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crankylibrarian 's review for:
The Long Winter
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The pioneer experience as horror movie. Wilder's anything but nostalgic look back at a devastating Dakota winter cries out for the Steven King treatment. All the elements are there: creepy warnings from a wise old Indian, odd and disturbing animal behavior, nature perverted in deeply upsetting ways: the cattle suffocate when their own breath freezes them to the ground, an ordinary school day turns instantly into a struggle for survival. Even the reliably unflappable Pa becomes unhinged and screams at a wind that has become the personification of unrelenting, uncaring evil.
There's little of the Michael Landon warm fuzzies in this book. Although Wilder's story has its heroes, (notably her husband Almanzo) she makes it clear that surviving the pioneer experience depended on luck as much as skill or intelligence.
There's little of the Michael Landon warm fuzzies in this book. Although Wilder's story has its heroes, (notably her husband Almanzo) she makes it clear that surviving the pioneer experience depended on luck as much as skill or intelligence.