I wanted to like this book but I gave up 1/3 of the way through. It was not cohesive and the stories between the colonizers heading to Oregon just did not flow together. I could appreciate the story the author was trying to tell, despite some of the rather disgusting sentiments of the people themselves but I just couldn't do it. 3 stars for effort but otherwise it wasn't engaging.

1 stars
Just no. The whole premise behind this book was so good. The execution not so much. I do not expect sex scenes in a historical book about the Oregon Trail. DNF

It is a journey like no other. A story that ignites all senses and takes you to places you could not imagine. This journey from East (New York) to West (Oregon) in the 1840s has been based on lengthy research and the development of some colourful characters. It is an emotional and tireless adventure. Travelling in the wagons and by foot alongside these brave and courageous pioneers exhausted me and also filled my heart with flutters of happiness and achievement.

Written in diary entry format, the tone and style of the vernacular made me feel the rhythm of this arduous journey. I highly recommend this read.

Lamentations tells the story of a wagon train headed West, solely from the perspective of the women on the journey.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It’s 100% my genre, but I had a hard time connecting to the characters. Typically when I read, I create a mental picture of each narrator or main character. With so many voices here, I had difficulty doing so, and had to keep referring to my notes to remember who was who.

The sheer feat of literally walking almost 2,000 miles was amazing to contemplate. I appreciated that we experienced the trip through the womens’ inner thoughts and musings about the journey and the men around them. I also appreciated that the women were diverse in social class - we heard from educated women like Caroline Tompkins and Mary Smith, as well as lower class women like Flora Shadden and Mrs. Bennett.

Overall, I wished for more emotional connection to the women and the story. Thank you to University of Nebraska Press / Bison Books and NetGalley for the electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for a review.

Lamentations is a hard-won, excellent historical fiction novel. No, it's not a story full of high action and nail biting tension. This book is historical fiction for those who want the story of everyday people who, unintentionally, did something extraordinary.

Even limited by historical documents, Kammen fleshes out the characters through the way they observe and react in small ways to their journey west. She doesn't resort to stereotypes or cardboard characters.

The events that move the story along hold the tension, even though they might not seem that interesting at first. Getting to a fort didn't mean much to me before, but after reading what the travelers went through to get through that fort, I felt at least a tinge of the emotions they might have.

Good historical fiction lets us watch the people through their journeys. Great historical fiction puts us in their shoes. I recommend Lamentations not just to those who like historical fiction, but to anyone who wants to understand how the minutia of life can define life.

‘Lamentations’ shares the stories and thoughts of a group of women traveling west on the Oregon Trail. While at times beautifully written, it also bogged down fairly often in the minutiae of their daily lives, and I found my attention wandering. It was also suddenly, startlingly bleak on occasion, and a little too open about the crudeness of life for my personal taste. Realistic, I’m sure, but not my preference. Because it alternated between so many different women’s thoughts and experiences, it was hard to follow who was whom for much of the first half of the story. Having so many multiple point-of-view narrators also left me feeling emotionally disconnected to any of the women.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

"...the journey on which we were going was untested by emigrant families and we are the first company of families and wagons to make this crossing...". After being outfitted in St. Louis, 105 people including women and children, loaded their belongings into 16 wagons bound for Oregon. The date was May 16, 1842. The trail boss, Dr. Elijah White, was a complicated, devious man. Observations of the journey, in real time, were penned by Medorem Crawford, the company clerk. Entries included daily distances traveled and notations of the day's events. There were no diaries written by women on this first wagon train to Oregon. In this work of historical fiction, 15 women travelers are given a voice. How did the journey play out from their perspective?

"It is when walking along, and alone, that I seem to churn up what I really think-those comments that cannot be uttered, words left unsaid, those flights of thought that are out of the usual or beyond the conventions by which we live...thought crazy or scandalous...the action of my legs, moving me forward step by step, lubricates my imagination so that I go free in my mind as my body plods forward. Thoughts are not fleeting and momentary but are worked over and developed by the process of walking".

Dr. Elijah White was commissioned with the task of taking emigrant families to Oregon. His expectation, the governorship of the soon to be Oregon Territory. He had a "haughty righteousness...importance he ascribed to his own experience". He did not inspire followers. They would be 'led into the wilderness' by a man who didn't know the way. Women were non-participants at the trail company meetings and were often ignored when codes of law were drafted. "They legislate for us as if we were children, to be led by the wise parent...they know little more than we do about this journey. Here nothing is familiar, everything serves to put us off balance...". "At home we looked from one boundary to another...a boundary between house and field...a boundary between land and road...Here there are no boundaries...It is free feeling out here. I rather like it."

"It wouldn't take money so much as grit to get them through...who would have the grit needed and who would fade or fail to meet the challenges ahead". The women came from all walks of life. There were teachers like Caroline Tompkins and women who scraped by. Mrs. Shadden noted that "even the high and mighty get pulled down like us ordinary folks". Poor folk like Mrs. Shadden and Mrs. Bennett, knowing a life of trials and tribulations, had left babies behind in graveyards. Mrs. Smith, a sharp eyed woman, felt this trip was her chance to do something one last time.

Jane Tompkins had the most melodious voice. The wagon party requested that she sing for celebrations or to sing someone home at a burial. When a group of men decided to carve their initials on a massive rock, unknowingly on Indian sacred ground, the tribe paid the wagon train a potentially scary visit. Jane's angelic voice had not been unnoticed. The tribe was quite insistent that a trade of twenty horses was a fair price in exchange for Jane, as a gift to their chief.

"What was beyond out there, at the edge of the world?" "Caroline Tompkins looked back at the end of civilization, of her country, of all she knew." She now experienced the weariness of the trail, the endless wind, shoes that would wear thin and the noise of the prairie. Some women confided in each other, others kept to themselves. Who could you trust with your thoughts and emotions?

"Lamentations: A Novel of Women Walking West" by historian Carol Kammen is a wonderfully immersive read imagining the thoughts and fears of women on the first wagon train to Oregon. I cheered for them, cried with them and giggled as well. A highly recommended read for a journey to the old west.

Thank you University of Nebraska Press/ Bison Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.