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Summary: What would have happened if...
Review: Jim Fergus takes a small piece of history, changes the outcome and creates a story about it. In 1854 a Cheyenne chief requested 1000 white women as brides for his people. Needless to say, this request was turned down in real life. Fergus created this wonderful book all on the possibility of what if the US Army had said "yes" and had provided those 1000 white women.This is the fictitious journal of one of these 1000 white women - May Dodd. He creates a history for May so that we understand why she would have chosen to be a part of this program. The characters are well written and are accurately portrayed. In fact, sometimes too well portrayed. The one thing I had difficulty with in this book was the choice of some of the words that Fergus used - they are not words that I like to hear used. I understand that he picked these words because they are the words that would have been used at the time, and for that reason I accepted it. All in all, a fantastic book! I'm glad that this book was suggested to me!
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Summary: Get real
Review: I read this for my book club and am glad I got it from the library instead of wasting my money buying it. It was on a level with a beach romance, unbelievable characters behaving in unbelievable ways in a yawner of a book. I am amazed some readers liked it.
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Summary: Wonderful story...
Review: This is a quick, engrossing read! I enjoyed thoroughly, the fictitious journals of May Dodd. Jim Fergus uses strong characters whom we come to love, pity, and hate. The novel is extremely moving. I spent an entire night, so enthralled, I was unable to put it down. I felt like May was missing from my life when I had finished the novel. Until this novel, the plight of Native Americans in the times of settlement, and now, were only a distant history. This novel, though fictitious, brought this plight closer to home. I think that this novel is a must-read! I will keep it forever in my library, and I think I will even read it again soon.
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Summary: A totally engrossing story .....
Review: I had to keep telling myself this was a piece of fiction -- it is so well written that I truly felt I was reading May Dodd's diary. I could NOT put the book down! The premise of the story was intriguing, but I honestly did not have high hopes that the author would be able to pull it off. However, I was wrong. This is a fascinatingly detailed look into a period of our history that is usually wraught with bias and a distorted perspective to ensure the 'heroes' come off looking good. It is honest writing -- yes, it is fiction, but the emotions are true, the characters well developed and do not act stereotypically as much as they act true to who they are .... it is simply a fascinating piece of work. I fell in love with all of the characters, as they are written with great depth and many facets -- and the evil, traitorous one, whom I definitely did not fall in love with, was written so well that he made my skin crawl. I wish, with all of my heart, that this would be made into a movie but I fear Hollywood would ruin it.
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Summary: Glorified Harlequin Romance
Review: Looking forward to learning something about this supposed historical event I'd never heard of, I settled in for a good read. I was thoroughly disgusted by the time I finished it. The sex and birth scenes are written from the perspective of a man, not a woman as you'd expect in a woman's diary, and an immature man at that. Very unbelievable. If you want to read a Harlequin Romance, but want to talk yourself into thinking you are actually reading a historically based meaningful novel, this is the book for you.
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Summary: Excellent!
Review: One of the best "old west" books I've ever read. Can't wait to read it again.
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Summary: Loved the concept, hated the story....
Review: I really wanted to like this book; excellent premise. However, this is supposed to be a journal (it's not) even with fiction plugged in... the inconsistency just drove me absolutely NUTS (no pun intended if you've read the book)... in one part, May writes a letter to her daughter detailing her sexual exploits. Yet a few chapters later she's all shy and bothered about the same topic... I would think it would have seemed inappropriate to write to her daughter about this than a journal entry to herself!
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Summary: MOVING DEBUT NOVEL
Review: This is an incredibly moving novel about the life of one May Dodd and her assimilation into the Cheyenne culture. Although the nivel is fiction, it is based on a true and historical event, the alleged Brides for Indians project. Apparently in the mid 1800s, there was a request made by members of various Native American tribes that they be given 1000 white women with whom they could live and procreate. Although the idea was nixed by the federal goverment, this novel proceeds upon the theory that the BFI program was actually implemented. The main character, May Dodd was a woman who was raised with a silver spoon in her mouth and had all of the advantages of the wealthy family. Unfortunately, she bore 2 children (out of wedlock) and went to live with a man to whom she was not married. As a result, her family had her committed to an insame asylum. May Dodd becomes aware ofthis program and decides, along with other "undesireable" women to enroll in the program, live with the "savages" and undertake the responsibility of educating the "heathens" in a manner which would make it easier for the "savages" to assimilate into the white man's culture. However, what follows is an incredibly moving story about acceptance, tolerance, racism, sexism and faith. The reader is left with the question of "who really educated whom?" The story is abound with tragic events particularly the mass extinction of a whole group of people. Notwithstanding those tragic events, the reader is left with a sense of knowledge and understanding of the strength of a woman (May Dodd) and the struggles of an entire group of people. Very good novel.
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Summary: Fascinating Look at the Cheyenne
Review: May Dodd has been betrayed by her upper-class Chicago family, and wrongfully imprisoned in a mental institution for loving a man below her social class. She is offered the opportunity for release if she will participate in a government-sponsored campaign to send white brides to Cheyenne warriors in order to eventually assimilate the "savages" into the world of the white man. What follows is the journal of her travels out west, the other women volunteers she befriends, and her experiences living with the Cheyenne tribe as the wife of Chief Little Wolf. Fergus's portrayal of May and insight into the female mind were the greatest strengths of this book. Her amazing courage, sensibility, love of nature, as well as her mistakes and faults, were all laid bare for us in her journals and unsent letters to her family in the Midwest. Fergus's characterizations of May Dodd's friends and fellow brides were marvelously constructed -- there is a wonderful array of nonconventional, strong-willed women that captured my interest from the start. May records their stories in her journal, their background becoming intertwined with her own as these women seek to find their places among the tribe. However, I felt some of the initial descripions of these characters were way over the top, especially the first time we meet Helen Flight. In addition, I felt one of the extreme weaknesses of the book was May's interaction with John Bourke. This part of the plot was poorly constructed, and the significance the author tries to give this relationship at the end of the book was hardly satisfying. Omitting him from the book entirely probably would have improved it. Despite these drawbacks, this is a wonderful read. Through May's eyes, we see the extreme contrast between cultures -- the Cheyenne way of life, and her own upper-class upbringing. Like May, it's difficult not to prefer the ways of the Cheyenne to our own "manifest destiny" society at the end of the novel, and feel a sort of longing for a life much more naturalistic and simple, now destroyed.
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Summary: I had to keep reminding myself this was a novel
Review: The Journals of May Dodd, documenting her participation in the "Brides for Indians" program, secretly sponsored by the US Government, is a riveting read. May Dodd is one of a group of white women (and one black woman) sent to teach the ways of civilization to the "savages". By the end of the journey, one is left to wonder who the real savages are. The marriages to Cheyenne warriors are mostly successful, even joyful, as men and women of different cultures share daily life on the prairie. It matters little that the women are recruited from prisons and mental institutions, as it was not unusual to place women who didn't fit into "society" into institutions of one kind or another. Sadly, like most dealings of the white man with the Indians, there is betrayal, as the US Army attacks the Cheyenne, supposedly mistaking them for Sioux. The end of this tale is as heartbreaking as the history of the American Indian in this country. May Dodd's Journal is a poignant and beautifully rendered story.
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