Jubilee Trail [Paperback]

I first read Gwen Bristow's "Jubilee Trail" when I was in high school and really loved the story and characters. Over the years I have frequently looked for the novel in used book stores, thinking to reread it to see if the strong narrative would hold up after all this time. I saw a well-worn copy at a friends house last month and asked to borrow it. Once again this book, rich in historic detail about the old West and the brave men and women who traveled the Jubilee Trail, held me in thrall.

Eighteen year-old Garnet Cameron recently graduated from Miss Wayne's Select Academy for Young Ladies, a boarding school on a country estate in Upper Manhattan. She now resides with her doting parents at their home in Union Square, New York. The year is 1844. Garnet is in the process of being wooed by the cream of the local crop of eligible men, and she is just plain bored. She has always been different from her peers - more spirited and adventurous, and she is fearful she will have to surrender her dreams of travel and a more active life. She is expected to settle down, with a young banker or stockbroker, and live the staid existence her mother has. Then she meets Oliver Hale, a California ranch owner who has lived out West for eight years. Originally from Boston, he attended Harvard and then left with his older brother to buy land beyond the United States' frontiers. Oliver makes the trip East every year to trade goods from the Far East, California and Mexico. When he and Garnet fall in love and decide to marry, she is thrilled she will finally have the opportunity to travel, and much more. Before she leaves, her mother asks if she married Oliver for love, or because of the possibilities marriage to him offers. While Garnet obviously loves her husband, she is certainly not adverse to the benefits the match brings.

The young couple honeymoon in New Orleans, and then set off for St. Louis, Independence, Santa Fe and onward to California, through the badlands and the grueling heat of the Mojave Desert. The abundance of well developed characters - all interesting, though not all likeable - are just too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say that this is a complex plot and the individuals who people it make the tale even richer. Events that neither Garnet, nor Oliver, could ever have foreseen take place, and Garnet will need all her pluck and spirit to survive.

Ms. Bristow writes about an exciting and tumultuous time in California's history. During the period of this novel, the California Territory is transferred from Mexico to the US, and the famous Gold Rush begins. Although I was a teenager when I first read "Jubilee Trail," this is a book for people of all age groups, from early teens upward. There is much pleasure, and much that is educational, to be found between the pages here. Absolutely excellent!

JANA

At the age of 18, I devoured this book and told everyone for years that "it was the best book I ever read." Finally I forgot about it and went on to read thousands of others, novels, medical texts and spiritual guide books among them. A medical career, nine children and fifty years later, I stumbled upon it again.

To my utter delight I found that once again I can make that claim. It is indeed one of the most exciting, beautifully crafted and deeply insightful books I have ever read. I can scarce believe that I feel the same way ...about something...about this book...at age 68 that I did at 18. Gwen Bristow writes about a woman's life-journey over 150 years deep into America's rugged past. Her story is as true for 1950, at the time of its publication, as it was for the story's setting in 1844. Amazingly, it is equally relevant for the reader of today who is looking for meaning and adventure in his or her choices

It is no coincidence that all reviewers have given it five stars. This book is a jewel.

As a slice of Americana, of California history, of young love, of adventure, of character growth, I think this book is better than Gone With the Wind. Garnet Cameron, a lovely, passionate, gently bred girl follows her dream across the American continent in the days before the gold rush. Oliver Hale, her first husband is an adventurer, handsome and exciting but not quite grown up. Florinda, the tart with a heart, a wonderful woman, strong and vulnerable fortunately comes back to us in Calico Palace. And John Ives, the hero of the piece, is a man in love with a woman he thinks he can't have, a true "founding father" of pre 1849-California, strong, loving and brave.

The settings, actions, geography, food, clothing, politics and weather all come to life in this wonderful adventure. The reader becomes so enmeshed in the story that when you finally close the book, you are surprised to find you were not in old Los Angeles.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 35 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars