The Homesman
Reviewed By Ian Banks January 5, 2015
Author Glendon Swarthout
Distributor:
ISBN: 978-1-4711-3604-7
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Release Date:
Website: http://www.simonandschuster.com.au
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How the West was won is a story that has many aspects too it, most of which have been passed down over generations and become the folkloric that makes up American early settler history. But what of those who tried and failed with devastating costs, those whose story has been largely untold and unrecorded, until this story was told, based on the lives of four families and the very real heartbreak behind wining the west.
Four women have had their minds and spirits broken by the harsh conditions, the unfailing and unrelenting hardship. But what to be done with them is the big question. If they were men there would be several choices, but even then they didn’t shoot women who spent their days wailing uncontrollably or looking at the walls in mute despair.
Four families come into town after the brutal winters spring thaw, bringing their wives and mothers to be sent to an insane asylum ‘back home’.
The call goes out for a ‘homesman’ to travel with the women, but none of the men want to take on the task.
Mary Bee Cuddy, frontierswoman, takes pity on the women and decides to take on the difficult task, but only if she can find a man to travel with her. She finally convinces claim jumper George Briggs to go with her on this formidable journey.
The Homesman tells the story of hope, despair, and madness as they set out on this challenging mission. Not only do they have the foibles of the spring weather to cope with but the lack of good food, hustlers, rogues and villains and so much more all go into building up a picture of life in the ‘new colonisation’, when things start to go seriously wrong.
Mary Bee, tough as she seemed to be, finally succumbs to the madness of her fellow travellers, leaving George Briggs to make the decision of whether to continue on or to abandon the women.
Not noted for his conscience he finally decides to take the women on to Hebron, where he places them in the care of the Methodist Minister and his wife.
But life has not finished with George Briggs as when he goes to cash in his bonus money for the trip, he finds he has fallen foul of a wildcat money lending bank which has folded, making his bonus money worthless.
Well documented and exceptionally well written, now a major movie, this is one story which should be read and seen as it is as fascinating as it is emotive and really does tell the other bleak, heartbreaking side of at what cost the West really was won.