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The path to Mountain Meadows: From Sarah's journal
Mormon The Path to Mountain Meadows is an award-winning (League of Utah Writers First Place winner) historical novel that explores the events leading to the tragedy at Mountain Meadows. As portrayed through the lives of fictional characters, the story began long before September 11, 1857.
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Published January 1, 2000
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July 19, 2016
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Having lived in Salt Lake City for ten years, I was fascinated by the vivid descriptions of daily life in the valley, how it was settled, and how people got there in the first place. Anyone who is interested in how the western US was settled will enjoy it for these descriptions alone.
Moore is a devout Mormon and bravely takes on a topic that many Mormons are uncomfortable discussing. Semi-spoiler alert: the book's story leads up to an historical event called the Mountain Meadows massacre, in which a group of Mormons and Native Americans slaughtered the majority of the Baker-Facher wagon train on their way to California. (With my limited knowledge of the event, my understanding is that it was not an official, church-sanctioned massacre, but was carried out by a group of people who were becoming hysterical at the possibility of their territory being invaded.) Moore is sympathetic to the Mormons, and describes the extreme oppression that had driven these people to go westward in the first place, but she does not excuse their actions.
The book also reflects on the general attitudes toward polygamy at the time, which I found interesting. It touches on Utah's journey to statehood as well as Brigham Young and his relationship with the US government.
Most of the novel is not about the massacre itself, but centers around Sarah, one of the young settlers in the area. Sarah is smart, pretty, and an eligible bachelorette who finds herself the object of a few men's affections. She has to make some very big decisions at a young age, and it reminded me how quickly people had to grow up back in those days. Despite her being a little naive, she is a hard worker and decides to make something of herself when other areas of her life don't bring her the happiness she'd been hoping for. Sarah has a cast of other interesting characters in her life as well, and it's interesting to see which side of history each one ends up on towards the end of the book.
In short, this book is a great story with some interesting insight into a very sad and complex historical event. Read it!
Moore is a devout Mormon and bravely takes on a topic that many Mormons are uncomfortable discussing. Semi-spoiler alert: the book's story leads up to an historical event called the Mountain Meadows massacre, in which a group of Mormons and Native Americans slaughtered the majority of the Baker-Facher wagon train on their way to California. (With my limited knowledge of the event, my understanding is that it was not an official, church-sanctioned massacre, but was carried out by a group of people who were becoming hysterical at the possibility of their territory being invaded.) Moore is sympathetic to the Mormons, and describes the extreme oppression that had driven these people to go westward in the first place, but she does not excuse their actions.
The book also reflects on the general attitudes toward polygamy at the time, which I found interesting. It touches on Utah's journey to statehood as well as Brigham Young and his relationship with the US government.
Most of the novel is not about the massacre itself, but centers around Sarah, one of the young settlers in the area. Sarah is smart, pretty, and an eligible bachelorette who finds herself the object of a few men's affections. She has to make some very big decisions at a young age, and it reminded me how quickly people had to grow up back in those days. Despite her being a little naive, she is a hard worker and decides to make something of herself when other areas of her life don't bring her the happiness she'd been hoping for. Sarah has a cast of other interesting characters in her life as well, and it's interesting to see which side of history each one ends up on towards the end of the book.
In short, this book is a great story with some interesting insight into a very sad and complex historical event. Read it!
Displaying 1 of 1 review