Eliza Spalding Warren was just a child when she was taken hostage by the Cayuse Indians during a massacre in 1847. Now the young mother of two children, Eliza faces a different kind of dislocation; her impulsive husband wants them to make a new start in another territory, which will mean leaving her beloved home and her departed mother’s grave–and returning to the land of her captivity. Eliza … longs to know how her mother, an early missionary to the Nez Perce Indians, dealt with the challenges of life with a sometimes difficult husband and with her daughter’s captivity.
When Eliza is finally given her mother’s diary, she is stunned to find that her own memories are not necessarily the whole story of what happened. Can she lay the dark past to rest and move on? Or will her childhood memories always hold her hostage?
Based on true events, The Memory Weaver is New York Times bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick’s latest literary journey into the past, where threads of western landscapes, family, and faith weave a tapestry of hope inside every pioneering woman’s heart. Readers will find themselves swept up in this emotional story of the memories that entangle us and the healing that awaits us when we bravely unravel the threads of the past.
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This book was very good. I liked how our young character wasn’t afraid of defying her father’s wishes. She started a family of her own, and had her own troubles to deal with, but she got through them with prayer. Frequently she had flashbacks to a frightening memory, and (spoiler alert) in the end she “makes peace with it”, she feels she can finally move on. There were risks and problems, but they made it through!!!
The Memory Weaver by Jane Kirkpatrick is the story of Eliza Spalding Warren, the second white child born in Oregon, the first to live past infancy. Eliza was the oldest child of Reverend Henry H. Spalding and Eliza Spalding, Presbyterian missionaries who with Dr. and Mrs. Whitman established a mission to bring the love of God to the Nez Perce Indians. Eliza and her brother and sisters grew up loving the Indian ways, learning their language, riding bare back, the Nez Perce people their friends and family.
In a conflict with other Indian tribes, Eliza was witness to a massacre that killed most everyone she knew. Eliza was taken and held hostage, forced to witness additional rape and murders, until a French group finally paid the demanded ransom. The church that had sponsored the mission had refused to pay, completely abandoning the Spalding family.
The Story of The Memory Weaver picks up when Eliza is 14 years old, first meeting the man she would spend her life with, and covers her life through 1913, when she is finally able to put all the pieces of her past to rest.
The author notes at the end of the book do a great job of clarifying which parts of the story are factual and which the author filled in as fiction – I always appreciate when this is done in a historical fiction novel. Even in those stories when it is majority fiction simply based on a historical moment or figure, I am able to enjoy the story when that is made clear.
Author Jane Kirkpatrick has a touch for bringing the unsettled west to life, allowing the reader to experience the joys and hardships of life for female settlers – who at that time had little to no rights, yet were largely responsible for the success or failure of any family claiming land; as well as illustrating the kindness and brutality of the native Indians.
I enjoyed this book and recommend for anyone who liked One Thousand White Women by Jim Ferus, or the pioneer/wagon train/settling the west setting in general and our interaction with Indians along the way.
Love all Kirkpatrick’s books!
This is a little different writing style and it took me a chapter to get into it. I’m not finished yet, but I’m really enjoying it. It actually touches on PTSD even though it’s not something that would have been spoken about then. I can relate to this and it actually gave me pause for thought as I related this to what I went through. I love the characters and can’t wait to finish it.
I got more than 1/2 way through the book and just couldn’t continue. Just no interest.
I’m sure this is how life was or could have been for this time period. I love books about how the area in which I live was settled.
Love historical fiction based on real experiences.