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There are currently 23 member reviews
for Follow the Stars Home
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Paula K. (Champaign, IL)
A Good But Imperfect Historical Novel
Follow the Stars Home has such promise, but in the end the promise not fulfilled. The novel tells the story of Lydia and Nicholas Roosevelt, who make the first paddle steamboat trip down the Mississippi River in a boat Nicholas designed. Along the way they encounter, among other perils, the infamous New Madrid earthquake. The novel is narrated by Lydia, who accompanied her much older husband on this adventure as well as on a previous unsuccessful flatboat trip on the same river. She is accompanied by their two young children, one of whom was born on the paddle boat on this journey, and two female servants. Regrettably, the tale is filled with repetition, much of it tedious iterations of her love for her husband and children; her traumatic childhood loss of her mother, abandonment by her father, and subsequent reunion with him and his new wife; of a blossoming on-board romance between one of her servants and a crew member, and more. I really wanted to love this novel, but in the end I really just wished that it had been more rigourously edited. Still, fans of historical fiction will appreciate learning about this remarkable historical navigational achievement.
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Dawn Z.
Fascinating story told through too modern a lens
The true story of Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and her husband, inventor and steamboat pioneer Nicholas Roosevelt, is fascinating. However, I found myself distracted by the very modern points of view the author gave Lydia.
Despite facing numerous challenges, such as a dangerous boat journey along the Mississippi River, including navigating through the Falls of the Ohio, potential attacks from Native Americans, and a destructive earthquake and its aftershocks, just after giving birth to her second child and taking care of a toddler, Lydia frequently reflects on her significance in history. In Chapter 19, she writes, "I am part of this history, this wild adventure. Will anyone remember that I was? Are women never remembered unless they happened to have been a queen?" This seems far-fetched. I'd expect her to focus on survival, not worry about being excluded from history books because she's a woman.
In addition, Lydia comes across as a modern woman who is an equal partner in her marriage and muses about the roles we assign men and women. I know there were feminists in the early nineteenth century, but I don't think their thoughts about women's rights were as nuanced as today's. For example, after a crew member apologizes for using the word "hell" in front of her, she muses to herself, "What a shame that men cannot simply be themselves in front of women!"
There were several unresolved storylines, too. For example, Lydia worries about food and fuel shortages, but the steamboat floats past earthquake-destroyed settlements for several days without running out of food or fuel.
The story was interesting, but I expect more realistic details about cultural attitudes and roles than I found here.
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