Update and Book Review: One Thousand White Women

Trip Update: We are working on "Plan B" for our trip. No rooms opened on the ship, so DH and I will delay leaving for a week and travel next Monday instead. We will visit Anchorage and do a day cruise, a whale watch, and then our train journey. Our "free cruise" will now go out in July and we will travel to Belize, Cozumel, and Honduras. Never a dull moment in my life, no siree!! Thank you for your prayers as we've figured this little mystery out.

Now, for a review my latest "read"...

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus is, in his words, a work of "semi-historical" fiction. It is written as a series of journal entries by the main character, May Dodd, a young woman from Chicago society who has two children born out of wedlock and was later sent to an asylum by her family due to her promiscuity.

While there, Dodd learns of a government sponsored program where 1000 white women are going to be given as wives to the Cheyenne in order to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. The remainder of the story chronicles her journey, both physical and spiritual, into a world very different from the one she's known.

The Colorado Springs Gazette notes:

The best writing transports readers to another time and place, so that when they reluctantly close the book, they are astonished to find themselves returned to their everyday lives. One Thousand White Women is such a book. Jim Fergus so skillfully envelops us in the heart and mind of his main character, May Dodd, that we weep when she mourns, we shake our fist at anyone who tries to sway her course, and our hearts pound when she is in danger.

I loved the spiritual thread that is woven quite well through this book. Fergus explores many "issues" of Christian missions through the characters of Reverend Hare, an Episcopal priest who accompanies the first "wave of women" to the field. His fire and brimstone mannerisms turn people away and while he's regarded as "holy", it's only in the sense that he is set apart from others. When a transgression of his is discovered, the gentle monk, Brother Anthony takes his place as the "Christian presence" among the pagans. Anthony is such a picture of God's mercy and grace and love for all. Yet, that is not the crux of the book. It is only one thread that is woven through this powerful story.

If you liked the television show, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", then you would probably love this book. Fergus paints quite a picture of what life must have been like for the Cheyenne people as they faced the white man coming in to take over the western plains. It's a powerful reminder that we all could be a little more tolerant of those who are different from us, whether it be skin color, culture, or belief systems.

I think Winston Groom, the author of Forrest Gump, says it best as he sums up Fergus' work: "It's a superb tale of sorrow, suspense, exultation, and triumph that leaves the reader waiting to turn the page and wonderfully wrung out at the end."