Book Club: Caroline

I grew up reading and watching the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder so when one of my book club friends recommended Caroline: Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller for our September read I was all in. 

Caroline is a novel about the move from Big Woods to the Kansas prairie from Ma's perspective. The 1800s were (needless to say) very different from our present day in regards to travel, homemaking, raising children and even marriage. Ma's life was hard and submitting to your husband's dream of moving across unknown lands to stake claim in Indian territory would be right there at the top of things I don't know if I'd do . . . loading up all your possessions into a horse drawn wagon for not only a few weeks but months with your preschooler and toddler and a baby on the way, cooking over open fires, rationing provisions, crossing frozen lakes and forging rivers sounds nothing like my move to California!

The book was really interesting in that the author retells a story I knew so long ago with an adult perspective and more facts than Wilder shared. But excited as I was to read the book, I can't say it was an easy read. It seemed a little slow at times and I had a hard time coming back to it. 

I did appreciate the scenes about their marriage as that was never really shared in the original series. I also appreciated getting an insiders take on Ma's restraint in showing emotion and speaking. I can't say I agree with how the culture was back then but I found it interesting and a good reminder of how strong women were. I admired her ability to hold herself together in such difficult circumstances while having so much being physically asked of her. 

I grew up reading and watching the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder so when one of my book club friends recommended Caroline: Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller for our September read I was all in. 

Caroline is a novel about the move from Big Woods to the Kansas prairie from Ma's perspective. The 1800s were (needless to say) very different from our present day in regards to travel, homemaking, raising children and even marriage. Ma's life was hard and submitting to your husband's dream of moving across unknown lands to stake claim in Indian territory would be right there at the top of things I don't know if I'd do . . . loading up all your possessions into a horse drawn wagon for not only a few weeks but months with your preschooler and toddler and a baby on the way, cooking over open fires, rationing provisions, crossing frozen lakes and forging rivers sounds nothing like my move to California!

The book was really interesting in that the author retells a story I knew so long ago with an adult perspective and more facts than Wilder shared. But excited as I was to read the book, I can't say it was an easy read. It seemed a little slow at times and I had a hard time coming back to it. 

I did appreciate the scenes about their marriage as that was never really shared in the original series. I also appreciated getting an insiders take on Ma's restraint in showing emotion and speaking. I can't say I agree with how the culture was back then but I found it interesting and a good reminder of how strong women were. I admired her ability to hold herself together in such difficult circumstances while having so much being physically asked of her.