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Thoughts: ‘Prairie Fires’ by Caroline Fraser

I devoted all of my reading time and energy over the last week to a single book, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. This Pulitzer Prize-winning biography was my September book club selection, which propelled me through a book where the length might have otherwise been intimidating. I hate that I’m a reader who gets scared off by long books, but a biography with 515 pages of story and an additional 100 pages of footnotes is such a hurdle for me!

A quick aside about my awesome book club. Every year, we read the New York Times’ top 10 books of the previous year. I love this focus because we never have to vote about what books to read next, I’m challenged to read books might seem too hard otherwise, and the list usually has an interesting variety of titles. The only book club meeting this year I could have attended but skipped because I didn’t read the book was Grant by Ron Chernow…. even book club wasn’t enough to get me through that one.

Anyway, back to Laura Ingalls Wilder! Prairie Fires is a comprehensive biography of a beloved children’s author who lived a life much more fraught and complicated that the fictionalized version she shared in her Little House on the Prairie series.

The book draws on an array of unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and public records to piece together her story and, along the way, a story about pioneers, the American West, and our complicated ideas about the American Dream. It’s a truly stunning, warm, critical, and thoughtful book that I am so glad I made the time to read.

I read all of the Little House books as a kid, but didn’t really know about their publishing history, Wilder’s collaboration and complicated relationship with her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, or the ways in which fact and fiction blended together in the stories. It was so interesting, for me, to go back to a childhood favorite and look at it with fresh eyes. The book does an excellent job of focusing first on the true stories of Wilder’s childhood, then shifting to the publishing story of the books and how those stories simplified and smoothed out some devastating personal history.

Fraser is very critical of Lane, Wilder’s daughter, for both her personal behavior and the irresponsible financial choices she made. The late chapters of the book also become a sort of mini-biography of Lane, since her collaboration with her mother on the Little House books greatly impacted the final product. I’m curious to learn more about her, too, after reading this book.

There’s a lot of history in the book that can offer lessons about where we are today — our treatment of the environment, the idea of American exceptionalism, the trend towards isolationism and a hardening of American values — that I haven’t yet had the chance to think more about. Even without that added depth, Prairie Fires is a great book that I think anyone with an affection for the Little House series will enjoy.

It also piqued my interest for a couple of books I’ve been meaning to pick up and read for awhile now:

My Ántonia by Willa Cather –– Cather was writing about pioneers on the prairie at about the same time as Wilder was, and so is mentioned in Prairie Fires as a comparison to those books. This is the only one of Cather’s books on my shelf right now, and even though it’s looked back upon as the third book on a casual trilogy I think it’s a good place to start.

The Finnish Way: Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu by Katja Pantzar — I bought this book up last month because I’m Finnish, but I think it will have something to add to my current reading too. Sisu is the idea of “stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness,” all qualities that come through strongly in Wilder’s fiction and are explored in this biography.

Diving into Prairie Fires was an interesting way to spend a week, but I really glad to have given the time to such a well-research and well- written story. Prairie Fires is a great book that I think anyone with an affection for the Little House series will enjoy.

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  • bermudaonion (Kathy) September 27, 2018, 7:12 am

    I love your book club’s focus, too, but my book club would never go for that. I’m about over my book club because of the books that are chosen.

    I read all the Little House books so I think I would really like this book.

    • Kim September 28, 2018, 6:47 pm

      It’s definitely a particular focus, and definitely isn’t for everyone. We don’t all always finish, but I think the people who come regularly give it a good try.

  • Amanda September 27, 2018, 3:11 pm

    And another on my TBR list. I have been debating suggesting the Little House books to my daughter. Maybe I’ll check this out first.

    I love how your book club selects! Good range and then you skip the agonizing that I go through over whether everyone will hate my choice. Save the agonizing for the important decision like where to have book club.

    • Kim September 28, 2018, 6:48 pm

      That’s the biggest thing I like about it too — we don’t have to debate what book we’re reading, and no person gets blamed if we don’t like it. We just have a list and we go through it and that’s that 🙂

  • Heather September 27, 2018, 5:16 pm

    I’ve had this one on my list since it was published. I’m glad you thought it was worth reading! I grew up on her books and the tv series and really want to dive into this one some day.

    • Kim September 28, 2018, 6:49 pm

      I think if you liked the books and the tv series, there will be a lot to like in this one! She skims the part about the tv series near the end, but there’s a lot comparing Laura’s real life to what she shared in the stories.

  • Unruly Reader September 27, 2018, 10:46 pm

    My book club’s reading this one right now, too! But we cheated and divided it over two month’s meetings… cuz sometimes we’re lazy like that. But I’m finding, while reading the first half for October’s meeting, that I’m tempted to sprint right past the midway point and keep reading. This book’s proving weirdly addictive, and even to a reader who had mixed feelings about the Little House books. (They kind of haunted me as a kid — all that suffering. All those paltry pleasures. It put me into a funk.) As often is the case, the true story is so much more satisfying and complex.

    • Kim September 28, 2018, 6:50 pm

      I don’t think that’s a bad idea, it’s a big book! I do think it picks up near the middle, once Laura is married and sort of settled in Missouri and gets to turn her attention to writing. I like that part a lot.

  • Lisa October 11, 2018, 8:09 pm

    I’ve had this one in my “wish cart” on B&N for a while now, but that length has been scaring me off. Which is ridiculous since I HAVE read not one, but two, of Chernow’s biographies!

    • Kim October 17, 2018, 7:51 pm

      This is definitely not a Chernow biography, but it’s long… and the type is small. I probably wouldn’t have managed to finish it without book club, but I’m glad that I did.

  • Katie @ Doing Dewey October 13, 2018, 4:19 pm

    I’m currently reading We the Corporations because I decided to read the National Book Awards shortlist and I was a little sad to realize that something on such a heavy, political topic would probably have put me off otherwise. So I get why reading the NYT list could be a great way to tackle books you wouldn’t have otherwise! I also have a hard time picking up big books in general since I started blogging. I hate to slow down my posting because I’m out of read books to review.

    • Kim October 17, 2018, 7:52 pm

      I feel the same way! With the work I do for Book Riot, I feel like I need to be up on recent nonfiction, so it’s hard to take the time to really invest in a long book. It’s silly, but true. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the books on the shortlist, they look really good this year!