REVIEW: THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DuPREE

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DuPREE

By Ann Weisgarber

Rating 9 out of 10

It's the early 19 C. and 25-year-old Rachel Reeves has been cooking at Mrs. DuPree's boarding house for eight years, sharing her wages with her parents. She's had her share of potential suitors but they have all been "slaughterhouse men" like her now-crippled father. She knows from experience that killing animals could turn a man mean and bitter or lead him to drink and that's not the life she wants.

When handsome, light-skinned Isaac DuPree, the son of the boarding house proprietor arrives to visit his mother, Rachel is immediately smitten. Even though his mother wants a wife of higher means for her son, he wants to homestead and since the best land is all claimed, he ends up in the Badlands of South Dakota and wants all the land he can lay his hands on. He eventually makes an agreement with Rachel. If she will turn over the 160 acres she can get as a single woman to him, he will marry her if she agrees to stay one yea. It's mainly just a marriage of convenience for Isaac but Rachel wants to get out of dirty, smelly Chicago and marriage and homesteading is her ticket. She has no idea how desolate and lonely her new home will be.

The book then fast forwards 14 years. Rachel is still toughing it out in the Badlands with Isaac and their children. But a drought has enveloped the area leading to the death of many cattle and the family having to resort to perilous means to get the little water they can from their well.

Although over the years Rachel has impressed Isaac with her ability to stick it out and not only that become quite the help to him on their ranch, after several tragedies, the drought, and Isaac needing to go to Rapid City, 70 miles to the west, to find work in the winter, leaving Rachel and the family alone, she begins to wonder if enough is enough.

Ann Weisgarber's debut is a doozy of a novel. Having already won several awards, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DuPREE is a novel readers will have trouble putting down once started. It is a testament to the author's writing skill that this reviewer stayed up into the wee hours reading two nights in a row and finished the book in two days. This is, simply put, an outstanding novel about pioneers not much has been written about – those of the Negro families trying to tame the western frontier. Rachel isn't perfect, but she is admirable with the strength to deal with more than anyone could dare imagine. This book is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a well-written story that isn't predictable. Although women will likely enjoy this the most, there's a lot in the book that will even have men reading it. I very much enjoyed the story and would love to read more about Rachel and her family in a sequel. Thanks, Ms. Weisgarber, for a terrific read.