The Way To Bright Star [Paperback]

Dee Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

Ben Butterfield, ex-circus performer, is living out his days in a small backwater town.  He spends much of his time dwelling on the past, pondering his glory days with the circus, and his first grand adventure—an odyssey across Missouri and Illinois to Bright Star, Indiana, during the Civil War.  It was a journey that laid the groundwork for the man he would become, and on which he got to know the two people who meant the world to him, and still do.

In 1862, Ben sets out to help Johnny Hawkes, a resourceful Texican, drive two camels to the farm home of a Yankee officer who has taken possession of the desert beasts as contraband of war.  But when Johnny is imprisoned by the Yankees and charged with horse theft, it is up to Ben to complete the task without his friend and mentor.  On the threshold of manhood, he has only the help of a young girl, nicknamed Princess, who spends most of the time masquerading as a boy to avoid drawing unwanted attention.  Johnny and Princess must stand together and persevere against the odds if they are to overcome every obstacle placed before them on the winding way to Bright Star. 

A magnificent tour of 1860s heartland America, The Way to Bright Star is a grand coming-of-age novel, in the tradition of Huckleberry Finn, and destined to become an American classic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this rambling road novel, Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, draws on the fascinating historical episode of the U.S. Army's brief flirtation with camels. In the early days of the Civil War, the irascible Union officer Captain Lightfoot purchases two of the beasts from the government and hires wagon master Johnny Hawkes and his teenage sidekick, Ben Butterfield, to deliver the camels to his farm in Bright Star, Indiana. They set off from Texas by wagon, cart, and then on foot, beset with adventures and pursued or joined by various colorful characters along the way, among them a young bank robber who is soon revealed to be a feisty girl named Queen Elizabeth Jones. When Johnny is thrown in a Union prison for stealing back his own horse, young Ben and Elizabeth continue the long line of exploits alone. Shambling along like a dromedary, the story wends its leisurely way over the landscapes of 1862 Missouri and Illinois as the storm clouds of war gather, and country folk choose up sides. Chapters about teenage Ben and Elizabeth's escapades on the road alternate with Ben's reflections (as a randy old man) on the circus stint that followed their cross-country journey. Not an action-packed novel, The Way to Bright Star is nevertheless rich with vignettes portraying the people and lifestyles of late-19th-century rural America. (Ages 15 and older) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Returning to the westerns he tells so well, Brown, best known for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1971), takes us on a peculiar odyssey of youth and innocence during the turmoil of the Civil War. The spirited tale opens in 1902, when narrator Ben Butterfield, a gimp-legged former circus horseback performer who is now the harried proprietor of a hardware store, attempts "to set down the story of my wasted life" before he forgets the adventure that was its high point. Forty years earlier, in the spring of 1862 in northwest Arkansas, young Ben embarks on an unlikely journey. A Yankee officer assigns him, cavalry scout Johnny Hawkes and Egyptian cameleer Hadjee the duty of transporting two camels, the officer's own personal contraband, from Arkansas to his farm in Bright Star, Indiana. Traveling across Arkansas and Missouri in 1862 turns out to be a tricky proposition as Ben and his comrades meet Rebs and Yanks, shysters, thieves and all-around mean-spirited folks. After witnessing a bungled bank robbery, Ben's party offers sanctuary to a luckless robber who turns out to be a young girl. Now fugitive themselves, the party is pursued by the law and by a crazy gunman?who is after more than just gold. Short on action but studded with colorful vignettes, this sentimental story reflects, both buoyantly and tenderly, the moments of love, friendship and fame its Huckleberry Finn-like protagonist briefly enjoyed.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 2nd edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765322552
• ISBN-13: 978-0765322555
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,812,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A journey through a war-torn country, January 27, 2009

By 

Bradley Nelson (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Way to Bright Star (Hardcover)

This is a story of a journey through Missouri, on to Bright Star, Indiana during the Civil War. But the story is really about the travelers and the people they meet along the way. The basic plot is that an Army captain has acquired two camels (brought from Egypt to test in the southwest deserts) and hires Johnny and Ben to take them to his farm in Bright Star.

There is a second, parallel plot line, narrated by Ben some forty years later, reflecting on his memories of the journey to Bright Star. It's an enjoyable read and definitely has a Mark Twain feel to it. There are constant troubles and setbacks, the goal seemingly never reached. They run into a variety of unique characters, many of whom illustrate the hostile attitudes caused by the Civil War. Overall, a pleasant, enjoyable story.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An engaging but abrupt slice of Americana, May 9, 2000

By 

Kimberly Taylor "Mad Scientist" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way to Bright Star (Hardcover)

Comparisons to "Huckleberry Finn" or "Cold Sassy Tree" are apt. Like these other novels, "The Way to Bright Star" is an adolescent's journey through an America at war. The people met along the way are the book's greatest strength: soldiers, everyday farmers, a girl in disguise. The dialogue is great, and the settings evoke a time when our county was truly the new frontier.

But the jumps from the Civil War era to the early 19th century can be abrupt, and leave you with a sense of an unfulfillment. The ending in particular was very disappointing, both as flashback and in the narration. Is Mr. Brown planning to make this book a series? If so, the ending will leave you hungry for more. But if this is all there is, you're in a for a disappointing letdown.

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Novel, May 17, 2004

By 

John P. Rooney "John" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way to Bright Star (Hardcover)

"The Way To Bright Star" by Dee Brown. Recorded Books, Inc.1998.

The noted author and Historian of the West, Dee Alexander Brown, has branched out into fiction with this lengthy tale of delivering two camels from Missouri to Bright Star, Indiana. There are really two plot lines in this engaging novel. The first is the telling of the actual driving of the camels from war-torn (Civil War) Missouri to Indiana. It seems that Union Captain Solomon Lightfoot has dreams of a farming empire where camels would replace the horse and the ox. The good Captain "enlists" the services of Johnny Hawkes, young Ben Butterfield and a girl with the name of Jack Bonnycastle. With the aid of the Egyptian camel driver, Hadjee, this little group starts out towards Indiana. Their adventure allows Dee Brown to elicit the mannerisms, language and the simpler culture of a time long ago. This is told in the third person.

The second plot line, in the first person, presents the reminiscences of an older Ben Butterfield. It has to be some forty years later, since the characters discuss the assassination of William McKinley (1843-1901) and wonder if Pres. Roosevelt will be able to handle the office. (That's Teddy Roosevelt!) As the older Ben Butterfield remembers and relates, Dee Brown paints a picture of turn-of-the-century America, a simpler time when the telephone was becoming a jangling nuisance and rowing down a local river was considered a wonderful outing for the more adventurous in the town.

The novel comes to a nostalgic conclusion as the elder Ben Butterfield approaches his old circus that has come to town. He hopes to see his old friend, Jack Bonnycastle, who was really a girl, by the name of "Queen Elizabeth Jones". It seems that this girl had developed into a noted equestrian, who performed before the crowned heads of Europe. Due to a broken leg, Ben had been left behind as Queen Elizabeth and the circus had gone on to fame and glory. Ben Butterfield had always loved Queen Elizabeth Jones. The ending is rather sad but touching.

Tom Stechschulte does an excellent job in reading this book, nine full cassettes. The reader gives an unique and appropriate to the many different characters, ranging from wounded Southern soldiers to Hadjee, who has a little English and a little French. Well done. This presentation helped me to endure Boston Traffic.