Sunday, May 20, 2018

Review: Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a great book! Yes, there is a great deal of non-Laura history included here, but it all goes in to show that while the Little House books were semi-autobiographical, they were not 100% accurate historically. Also, it's wise to remember that the books end with Laura at age (approx.) 20 and she lived another 65+ years after that point so her outlook on the world was bound to be somewhat different as an adult looking back at her childhood than had she written from kept diaries of her childhood.

Also, Rose...OMG that woman was a lunatic! What in the hell happened to her? How did Laura and Almanzo raise such a self-oriented, narcissistic piece of work? She was conniving and sneaky and delusional. I ended the book, as I admittedly started it, loathing her, but the surprise is that I didn't much like Laura as an adult either. However, I will add that knowing more about her adult outlook and political point of view make her much more 'real' than reading the kids' books ever has done for me. And I have read them dozens of times!!

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