Red Water : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: This book resembles other
Review: By using the tool of fiction, Judith is able to compose a narrative that hits some of the key points better than most documentaries could ever hope to accomplish.

She has obviously researched the subject well, but is not afraid to fill in some blanks with reasonable conjecture.

I read her book with intensity.

It is certainly not to be a replacement of studying the documentation, but for painting an overview and setting a tone, it is a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Red River flounders in short end of creek
Review: I attended a series of lectures partially funded by the Utah Arts Council. A liberal group of elitist decision makers that I have not always agreed with for reasons not to go into here.

I saw Judith Freeman and was surprised by the clamor about her book. Just a few weeks earlier I met an extremely talented writer who had written a book called "The Ferry Woman". Published by Limerlost press. Ferry woman is a book written by a male author with remarkable insight into the thoughts of a woman. I will not go into Ferry Woman. You can check out the reviews.

I found the premise Red River to be similar to the Ferry Woman . The story to move a bit slow at times and the story was written to attract more og a romance type audience. It is not a literary maserpeice by any means.

In my view, I see this book as trying to be a sequal to the Ferry Woman. This is my opinion

Rating:
Summary: Interesting History of a Terrible Event
Review: I know this is fiction and Freeman says at the end of the book : "this book is a work of the imagination" and she cautions readers NOT to read it as a version of history.

Veiled in its secret ceremonies and rituals, Mormonism is always going to be looked at suspiciously. Surely their leaders must know this and figure it is the price they must pay.

That said, I am astounded that any church ever allowed any man to have 19 wives. That is just inexplicable but the patriarchal Mormon religion did allow this horror to exist. "Red Water" allows us to look inside a Mormon marriage with eight "present wives" and see what their lives were like. I am fairly sure that this is historically accurate. This community of females are the main core of the book and we come to know three of them very well. John Lee is seen only through their eyes and in most instances he is portrayed as a selfish and controlling man. This has nothing to do with the massacre, but with him as a human being.

(The massacre, in fact, occupies few pages of "Red Water" since it occurred prior to the beginning of the book.)

I thought that Freeman did terrific research and found it interesting the way she told the women's stories. Emma's story was very personal and done in the first person. Ann's story was shorter and told in the third person. Rachel's story was the shortest and was related via diary entries. Because her story was longer and more detailed, I felt that I got to know Emma the best.

The struggles and hardships endured by these early settlers of the West were incredibly difficult and often life-threatening. Lack of food, education,medical care, and the basics of life became the norm that was part of their daily travail. The harsh landscape, which is often their worst enemy, becomes almost another character.

While it is historically true that John Lee was the scapegoat for all who did the killing at the Mountain Meadow Massacre, I wonder what part Brigham Young had in this--did he really betray Lee? Was Lee so blinded by his faith that he remained silent after being arrested, rather than implicate other Mormons?

I plan to try to find some more answers. This book gave me a lot of food for thought.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I was absolutely captivated by this wonderful telling of the story of John D. Lee through the prospective of three of his polygamist wives. I especially related to Emma, the strong-willed English bride. Lee's Ferry in Arizona is a place of transcendant beauty and the red-rock country of Southern Utah is amazing. This story expresses the hardships of making a life in this harsh land under the most difficult of circumstances.

Rating:
Summary: Reading Group Choice
Review: If you're in a reading group or book club, this book should be your next pick. Historical fiction is always interesting and comparing the three wives' perspectives will make for good discussion.

Rating:
Summary: Even Fiction Causes Friction in Mormondom
Review: Judith Freeman's book is obviously fictitious and she makes sure readers are aware the book is fiction. Recent news reports indicate the LDS church is now examining Ms. Freeman apparently as a precursor to excommunication. What I find extremely interesting in most reviews of LDS-related works, fiction and nonfiction, is the tendency of many reviewers to state that the doctrine described in the work being reviewed is no longer practiced by the "modern day" LDS church. You will find one reviewer who makes this statement in her review of Ms. Freeman's book. I often wonder what force causes people to react defensively and compels them to offer disclaimers. Why can't a book be read and enjoyed without readers having to be reminded by reviewers that what happened long ago could never happen now? Ms. Freeman's book is about basic human values and emotions that are as real today as they were then. Frankly, I am tired of Mormon reviewers who constantly have to remind us their church is different now...they have missed the point of an excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING book!
Review: This is great writing. I was completely taken in by just about everything about this book. I found the characters complex, the scenery beautiful, the language believable. The women were all interesting to me, and I didn't find anywhere that my interest lagged. I even found myself seeing John D. Lee as human for the first time, something even his memoirs were unable to accomplish. I don't know much about the theology or morality of the 19th century Mormon church, so I can't really say whether it was accurate in that regard or not, although I found it believable. I do, however, know a great deal about Mountain Meadows, having read just about everything published about it, including much of the apologist garbage that passes for history written by defenders. I can tell you that I found nothing she wrote about the massacre with which I disagreed, right down to "putting the saddle on the right horse." Brigham Young was directly responsible for ordering the massacre, and John D. Lee was just following orders, although that makes him no less a murderer in my eyes. It is no better defense here than it was at Nuremberg or Mai Lai.

