100 Things - Book #4
100 Books By Women, Courtesy of Gutenberg.org
1. The Trail of Conflict by Emilie Baker Loring
Things I Hated About This Book
-The constant use of egregious racial stereotypes, mostly for supposed comic effect. I don't care that it was 1921. That crap is NOT OKAY.
Things I Should Have Hated About This Book, and Didn't
-Most of it took place on a ranch. In Wyoming. Yeah, you're talking to the girl who cannot sit through a Western, even one that stars Audrey Hepburn or Sidney Poitier. Who could not even make it through one book of Little House on the Prairie. Who has never thought cowboys in any way attractive.
-The hero of the novel constantly refers to his wife as girl, little girl, or child....So, okay, maybe I hated that a little. But not as much as I should have, damn it.
Things I Wholeheartedly and Unabashedly Loved About This Book
-Tommy Benson, the poetry-quoting, thespian-aspiring range-rider/best friend character.
-Everything Else.
No, seriously, I found this story so unexpectedly charming. One of the things I love most about reading all these old books, the kinds that would never be on a school reading list, or a greatest novels of all time list, is how they bridge the gaps.
I've talked about how Edna Ferber is a transition author for me, from the early feminism of the Brontes, to our modern-day approach to women's issues. This book is one of those place-fillers, showing how we got from Jane Austen to the romance novels of today.
I mean, all the romance novel tropes are out in force: arranged marriage; bizarre obsession with everyone's eyes; ludicrous lengths to keep the Hero and Heroine apart; proud, stubborn, annoyingly macho Hero meets fiesty, gorgeous, equally stubborn Heroine.
The one thing that is missing is the sex, and I found it charming. Without sex, it becomes a romance novel, with a focus on an actual love story.
Also, this was before the weakening of the romance novel Heroine had begun. Jerry is fantastic, strong and brave and independent, and NOT ONCE in the whole thing does she need to be rescued by a man. God, I love that.
Sadly, this is the only one of Loring's books on Gutenberg, but when I told my mom I was reading it, she informed me that she has a whole stack of her books stashed away somewhere. So while I won't be reading any more of her works for this project, I will definitely be reading them soon.