Indifferent Stars Above, The: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party (P.S.)

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The author tells an informative story in a way that both honors the memory of the people involved and puts it into historical perspective. It says this is the story of a Donner Party bride, and, while she does play a role in the tale, she is more like a unifying thread than a central character. Also, it was too much work to remember who was who and the relationship between the members of the parties.

They are not given a name, they are simply “one,” suggesting there is little or no personal connection between the deceased person and the narrator.

He also broadened his scope and talked about what else was going on in the country and around the world, and he used a little bit of scientific explanation in a few parts. Apparently, I've even been to the Donner museum but this must have been when I was really little for I remember nothing about it. It's almost impossible to imagine what these people went through or what they had to do to survive with the way we live today however this book paints a pretty clear pictue of what actually happened. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. Those with strong faith (like the Breen family) held to their beliefs and principles even when faced with death.

It also covers their lives afterwards and the guilt, shame and the PTSD which of course was not known then. Despite all the hope we sense in the members of the Graves family, Brown ends the second chapter with a chilling bit of foreshadowing -- another element which he utilizes with eerie precision throughout The Indifferent Stars Above. I finished this book a couple of weeks ago, and as is my usual habit, I highlighted the heck out of it.In April 1846, 21-year-old Sarah Graves embarked with her family and new husband, 23-year-old Jay Fosdick, on a wagon-train migration to California from Steuben Township, Ill. The Indifferent Stars Above traces the footsteps of Sarah Graves, a young bride who left her home in Illinois in the spring of 1846, bound for California. The Donner Party is the collective name given to a number of families who set out west for California from Independence, Missouri in the spring of 1846.

So at the elevation of Donner Lake, for instance, UVB rays are approximately 30 percent stronger than at sea level. Part One of The Indifferent Stars Above is short but effective, establishing the key players in the story and providing appropriate context. The writing reported very tragic and emotional facts in a very point-blank way, almost like it was taken from academic writing. So clearly it's saying the lady and the pedant are the same person who live with the land hens she's barried. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.Or maybe its because he never takes sides, even as this book was arguably about the Donner Party from Sarah Graves Fosdick’s perspective, he discusses the morally ambiguous actions made by her and her family, and the others around them, assessing whether some were even really necessary for survival. He argued that failing to do so would leave the travelers “very liable to be detained by impassable mountains of snow until the next spring, or perhaps forever. I only have a seven minute drive to work, but if I’m two blocks down the road the only thing I will turn around for is my wallet or phone, it seems like too much work to turn back for anything else.

The story of the ill-fated Donner Party is one that has remained at the forefront of westward expansion -- mostly due to the salacious accounts of cannibalism that accompany that tragic tale. This book not only tells of Sarah Graves journey but also of the journey that the author took in writing this book. To see your family and friends die, to have to bury them on the side of the road in an unmarked grave and then move on, to watch as your loved ones’ physical and mental health decline.The Pitch: In April of 1846, pioneers set out to a better future and instead found themselves trapped in the mountains, quickly descending into horror and madness. The book focuses on Sarah Graves, newly married and deeply in love, as she travels across the country with her family. When one of them suffered a broken jaw, a cord was tied to the jaw and it was yanked out of his face.