Follow the River by JAMES ALEXANDER Thom Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Follow the River
Book Review: An OK book
Summary: 3 Stars
Surely not on my top 10 list, but I always like reading a "true story". Was kind of long and had to skim a little in the middle. It was interesting to see what these ladies would do to survive though and was very graphic. Was ok.Book Review: An amazing read
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was a detailed book that brought clear emotions of awe, pity, horror, and rage. The author does a great job of making the characters and the surroundings seem real-I felt like I was alongside Mary starving, cold, and fearful during her escape. It brought realizations and knowledge about the famous Mary Ingles and how vile, inhuman, and savage people can be to each other. I loved the setting and the story....yet, I am truly grateful for living in this time period. The author does a terrific job of getting the reader deeply involved in the life of Mary Ingles during the mid 1700's. I am still in complete wonder at how patient, determined, and strong-willed Mary was. This book was a great read!
Also recommended: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty, Seabiscuit, The Bastard by John Jakes, The Count of Monte Cristo, Comanche of the Seventh, Castaway of the Flying Dutchman
Book Review: An epic you will never forget
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read this book when I was a teenager, and it has stayed with me all these years into adulthood. Occasionally I will pick it up and reread it. This is the story of Mary Draper Ingalls who is living in Virginia in the 1700s in a small community. She has a good life with her husband and her two sons, and is expecting a new baby any day. When her village is attacked by Indians, and many of her friends and family are killed, she along with her children, her sister-in-law, and another man are taken captive by the attackers. They are taken on a long trek into the wilderness farther and farther away from anything and everything they have ever known. After being separated from her children, her sister-in-law and everything she was clinging to, Mary decides to risk everything and escape. She does so with an older captive she meets along the way and they begin the long trek back through the wilderness toward home... following the river.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. From the very beginning it grips you as you cringe through the terrible attack in the village (let me warn you, it is not easy to read. Even a small baby is killed). Then you suffer with the captives as they suffer on the trail, as Mary gives birth in the midst of awful circumstances, as the loved ones are separated, and finally as Mary makes her way back through the wilderness trying to get home. You feel every emotion and experience the characters are experiencing.
The most amazing thing about this gripping story is that it is a TRUE story. All of these things really did happen. As you read, you think that no one could possibly endure, much less survive, these events. But someone did... Mary Draper Ingalls did. She was probably the most amazing woman I have ever read or heard about. Her courage, determination and will to survive inspire me. Growing up in the Virginias myself, I have always heard about this woman, driven over bridges named after her, even been to visit some of the places in the story, and it only causes me to be reminded again of what the human spirit is capable of when pushed to the limit.
If you want to feel inspired, to believe again in the tenacity of the human spirit, and believe in what love can do when it is driving a person to survive.... get this book right now and read it. You will never forget it.
Book Review: An historical novel not to be forgotten
Summary: 5 Stars
Just a few days ago I finished reading Follow the River, written by James Alexander Thom. It is a novel set in the mid 1700's, chronicling the true and horrific ordeal of Mary Ingles, which begins as she and her two young sons are kidnapped by Indians. The bulk of Thom's writing is devoted to her escape and return to her family in Virginia - a story of immense courage and strength.
Honestly, the book kept me gasping. From the 4th page or so, I knew it would evolve in to a book I'd never forget. Thom's writing seemed stronger with each turning of the page. How in the world the author ever managed to to create such an event-dense novel without getting muddy, I'll never know. There were only a couple of very short drifts into somewhat trite dialog somewhere in the first 1/3 of the book, but otherwise it was sterling. A magnificent book and a magnificent main character. Absolutely unforgettable.
Ummmm, I'm guessing that some folks reading this will think that I simply have no sense (even that I may be a little mad) when I tell you what I've done. But I just cannot get Mary Ingles out of my mind. I live in the same state as did Mary and in approximately the same sort of climate and having a similar sort of landscape. Keep in mind that what she accomplished, she accomplished at this time of year - late fall.
Actually, in the late fall and winter there is no place in Virginia that can be considered in the least to be comfortable. It is either cold or frigid. Most of Mary's hardships transpired when she had no shoes and was wearing no more than a neckline hem from which strips of ragged, filthy cloth blew in the wind. I doubt if she had even that at the end. She was thus clothed (or unclothed) day and freezing night - night after night, week after week, trudging and crawling through the harshest of terrain along the Ohio River and the raging New River. While the author depicted Mary's ordeal the best a person possibly could, in all honesty, when one thinks seriously about where she was, the distance she traveled and the time of year involved, it probably would not have been possible to have exaggerated - no matter what he might have written.
It was with this in mind that I decided to test myself - although I can hardly call it a test when I consider Mary's extraordinary accomplishment. Last night we got 4" of snow. Today the temperature is just below freezing, and there is a biting light wind. In just my cotton short-sleeved nightgown and no shoes, I took my three doggies out to potty this morning, and if my numbed mind properly took note of the time, I remained outside walking in the frozen air and snow 6 minutes.
In just 6 minutes I can truthfully say that if I had been alone in the wilderness with not a shelter in site and no hope of one, it is very possible (no, probable) that I would have found a nook, curled up and simply died.
I cannot express adequately how my feet throbbed with pain. Best to say, the pain was excruciating, yet at the same time my feet were numb. As I hobbled back to the house, I had no physicial sensation of our deck being directly beneath my feet. The agony was immense, so great that I had no awareness of the stinging, bone-chilling, nearly paralyzing cold the rest of my body felt when I'd been outside ....... when the minutes passed as slowly as if they had been hours. Upon entering the house, and when I was finally able to make myself look at my feet, they were bright red and puffy. I mention my mere 6-minute trial only to contrast mine to Mary's.
Do I regret my decision? No. I'll leave it the reader to decide the why.
I am humbled. I will absolutely never forget that woman. She will always be the standard of courage to which I compare myself. Because of her, I can see myself pushing to accomplish more than I thought myself capable - though I can never hope to reach anywhere near Mary's level of valor and courage.
Book Review: An incredible experience!
Summary: 5 Stars
An engrossing and powerful story told in a compelling and understandable way. The reader identifies with Mary Ingles from the very beginning to the fantastic ending. You are beside her on every step of her incredible journey and feel each hunger pain. An inspiring tale of an admirable and amazingly strong woman. A must read!