the pioneers. Kiehle wisely pared his narrative to a sleek minimum by leaving Portman horseless. This story is about the people of pioneer America. The animals mostly get eaten.

Along the way, Portman encounters all manner of salt-of-the-earth characters. Hair-raising adventures come fast and furious. The young man fights and befriends Indians. He fights ignorant rednecks. He teams up with rugged frontiersmen. He loses his virginity. He nearly gets killed by a massive flood and later, a tornado. He tangles with various desperadoes, including a riverboat card sharp. He slogs his way over the snowy Continental Divide.

Kiehle throws in historical tidbits, with authentic-sounding descriptions of frontier towns, details of how plains Indians lived, the merits of a Colt versus a Smith and Wesson, and so on.

Walking West is written in the voice of Portman, with quaint parlance of the day ("I reckon," "hear tell," and so on). Above all the book is a celebration of wide-open spaces, life in the great outdoors, sleeping under a canopy of stars, and the thrill of being among the first to roam a new land. Highly recommended.

This novel must be read in one sitting. Brilliantly researched facts, recounted in the voice of a young man's personal and physical challenges in the mid 1800's as he travels, by foot, across the wilds of America. The characters are robust and believeable. I felt myself not wanting to turn to the last page.