The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Paperback – September 22, 2015

It's been a bit since I've posted a book review, and for me to feel inclined to do this, I must be truly moved by a book. Recently I read "The Indifferent Stars Above," by Daniel James Brown (finished the book about 3AM this morning, in fact). This book is brilliant, and I highly recommend it to anyone, regardless of your interests. I read it in about three days, often staying up into the wee hours, unable to put it down. I love books that have this effect and impact on me.As the cover says, this is a book about the Donner Party tragedy. I suspect I knew about as much as most Americans going into this...that the Donner Party was a group of pioneers crossing the Sierra Nevada's in a harsh winter, and they became stranded and had to resort to cannibalism for survival. After having read this book, I realized this does not even scratch the surface of the impact, drama, and tragedy of this event in American history.The book touches on all the various members of the Donner Party but especially focuses on one member of the Donner Party, this being Sarah Graves, a 21-year-old daughter of the Graves family of Illinois, who left tough farming conditions and poverty to seek a better life in California. The first page of the book offers effective foreshadowing, talking of Sarah Graves' little sister, Nancy Graves, saying, "Even well after the tragedy was over, Sarah Graves' little sister, Nancy often burst into tears for no apparent reason...One minute she would be fine, running, laughing, and playing on the dusty school ground like any other ten-or-eleven-year-old, but then suddenly the next minute she would be sobbing. All of them knew that she had been part of what was then called 'the lamentable Donner Party'...but for a long while, none of them knew Nancy's particular, individual secret. That part was just too terrible to tell."I was immediately invested in this story...not really having given thought to who all was in the Donner Party. To be stopped in this opening paragraph with the brutal and blunt question of what must have happened to this little girl, I became very curious to know more about these early pioneers, and what had actually happened in those high Sierras to all who were present. I had no idea how large a group the Donner Party was, and that it consisted in age groups from the elderly to infants. The hardships and horrors described were like nothing I'd ever imagined or contemplated. But reading this in my own warm, Rocky Mountain home, looking out on frigid temperatures and windswept snow, it created a visceral reaction to me to think of these men, women, and children who slept out in weather like this, or worse than this, with snow far, far deeper...with almost no food and shelter. That a 21-year-old girl, Sarah Graves, could show such strength and endurance...it casts an abominable and disgusting light on the weakness and entitlement of modern man.The book starts with the Graves family and their decision to head west, and the following chapters describe their meetings with other migrants to California and Oregon and the wagon trains west, as they went through Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Nevada, and into the high Sierras. The author does a brilliant job of telling the harrowing story of these people, and he often breaks from the main narrative to give a few paragraphs of insights into historical evidence, modern science, or contemporary background. I especially found interesting the information he provided on hypothermia and the effects on the human body, the physiological and psychological effects of hunger and starvation, some other incidents of cannibalism in survival situations, and issues related to PTSD (something I've struggled with, and an important topic to me and those in my profession) that no doubt those who survived this harsh winter suffered with for the rest of their lives.When I got to the chapters where the Donner Party was trapped, and the food began to run out, and people started to die...the book was gripping beyond anything I've read in a long, long time. One group stayed at a lake camp on the east side of the Sierras as blizzards swirled around them, trying to provide and keep warm their families, including toddlers and infants. One group fashioned snowshoes and tried to hike out of the Sierras (what they thought would be a six-day trek of 40 miles but was actually a 75-mile trip that took far longer than six-days...and they got lost along the way). They did this in extreme weather conditions and with almost no food.I recognized the people who left the camp were true heroes at heart...called the "snowshoe party," they were trying to make it to the closest white settlement on the west side of the Sierra's, Johnson's Ranch, so they could organize a relief party to go back and rescue their starving families. There were portions of this part of the book where I had to stop reading at times to almost catch my breath, at the horror and hardship these people endured. I'd estimate that six to seven times during my reading I'd have to pause and rub tears from my eyes at the heartbreak for the things these people had to do. The author does not describe the survival situations in a macabre or gruesome way but filtered through the emotions of what it must have been like for these people to have to do what they did. With chapter titles like, "A Christmas Feast," and "The Heart on the Mountain," you wonder what you'll be getting into in these chapters. I can say that what is to come in these chapters is an emotionally impactful account I won't soon forget, and in some ways is life changing.If you're looking for your next book to read, I cannot recommend "The Indifferent Stars Above" more highly. I'd also suggest it is a disservice to read this book at any other time than in the winter. Get yourself a cup of warm tea, sit by a warm fire as the wind and snow sweep down from the Rockies, and prepare to be entranced by the tragic true story of the Donner Party. It is a powerful but haunting book that even half-way through I counted one of the top five books I've ever read. 🇺🇸

4 starsThis book is both and exhaustive study and a telling tale of brutal life in the 1840’s.Sarah Graves and her family have joined a wagon train to California from their home in Illinois. The story is focused on Sarah, but tells of the experiences of the others in the party as well; at least as much as we can know about their thoughts and feelings from our point of view. It describes the initial exaltation turning to misery and pain as time and miles go by. The book talks about the fauna and flora the travelers experienced on the journey. It discusses the weather and its changes, the changes in the very ground on which the walkers were traversing.The book also discusses the less than honest among not only the travelers, but those who are out to get what they can. Like those who are misleading the journeyers on purpose to gain their own ends and those who feel that their own needs come before anyone else’s. As the trek went on mile after mile, the tempers flared ans fights broke out. The book offers explanations for how this happened and the subsequent consequences of certain individual’s actions.This is a well written account of the ill-fated “Donner Party” and especially one Sarah Graves, although she married a man called Jay Fosdick before she left home for her adventure in the wilderness. Although some of it is conjecture, I appreciated Mr. Brown’s effort and what must have been exhaustive research that went into his story. I like the way Mr. Brown interjects some historical facts into the story, such as the history of the undertaker business and the history of the celebration of Christmas in America. The first time he did this, it was a jarring distraction, but it grew on me as I read along. I have read many accounts of the Donner Party and this one is among the best.I immediately went back to Amazon to look for others of Mr. Brown’s works.

An amazing story. I knew nothing about the fateful journey of the California emigrants in 1846 but I had heard of "The Donner Party" and "Donners Pass".The author artfully takes you on the journey through the eyes of the Illinois Graves family, Franklin, Elizabeth and Sara, and the horrifying setbacks they suffer as they try to pass through the Sierra Mountains in winter. They and and several other families decide to take a "shortcut" through the mountains, advertised as "better & faster" in a book published that year by a man (crook?) who never tested the route!It is sad, strangely riveting, and an ultimate test of will and determination for the few who survived. But how they did it is still haunting me! Highly recommend.

Best book I’ve read in a couple years. Reads quickly and extremely compelling. Gruesome and unvarnished look at the hardships of a cross continental voyage. Wish I was still reading this.