Mrs. Mike

Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: "Mrs. Mike" was a charming and tender love story! I just finished reading it for the second time. I loved it so much more then before! I understood alot more of what she had to go through. The end is so beautiful. The whole book is a beautiful story about a girl who goes to Canada when she is 16 with her husband Mike. You must read it. I gained so much understanding.

Rating:
Summary: Mrs. Mike
Review: Every review I have read about this book is how it's a wonderful love story. How did I miss that part? This is a book that has stayed with me for years, yes, not because it was a love story, but because of this God awful hard life she chose in the name of "love". She lost her small children to diphtheria. That's the part I remember, that cruelty. It was a way of life for these people. They buried them and started their "second family", is how I believe they referred to it. It's a good read about a very hard chosen (for Mrs. Mike) lifestyle, but I would hardly call it a love story.

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Summary: GREAT WINTER RELAXATION
Review: Having first read MRS. MIKE as an assignment in Jr. High school I was inspired this time to read it for pleasure during this snowy, cold winter we are having here in Maine instead of a dreaded teacher's assignment. Although the story is a very fast read, enjoyable,and light reading; it does have suspense and, at times, an intense plot. This true story clearly and accurately depicts the rugged lifestyle of the cold north while also being a story of love and true devotion as Kathryn leaves her home of luxury in Boston and heads to Alaska with her new husband. Refreshing to spend an afternoon reading this again. I am also looking for the VHS (I understand you can only buy used copies now) and have had no luck. I am also a bit confused and wonder if someone can help. While searching the web and E-Bay I have found listings for: 1) Mrs. Mike 2) Mrs. Mike: The Story of Katherine Mary Flannigan and 3) Search for Joyful. I have read reviews that state there are three in the series, but noticed the sub-title of the (first) Mrs. Mike book is...The Story of K. M. Flannigan. Can anyone tell me if there are indeed three in this series or just two? Oddly enough I have found a synopsis and review for all three but haven't had any luck finding this so called "second" in the series. Any help?? [e-mail] THANKS!

Rating:
Summary: Want to buy at least 5 copies to give away
Review: I first read Mrs. Mike more than 30 years ago when I was quite young and never forgot many of the scenes, recently by chance came across a copy and was surprised at how good it is. As a young reader I liked it as a romance, but now can appreciate it for it's historical value - originally published in 1947, this is a novel of people living in harsh and brutal wilderness conditions, and how people pull together and help each other in small tight communities.

Mrs. Mike is the true account of Katherine Mary Flannigan from Boston, when she was 16 years old she was sent to her uncle John up in Calgary in the hopes that the Canadian climate would ease her suffering from pleurisy. Calgary was still quite a wild place in 1907, and Kathy is one of the few white women for miles around. She meets a Mountie named Mike, marries, and goes with him to Edmonton, and then on to Lesser Slave Lake by dogsled team where they will make their home amongst the villages where Mike presides as the law. It seems like there is a Hudson's Bay trading post everywhere no matter how remote the area and many unforgettable scenes such as the forest fire and grizzly bears, lots of interaction with First Nations people, epidemics that wipe out whole families and villages. Perhaps the best part is when she finally does return to Boston after years away and finds out there is no going back.

A great novel about the Northwest Territories a century ago.

Rating:
Summary: History a little flawed
Review: I first read this book as a Reader's Digest condensed book when I was growing up, and remember loving it. This time around, the story seemed a little dated. Maybe it was the writing, I don't know. But what really spoiled the story was the complete inaccuracy on the part of the authors. Yes, I know this is a work of fiction, but it is supposed to be based on a "true story." So I have to wonder; did the Freemans completely make this up? Or did Kathy Flannigan just tell them a tall tale? Or was her story not exciting enough, so the authors saw fit to fabricate it a bit?

I love geography, so I looked at a map as I read about Kathy's journey North, and it was kind of fun. The first part of the book sounds about right, from her journey to Calgary and then to the Northwest Territories with Mike. Then after about a year, they relocate to Grouard, which is where the fiction sets in.

According to the Freemans, Grouard, in Northern Alberta, was a wild and primitive place, and Sgt. Mike played the role of doctor, policeman, judge, jury, and whatever else. Uh, I don't think so. By the time that Kathy and Mike arrived in Grouard, it was a bustling town of about 1,000 residents. There were several doctors in the town, including specialists, a whole division of Canadian Mounted police, a skating rink, a department store...need I continue? While still isolated and rough, it was not the town depicted in Mrs. Mike. Certainly, when the diphtheria epidemic broke out, people would have been calling the doctors, not Sgt. Mike! All of the medical problems and injuries described there would have been attended by trained physicians, not Kathy, or Mike. And when Kathy is so stunned to see "motor cars" when she returns to Boston--well, Grouard had two motor cars by 1913.

