The Personal History of Rachel DuPree: A Novel (original 2008; edition 2010)

I loved this book from the first words! To have gone through all that this woman and her family went through was amazing and sad. She believed that by marrying Isaac she would rise above her current life as a maid only to still be one in a worse way. I believe she loved him but he did not love her, she was a means to an end. It took a lot of courage for her to finally get out and to take her children away from a life that would never get better. ( )

interesting and sad for the hardship

The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber is written so vividly and with such intensity that I felt that I was living her life as I read.

I picked this book because my grandmother and grandfather homesteaded in South Dakota in the same time period. They were discouraged by extremes of the climate and moved back to Indiana when my great grandmother offered them a house. There was no hesitation about their decision.

But this book is much more than the struggle to survive Mother Nature’s extremes. It asks the question of what is important in life. What life should you make for your children? It deals with racism, the work ethic, survival and marriage. All the themes are strong and thought provoking.

The book opens with a gripping scene. Rachel’s daughter Liz will be lowered down a well. There has been a terrible drought and extreme water rationing. Liz is only six years old and she is being forced to save her family’s life. The well is almost completely dry. Liz doesn’t want to go. Her father, Isaac insists. Her mother was praying that God take care of Liz. She begs Isaac not to do it. When four buckets and a part of another have been filled by the little girl, she is hauled up. Her hands are bleeding, she has been crying, her clothes are torn. Later it seems that she is vacant, she stares, and she doesn’t want to do anything. Should any child be forced to do this? This is just one of the poignant scenes in this book. This book immersed me in the times and places and the feelings of this homesteading family.

I highly recommend this book. I will never forget this story. I hope that you will read this book. And even though my grandmother never had to face racism at its worse, I now have a deeper understanding of why my grandparents quit homesteading after several years. ( )

I wanted Isaac to say that I meant something to him, that he’d be proud to take me as his wife. Instead, I felt cheap. This wasn’t how I wanted it to be. I had sold myself for a hundred and sixty acres of land. But it didn’t have to stay that way. I’d work hard. I’d prove myself. Isaac wouldn’t be able to do without me. - from The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, page 57 -

It is the early part of the twentieth century and Rachel is a black woman working as a housekeeper in a Chicago boarding house when she meets Isaac DuPree. Isaac is a Buffalo Soldier fighting Indians in the West and he dreams of land ownership – something that is now possible through the Homestead Act (a Federal law which gave an applicant ownership of free farmland called a “homestead” – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River). Rachel is instantly attracted to Isaac, but Isaac is not looking for a wife…until he realizes that marrying Rachel means he will have 320 acres instead of just 160. They strike a bargain that Rachel will turn over her land to Isaac and he will marry her for one year. Fourteen years later, the couple is still together living on the unforgiving plains of the South Dakota Badlands with their five children.

The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is written in the first person narrative of Rachel, a woman who had dreams of her own wooden home but now finds herself barely surviving a drought, and desperate for the contact of other women. Fearful for her children and at odds with her husband, Rachel begins to hatch a plan to escape the Badlands and return to Chicago.

Ann Weisgarber’s novel is the story of one woman, but it takes a broader look at the struggle of blacks to break free of inequality and become landowners. Weisgarber also touches on the plight of Native Americans during the early part of the twentieth century…and about the rigid racial stereotypes which were typical at that time.

Through vivid descriptions of life in a barren and harsh environment, Rachel Dupree lives and breathes in the pages of this novel. Rachel is symbolic of the many women who ventured from civilization into the wilds of the west, helping their husbands to settle the land and facing drought, starvation, accidents and even the dangers of childbirth with courage.

The writing in this novel is unsentimental, Rachel’s voice often matter-of-fact, yet it is surprisingly moving. I found myself deeply engrossed in this very American story of a strong woman’s quest for a better life for herself and her children. Readers who love Pioneer history, will be drawn to Weisgarber’s novel which was short-listed for the Orange Prize’s New Writers Award in 2009.

Recommended. ( )

This must be the most hardscrabble of all the hardscrabble books I’ve read. Having visited The Badlands, I cannot imagine trying to make a living there, especially during a drought. This novel plainly and startlingly tells a story about homesteading in the 1910s by a black family in South Dakota. Ann Weisgarber makes you feel the desolation of the area, the hopelessness of the situation, and the strength of character it takes to endure. Water. You won’t take it for granted after reading this book. ( )