Helpful Score: 1
I was not sure what to expect when I began this book but I was pleased. Not only was the main character's story interesting, it was heart breaking. This is not a historical figure that many people are aware of. It was a quick read but chock full of information. The story moves quickly but is detailed enough to let the reader feel that they know exactly who each character is.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a book I have picked up many times to read but put aside until next time. What an interesting read!
The novel begins with Charlotte and Lee as orphans in a home. Lee takes care of her and the two little children sleep together. That is they sleep together until a rigid, cruel woman becomes their caretaker. Young Charlotte needs the care of her big "brother" for comfort. The caretaker separates boys and girls. When she finds the two sleeping together time after time she ties Lee to a tree leaving him there overnight, slaps and beats Charlotte. These experiences shape their later lives in very different ways.
Adult Charlotte falls in love with a black man, Byron, but her romance and life with him is against the law. She doesn't care. She loves him and he loves her. Lee chooses a different life, unable to settle to anything and anyone yet his thoughts turn to Charlotte over and over. He becomes jealous and angry when he sees Charlotte living with a black man. When Byron is hung by masked men and their baby girl killed, Charlotte she turns to a different life. She vows vengence on Lee whom she recognized him among the masked men.
Recalling what Jonas, a black man she viewed as the father she never knew, told her, she turned to what she knew. She knew horses. She knew how to drive them. She knew how to control teams of horses. She takes another name, Charley. She becomes a whip, a driver who rides stagecoaches and becomes a male because females were not allowed freedom. She finds it in many ways but not without missteps. This is her story and it's a fascinating one based on her real life. Charlotte never forgot the wisdom that Jonas shared with her about life and horses. Very good read.
The novel begins with Charlotte and Lee as orphans in a home. Lee takes care of her and the two little children sleep together. That is they sleep together until a rigid, cruel woman becomes their caretaker. Young Charlotte needs the care of her big "brother" for comfort. The caretaker separates boys and girls. When she finds the two sleeping together time after time she ties Lee to a tree leaving him there overnight, slaps and beats Charlotte. These experiences shape their later lives in very different ways.
Adult Charlotte falls in love with a black man, Byron, but her romance and life with him is against the law. She doesn't care. She loves him and he loves her. Lee chooses a different life, unable to settle to anything and anyone yet his thoughts turn to Charlotte over and over. He becomes jealous and angry when he sees Charlotte living with a black man. When Byron is hung by masked men and their baby girl killed, Charlotte she turns to a different life. She vows vengence on Lee whom she recognized him among the masked men.
Recalling what Jonas, a black man she viewed as the father she never knew, told her, she turned to what she knew. She knew horses. She knew how to drive them. She knew how to control teams of horses. She takes another name, Charley. She becomes a whip, a driver who rides stagecoaches and becomes a male because females were not allowed freedom. She finds it in many ways but not without missteps. This is her story and it's a fascinating one based on her real life. Charlotte never forgot the wisdom that Jonas shared with her about life and horses. Very good read.
This novel is based loosely on the story of Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst, a woman who lived most of her life as a man in California during the gold rush days. Charley worked as a stagecoach driver and developed a reputation as one of the finest drivers (a "whip") on the West Coast.
Although little is known about the real Parkhurst, this novel develops a fictional backstory where Charley was sent to an orphanage as a baby. She later fell in love and lived with a former slave and had a baby with him. When tragedy strikes and her family is killed she travels to California to seek vengeance. When she was in the orphanage, she had worked in the stable and became proficient with horses including driving wagons so she was able to dress as a man to get a job as a stage driver when she arrived in Sacramento. While in California, she has a secret love affair, kills a famous outlaw, and lives with a housekeeper and her daughter who were unaware of her true sex.
Even though most of this story is pure fiction, it still was very readable and I enjoyed reading it. At the end, I was really feeling sorry for what happened to Charley and how she had to live her life.
Although little is known about the real Parkhurst, this novel develops a fictional backstory where Charley was sent to an orphanage as a baby. She later fell in love and lived with a former slave and had a baby with him. When tragedy strikes and her family is killed she travels to California to seek vengeance. When she was in the orphanage, she had worked in the stable and became proficient with horses including driving wagons so she was able to dress as a man to get a job as a stage driver when she arrived in Sacramento. While in California, she has a secret love affair, kills a famous outlaw, and lives with a housekeeper and her daughter who were unaware of her true sex.
Even though most of this story is pure fiction, it still was very readable and I enjoyed reading it. At the end, I was really feeling sorry for what happened to Charley and how she had to live her life.
Giving it 5 stars, not because 'I love it' but because I think it is a very good and interesting story about Charlotte that lived as Charley Parkhurst after a tragedy changed her life and made her living by driving a stagecoach, drivers were known as 'whips'---kind of a sad story too.