You would think that the Freemans would have either checked up on Kathy Flannigan's story if this is really what she told them, or at least have the sense to make up a fictious "wild" town. It really spoiled the story for me, after I looked up the history of Grouard, and found out that this was all made up.

So for anyone picking up this book, it's pure fiction. Not a true story at all.

Rating:
Summary: Mrs. Mike: based on the true life of Mary O"Fallon Flannigan
Review: I first read this book as a young girl in the 50's as a Reader's Digest Condensed book. I was transported then to the wilds of Canada and caught up in the true life of Katherine Mary O'Fallon Flannigan, and reading it again in 2003, it is still the same great story. Not many people will realize until they read the back page of the book that the Freedman's met the heroine in Los Angeles and her story inspired them to write this book. It is a story of young love, hardship and heartbreak and takes place in the early 1900's. The main characters come to life in this book. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: So glad I visited these old friends again!
Review: I literally can't remember when I read this book for the first time. What I do recall is how much I enjoyed it, although I certainly was too young to understand the romance between Katherine Mary O'Fallon of Boston and Sgt. Mike Flannigan of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. To me it was simply a grand adventure set in the Far North, with (always a plus!) a young woman protagonist.

I finished re-reading "Mrs. Mike" last night, and I know exactly why it's considered a classic. Everything I loved about it in my girlhood is still there, with the grand adventure even more powerful to my more realistic adult imagination - but now the rest of the story is accessible to me as well. And I can only say: Magnificent! Because this is that rare and wonderful thing, a love story about women and men as they really are. The stark realism of life as Kathy and Mike face it, in a land that's isolated, dangerous, and at times nightmarishly brutal, makes the happiness they find together shine all the more brightly. It also gives new meaning to the phrase "dearly bought." The same applies to the friendships Kathy finds with other women, each of whom is a memorable character in her own right.

I am so glad I visited these old friends again!

Rating:
Summary: Mrs. Mike from a teenagers piont of view
Review: Mrs. Mike, written by Benedict and Nancy Freedman, is a heart warming love story of a young Boston girl who fell in love and married a rugged Canadian Mountie. It tells all about the troublesome and joyful times this young married couple share, but the catch is theyÕre living in CanadaÕs wild and frightening terrain.
Katherine Mary OÕFallon is a sixteen year old girl who has a decease called pleurisy and is moving from Boston to Canada, because it was better for her lungs. She was living with her Uncle when she meet Sergeant Mike Flannigan. He was a Mountie for the Canadian Government. They fell in love and eventually got married. They moved to HundsonÕs Hope where Mike was stationed.
Kathy had to deal with the fact that she might never see her family again. For she had chosen the life with Mike and was living in apart of Canada that is very isolated. It took her a while to adjust to her new life style, but as more time passed on the more comfortable she became and the more their love for each other grew. She quickly learned that Canada is no Boston and has many dangers that she has to deal with. Some of the dangers were icy, cold weather, Grizzly Bears, wolves, disease and viruses, fires. The thing that she had the most trouble with was when someone was caught with one of these dangers.
I thought that they book was okay. Although it was well written and had a good story it just wasnÕt my type of book. I believe that it had a very good lesson to learn. It taught me that when and if you find real true love like this you will go through the best and worst of times together, but in the end love never fails. This book also reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8. Ò Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily. angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails.Ó

Rating:
Summary: Mrs. Mike... and my teen view of it
Review: My friend read this book a couple weeks ago because our Language Arts teacher recommended it to her and if a teacher recomends it she has to read it because she's kind of teacher's pet. Anyways she told me that I absolutely had to read it. It looked really corny and boring- I mean come on I'm thirteen!- so I thought of every possible reason to not have yet started it. But I was really bored one day and just picked it up and started to read... and read... and read... and read... and- you get the point. I read until I finished. I stayed up until four in the morning on school nights for three days!!! Unlike most people that wrote a review I just read this book about a week ago and now am trying to get my mom to read it also. I love horror. Absolutely love it. R.L. Stine is my role model okay? Well this book was definitly a change. I cried for over two hours the night I finished it- my pillow was soaked- then I cried the next day talking about it to my friend. This is my favorite book of all time but I don't understand whether or not this is a true story because in the front it says that the story is completely fictional but in About The Author it says that Katherine Mary Flannigan helped to so I really just don't understand! Is it true or not!?!

Rating:
Summary: No... don't read this
Review: This book was extremely boring and seems to get more boring everytime I read it