Caroline: Little House, Revisited

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I� Caroline is well described, maybe not quite as placid and submissive as she comes across in the TV show, but with more laughter and sensuality about her. When I found that it was nothing but a cheap, trashy sex pioneer story, I deleted it from my Kindle library.

She has an uncanny ability to engage the reader's sympathy with every character, despite their sometimes questionable judgements. I mean come on Ma would it have killed you to let Jack ride in the wagon instead of drowning in the river. If you're truly looking for an adult perspective on the realities of pioneer life, I think "Giants in the Earth" is a much better use of your time. I will admit that when I read the original series, with all its warmth and nostalgia softening the edges of the hardship this family endured, I often chuckle a little at Wilder’s characterization of Caroline Ingalls - this prim, unruffled woman dutifully following her never-satisfied, possibly slightly crazy husband ever westward, always with some dusty platitude on her lips and an apparent will to quell any spirit in her daughters.

Reasonable People is a book full of anything but - nuanced characters that made me seethe at their actions, laugh at their foibles and blub with understanding. If you’re already familiar with the Ingalls’ story, then you’ll smile when you read about these things too.

As for me personally, there is always a little bit of trepidation when I start a book that I’ve anticipated so heavily. This book very much carries the perspective of an adult-Caroline who was valued as the center of the home, who was beloved by Charles, who knew she had very little privacy with her husband but took advantage of that time anyway. How much of what they loved in her was real, and how much was fashioned from what they envisioned her to be?Leaving family and all that is familiar is a huge wrench for her, but she loves her husband deeply and knows this is his dream.