Through alternating voices and a deft blend of writing styles, Allan Wolf recounts the harrowing 1846 westward wagon trip of the Donner Party that left nearly half the group dead and their name mired in historical infamy.
With Hunger as a constant companion and omnipotent narrator, the story switches perspectives among ill-fated travelers. Wolf presents each voice in its own distinctive writing style as varied as coupled verse, diary entries, prayers to God and prose. Facing an arduous trip, George Donner assembled a group of mainly farmers and families to caravan to California; Donner then led a smaller group south on a cutoff meant to shave miles from their journey. The revised route, actually longer, was a death sentence. Poor navigation cost precious travel days and an early, relentless winter stranded the 81 pioneers--more than half of whom were children--at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains with dwindling rations.
Desperate as weeks passed, some trekked the mountain pass toward rescue only to be met by a blizzard. Survivors warmed themselves and, seeing no other option, set to "the grisly task of harvesting the flesh and organs of their dead" for food. Back at camp, anything remotely edible made for a meal once starvation set in: "strips of ox hide boiled into a glue," their pet dogs, even bits of roasted rug to fill shriveled bellies. Eventually, this included the bodies of their deceased and, in a grisly turn, most of those who refused the human meat died and became meals themselves. Only half the group survived.
Novelist-poet Wolf (The Watch that Ends the Night), using pacing that mimics the travelers' ratcheting plight, crafts a vivid story that humanizes the complicated episode it relates. By examining many travelers' stories, he coaxes a full picture from limited primary resources, a process he refers to as "narrative pointillism." Acknowledging the white presumptuousness of manifest destiny, Wolf honors the Miwok and their land, on which the Donner Party camped, as well as many of the tribal nations scarred by such wagon trips. Thoughtfully designed, ample white space evokes the bleakness of the Donner Party's interminable winter. This hefty novel concludes with copious backmatter including maps, a timeline and selected biographies.
Neither judgmental nor sensationalized, the narrative leaves readers to reconcile the morality of the group's decision to cannibalize their dead. An impressive, albeit woeful, slice of American history that older middle grade readers will sink their teeth into. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf
Shelf Talker: California-bound emigrants face staggering hardships after a series of poor navigational decisions and cataclysmic storms leave their group snowbound over the winter of 1847.