I do confess a bias, however, although different from that of others. I first "met" Captain Alexander Fancher, leader of the Fancher party murdered at the meadows, as I was researching his brother, my great grandfather John Fancher. I found them and their families side by side in the 1850 census of San Diego, California. They had apparently come out together to try their hand at cattle raising and were headed for Tulare county in central California. There I saw a listing of Captain Fancher and his entire family, wife Eliza (whose blood stained dress Emma was wearing in the scene of her great humiliation), age 28, son Hampton, age 12, William age 10, Mary, age 9, Thomas, age 7, Martha, age 4, and lastly the twins, both 1 and a half, Sarah and Margaret, for whom my mother was named. All of these people would be murdered at Mountain Meadows by John D. Lee and those he led and followed. Even the twins, a mere 8 years old at the time of the massacre, did not survive. Only Kit Carson Fancher and Traphina (Emma's apparent accusor in the dress scene) survived, both born after 1850. Alexander and family had returned to Arkansas to collect family and friends to bring out to the California paradise and were headed to meet his brother when they met their fate. His brother John, with whom Captain Fancher was very close, didn't know of his brother's fate for some time after the massacre, and didn't know the truth until many years later.

So you see, it takes quite a gifted writer to humanize someone like John Doyle Lee in my eyes. I even found him sympathetic at times. Freeman has found a way to zero in on one of the great mysteries of the Mountain Meadows Massacre: how otherwise decent men, who love and are loved, could find it in their hearts to commit such a slaughter of innocents. This is by far the best fictional account of the massacre and its aftermath that I have ever read.

For those who are interested in finding out more about the massacre, I highly recommend The Mountain Meadows Massacre, by Juanita Brooks, and even more highly, Blood of the Prophets:Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Will Bagley.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Story of the Many Aspects of Love and Devotion
Review: Wow, I read a few of these reviews. Funny how whenever you write something that even touches the edge of religion, the zealots come out.

This is NOT a story about the Mountain Meadow Massacre, though the incident and its characters figure prominently. This is NOT a story about merits or evils of Mormonism, though most of the characters are mormon and deal with their beliefs. Instead Freeman forces us to look at how humans have to come to grips with the complexities of belief and the realities of harsh everyday life.

This is a story centered around a fictionalization of part of the life of John D Lee. Executed for his role in the massacre. But even more than that, it is centrally, a story about women, and how they love.

Emma, the devoted wife who was in love with Lee when he took her as his 8th (well 17th) wife. How she dealt with the love and desire for a man she could not possess for herself but who totally possessed her. How she was bound more to the land and the religion by the man than the other way around.

Ann, who at thirteen married Lee for complex reasons but in the end, was taken by his personality and her own curiosity, shall we say. But who was tormented more by the man whom she lost belief in and the religion she never believed in but was wary of. Lee's memory amd her mixed feelings for him dogged her life even when she had left. Moreso, maybe.

Rachel, who in the end, realized that she was devoted to Lee for what he could promise her in the next life. An eternity next to the sister she idolized and loved. But Rachel's devotion may appear more as love than the love of the others.

There was a certain fascination in this book for me. It is well done and I literally read it in two days almost straight through. The characters are real and their interactions, relationships and differences are real too. Even down to the point where you wonder what private characterizations one character has for the next is based on truth or an unadmitted jealously.

Each part is told by one of the woman and each part represents their personality and fate. Emma's is rich and boisterous and hopeful. Ann's is meandering, lost, with moments of warmth and richness. Rachel's is cold, empty and barren with promises of hard times even among the good.

This is very well written and very well researched. It is a small insight to what mormonism was under the eye of Smith and Young while it was still a living entity. It is also a beautiful insight to some of the most harsh and spectacular places on earth. Finally it is an insight into how women view love and even men. Maybe in the end, that is what I was reading for -- to find a little insight into myself.

If you find it at the yard sale, pick it up, you will read it that night.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Story of the Many Aspects of Love and Devotion
Review: Wow, I read a few of these reviews. Funny how whenever you write something that even touches the edge of religion, the zealots come out.

This is NOT a story about the Mountain Meadow Massacre, though the incident and its characters figure prominently. This is NOT a story about merits or evils of Mormonism, though most of the characters are mormon and deal with their beliefs. Instead Freeman forces us to look at how humans have to come to grips with the complexities of belief and the realities of harsh everyday life.

This is a story centered around a fictionalization of part of the life of John D Lee. Executed for his role in the massacre. But even more than that, it is centrally, a story about women, and how they love.

Emma, the devoted wife who was in love with Lee when he took her as his 8th (well 17th) wife. How she dealt with the love and desire for a man she could not possess for herself but who totally possessed her. How she was bound more to the land and the religion by the man than the other way around.

Ann, who at thirteen married Lee for complex reasons but in the end, was taken by his personality and her own curiosity, shall we say. But who was tormented more by the man whom she lost belief in and the religion she never believed in but was wary of. Lee's memory amd her mixed feelings for him dogged her life even when she had left. Moreso, maybe.

Rachel, who in the end, realized that she was devoted to Lee for what he could promise her in the next life. An eternity next to the sister she idolized and loved. But Rachel's devotion may appear more as love than the love of the others.

There was a certain fascination in this book for me. It is well done and I literally read it in two days almost straight through. The characters are real and their interactions, relationships and differences are real too. Even down to the point where you wonder what private characterizations one character has for the next is based on truth or an unadmitted jealously.

Each part is told by one of the woman and each part represents their personality and fate. Emma's is rich and boisterous and hopeful. Ann's is meandering, lost, with moments of warmth and richness. Rachel's is cold, empty and barren with promises of hard times even among the good.

This is very well written and very well researched. It is a small insight to what mormonism was under the eye of Smith and Young while it was still a living entity. It is also a beautiful insight to some of the most harsh and spectacular places on earth. Finally it is an insight into how women view love and even men. Maybe in the end, that is what I was reading for -- to find a little insight into myself.

If you find it at the yard sale, pick it up, you will read it that night.