Story Description:
Doubelday|April 5, 2011|Trade
Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4000-7429-7
A mother’s tragedy, a daughter’s desire and
the 3,500 mile journey that changed their lives.
In 1896 a Norwegian-American, Helga Estby,
accepted a wager from the fashion industry to walk from Spokane, Washington to
New York City within seven months in an effort to earn $10,000. Bringing along her nineteen-year-old daughter,
Clara, the two made their way on the 3,500-mile trek by following the railroad
tracks and motivated by the money they needed to save the family farm. After returning home to the Estby farm more
than a year later, Clara chose to walk on alone by leaving the family and
changing her name. Her decision
initiated a more than 20-year separation from the only life she had known.
Historical fiction writer, Jane
Kirkpatrick, picks up where the fact of the Estby’s walk leaves off to explore
Clara’s continued journey. What
motivated Clara to take such a risk in an era when many women struggled with
the issues of rights and independence?
And what personal revelations brought Clara to the end of her lonely
road? The Daughter’s Walk weaves personal history and fiction together to
invite readers to consider their own journeys and family separations, to help
determine what exile and forgiveness are truly about.
“Kirkpatrick has done impeccable homework
and what she recreates and what she imagines are wonderfully seamless. Readers see the times, the motives, the
relationships that produce a chain of decisions and actions, all rendered with
understatement. Kirkpatrick is a master
at using fiction to illuminate history’s truths. This beautiful and compelling work of
historical fiction deserves the widest possible audience.” (Publisher’s Weekly
Starred Review)
My Review:
In 1896, Clara Estby, nineteen, is forced
by her mother, Helga, on a 3,500-mile walk from Spokane, Washington to New York
City. The women of this era wore long
dresses and skirts that covered their ankles and most of their shoes. The dresses would be caked with mud or
soaking wet at the hemline from inclement weather. Even in good weather, the long dresses
accumulated a lot of dust and debris. Now the fashion icons are searching for
women to promote their new, shorter dresses and Helga needs the $10,000 prize
money for completing the walk on time in order to save their family farm from
foreclosure.
This is actually a true story with
fictionalized story lines interweaved into the narrative to fill in the blanks
where research was not available or complete enough. Helga Estby was real – a Norwegian-American
immigrant most noted for her walk across the United States in 1896. Helga arrived in Manistee, Michigan in 1871
and in 1876 she married Ole Estby who was an immigrant from Grue, Norway where
his daughter, Clara would one day visit later on in the book.
The farm Helga was trying to save from
foreclosure was located in Mica Creek, Spokane County, Washington. Ole, Helga’s husband had had an accident and
couldn’t work so they couldn’t pay the taxes or the mortgage.
Clara did not want to go on this walk with
her mother but she wasn’t given any choice.
The only thing that Clara could see in the shorter skirts and absence of
corsets: “…was that we could run faster from people chasing us for being
foolish enough to embark on such a trek across the country, two women alone.”
Helga had wanted Clara to join her on the walk to also prevent her from getting
involved with men.
Ole was furious that his wife, Helga was
taking on this walk and made his disgust and anger well-known. It would also mean that Helga would be away
from her other 7 children – Lillian, Johnny, Billy, Arthur, Bertha, Ida, and
Olaf – leaving the childcare to Ida and Olaf for a year!
During Helga and Clara’s walk, many family
secrets were divulged and one in particular would change the course of young
Clara’s life forever and cause her to change her name and initiate a
twenty-year separation from her family, even her mother, Helga.
The first half of the book is dedicated
entirely to the historically factual walk and the second half is dedicated to
Clara after she leaves the family and becomes a businesswoman bent on creating
her own family and becoming financially self-supporting.
It is glaringly obvious that Jane
Kirkpatrick has done an amazing amount of research before writing this
book. I was so enamoured with the story
that once I was done, I did some research of my own and found her facts to be
historically right on.
The
Daughter’s Walk is a book that everyone should read and I’ll
be recommending it to anyone and everyone.
It was well-written and seamless.
Kudos to Ms. Kirkpatrick. I think
this is my “4th” favourite book I’ve read this year out of the 192 books I’ve
read so far. This will definitely be
part of my permanent collection.
Excellent!!
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