Reviews for Rose Wilder Lane

The average rating for Rose Wilder Lane based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-06-04 00:00:00 Christopher Johnson Little House fans who’ve carried their fandom into adulthood already know about Team Laura versus Team Rose. For those not in the know, there are scholars who argue that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was the real writer of the Little House series. But there are also plenty of Laura defenders who absolutely reject that idea. As is my wont, I took the middle of the road approach and viewed the series as a close collaboration between the two, but his book tilts me more in favor of Rose. Its storytelling style is very similar to Little House, though the subject matter is meant for a more mature audience. This is Rose’s coming of age story, her transition from country girl to feminist of the early twentieth century. The transition comes mainly, though not exclusively, through a love triangle as Rose navigates the choices between the church-going boy from back home and the city sophisticate she marries and divorces. Feminists may applaud Rose’s ultimate independence, but it should not be overlooked that Rose had a keen nostalgia for domesticity, which of course comes through in the Little House series. If you’re one of those Laura defenders who can’t view Rose charitably, you probably won’t like this book, but I found it an amazingly relevant story about lost innocence. You don’t have to have been raised on the prairie to appreciate it. If you’ve ever felt like a fish out of water, you’ll relate to Rose’s mistakes.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-06-03 00:00:00 Elmer Mollett A strange book. It predicts the more recent explosion of Little House spinoffs, because the cover is clearly designed to fit in with one's 1970s collection of real Little House books, from the Garth Williams-esque (nonsensical and misleading) picture on the front down to the style and typeface on the spine. (The picture is of Rose in a hat, superimposed on a setting with log cabin and prairie etc, with a bonneted woman and a little girl, that could be taken from Little House on the Prairie. Not anything from this book.) Supposedly it's based on Rose's letters and diaries. It covers only the years from when she left Mansfield for good until WW1--a very odd period to choose. There's no mention of anything about her life before she left Mansfield. Some of it is not factual--it has her going straight from Mansfield, with no telegraph experience, to Sacramento. Her parents are almost not mentioned at all; definitely no conflict or anything like that. The bulk of the book is about Rose selling real estate in the oil fields, or at least it feels that way. As you can imagine, these are not compelling events. The book ends just when things start to get interesting. Weird. Very weird.