- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: St Martin's Press; First Edition edition (31 Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312866127
- ISBN-13: 978-0312866129
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,153,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
An astonishing epic of American history by the renowned author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Dee Brown is the author of several bestsellers, including the classic nonfiction work Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which sold over 5 million copies worldwide, and the highly acclaimed novel Creek Mary's Blood. Brown's impact on our understanding of our heritage cannot be underestimated. This revered writer, who has lived through most of this century, has written over two dozen books on life in frontier America and has forever put his stamp on American history. In The Way to Bright Star, Dee Brown outdoes himself, taking readers on a grand tour of 1860's heartland America. It is a grand coming-of-age novel, much like Charles Porter's True Grit, and destined to become an American classic. The story is told through the eyes of Ben Butterfield, an ex-circus performer living out his days in a backwater town, looking back at an incredible moment in his boyhood: An odyssey across Kansas and Missouri to Bright Star, Indiana, during the Civil War. On that journey he would meet the friends he would treasure always -- and the woman who would forever have a lock on his heart.
"Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking....impossible to put down". -- The New York Times on Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
"This tale of America's Gilded Age is told with a vigor and irony that do full justice to its excesses, energies, venalities, and dreams". -- Newsweek on Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow
"It is obvious from the outset that Brown knows the Civil War period as well as he knows the Indian War and the taming of the West....A consummate storyteller. The rivers flow, the winds blow, the nights arefull of secrets and the days pulse with real life". -- The Washington Post on Conspiracy of Knaves
"Brown is a master of the plain style, modulating it skillfully to fit whatever engages his sense of wonder". -- The Orlando Sentinel
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6 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A journey through a war-torn country
27 Jan 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a story of a journey through Missouri, on to Bright Star, Indiana during the Civil War. But the story is really about the travelers and the people they meet along the way. The basic plot is that an Army captain has acquired two camels (brought from Egypt to test in the southwest deserts) and hires Johnny and Ben to take them to his farm in Bright Star.
There is a second, parallel plot line, narrated by Ben some forty years later, reflecting on his memories of the journey to Bright Star. It's an enjoyable read and definitely has a Mark Twain feel to it. There are constant troubles and setbacks, the goal seemingly never reached. They run into a variety of unique characters, many of whom illustrate the hostile attitudes caused by the Civil War. Overall, a pleasant, enjoyable story.
There is a second, parallel plot line, narrated by Ben some forty years later, reflecting on his memories of the journey to Bright Star. It's an enjoyable read and definitely has a Mark Twain feel to it. There are constant troubles and setbacks, the goal seemingly never reached. They run into a variety of unique characters, many of whom illustrate the hostile attitudes caused by the Civil War. Overall, a pleasant, enjoyable story.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
An engaging but abrupt slice of Americana
9 May 2000
Format:Hardcover
Comparisons to "Huckleberry Finn" or "Cold Sassy Tree" are apt. Like these other novels, "The Way to Bright Star" is an adolescent's journey through an America at war. The people met along the way are the book's greatest strength: soldiers, everyday farmers, a girl in disguise. The dialogue is great, and the settings evoke a time when our county was truly the new frontier.
But the jumps from the Civil War era to the early 19th century can be abrupt, and leave you with a sense of an unfulfillment. The ending in particular was very disappointing, both as flashback and in the narration. Is Mr. Brown planning to make this book a series? If so, the ending will leave you hungry for more. But if this is all there is, you're in a for a disappointing letdown.
Engaging Novel
18 May 2004
Format:Hardcover
"The Way To Bright Star" by Dee Brown. Recorded Books, Inc.1998.
The noted author and Historian of the West, Dee Alexander Brown, has branched out into fiction with this lengthy tale of delivering two camels from Missouri to Bright Star, Indiana. There are really two plot lines in this engaging novel. The first is the telling of the actual driving of the camels from war-torn (Civil War) Missouri to Indiana. It seems that Union Captain Solomon Lightfoot has dreams of a farming empire where camels would replace the horse and the ox. The good Captain "enlists" the services of Johnny Hawkes, young Ben Butterfield and a girl with the name of Jack Bonnycastle. With the aid of the Egyptian camel driver, Hadjee, this little group starts out towards Indiana. Their adventure allows Dee Brown to elicit the mannerisms, language and the simpler culture of a time long ago. This is told in the third person.
The second plot line, in the first person, presents the reminiscences of an older Ben Butterfield. It has to be some forty years later, since the characters discuss the assassination of William McKinley (1843-1901) and wonder if Pres. Roosevelt will be able to handle the office. (That's Teddy Roosevelt!) As the older Ben Butterfield remembers and relates, Dee Brown paints a picture of turn-of-the-century America, a simpler time when the telephone was becoming a jangling nuisance and rowing down a local river was considered a wonderful outing for the more adventurous in the town.
The novel comes to a nostalgic conclusion as the elder Ben Butterfield approaches his old circus that has come to town. He hopes to see his old friend, Jack Bonnycastle, who was really a girl, by the name of "Queen Elizabeth Jones". It seems that this girl had developed into a noted equestrian, who performed before the crowned heads of Europe. Due to a broken leg, Ben had been left behind as Queen Elizabeth and the circus had gone on to fame and glory. Ben Butterfield had always loved Queen Elizabeth Jones. The ending is rather sad but touching.
Tom Stechschulte does an excellent job in reading this book, nine full cassettes. The reader gives an unique and appropriate to the many different characters, ranging from wounded Southern soldiers to Hadjee, who has a little English and a little French. Well done. This presentation helped me to endure Boston Traffic.
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