The Kentucky Trace: A Novel of the American Revolution

by Harriette Simpson Arnow

Finding his farm abandoned and his family gone when he returns from the Revolution, Leslie Collins sets out in pursuit on the Kentucky Trace following the only clue he has

Genres: Historical Fiction

Hardcover

First published December 31, 1974

About the author

Harriette Simpson Arnow (July 7, 1908 – March 22, 1986) was an American novelist, who lived in Kentucky and Michigan.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book 3.5 stars. Arnow produced something unique with this book; I've never encountered elsewhere this stream-of-consciousness style and thoroughly modern attitude in novels about the American Revolution. I loved the passages that involved storytelling--so many of the characters tell long, humorous stories to the main character, Leslie Collins. The plot stalls at times because of the endless descriptions of clothing or the steps involved in making saltpeter, for example. We get it, Harriette--you did a tremendous amount of research! You didn't have to include all of it. The ending is such a disappointment--I thought for a moment that my book was missing the last few pages--but that's typical of this author. The Kentucky Trace is nowhere near as good as her masterpiece, Hunter's Horn, but I still found much to appreciate and enjoy.

Also--avoid the 2012 edition from Michigan State University Press. It was clearly made by scanning the original 1974 edition by University Press of Kentucky, and it's rife with errors. I'm glad it's still in print, but some times I had to stop and re-read sentences due to the typos. I checked passages against the '74 edition, and they were fine.

[Sonia Sundberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hardback. Harriette Simpson Arnow is a national treasure. It's sad that I went to school in Kentucky from 8th grade to freshman college and don't remember hearing of her nor was her work required reading. Ironically, I stumbled on her title Dollmaker in a library in Grand Rapids, MI in the early 2,000's, decades after her death. Dollmaker remains one of my favorite books of all time. I ordered this title from a thrift store and hoped to be enthralled by it as well. This is the last book she wrote, in 1974. Though I respect her work and the research she obviously completed on the project, the book doesn't hit me the way Dollmaker does.

[Mitzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

My feelings on this one are a little mixed, I wavered between 3 and 4 stars, finally I went with 4 because I did enjoy the story. I just wished the plot would have went farther, which could have been done if she would have reduced her amount of description - I dig reading history, but there was just too much detail in there about making gunpowder, types of trees, etc. etc. If she would have tightened that stuff up a bit she could have taken the story to a farther out end, as it is it feels like an abrupt cut-off instead of a completely realized, wrapped up ending.

All that being said, I did enjoy the characters and the story, and I did like a lot of the detail about frontier life. If you are into that time period it is definitely worth a read. I do have to say it is done better by authors like Janice Holt Giles and Allan W. Eckert though...

[Margaret Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written story. I live in central Ky. and have been to some of the areas In the book. She captured the beauty of the land and the hardship of living on the frontier during the Revolutionary War.