Liling Chong Chong itibaren Surja, Punjab, India itibaren Surja, Punjab, India

I am always up for speculative historical fiction in which an author takes an event that didn't happen but writes a book about if it did happen. This is the premise for Roth's Plot Against America in which he asks what if Charles Lindbergh had been elected president. Well in Jim Fergus' One Thousand White Women, Fergus tells the reader of how a Cheyenne chief asked the US government for one thousand white women so that the Americans and Cheyenne could bear children together for the purpose of peace and assimilation. The US government turned them down by Fergus' novel explains what could have happened if they had taken the chief up on the deal. The novel is written as a diary by Mary Dodd who was committed to an insane asylum by her parents because she had two children out of wedlock. When she is given the chance to leave the asylum and start a new life as a bride to a "savage", she jumps at the opportunity. The women who also took the government up on their offer include an impoverished Southern belle, two Irish criminals, a prude, a freed slave and many more. None of them know what to expect from their new lives and many are terrified when they meet their betrothed. Yet, being wed to a "savage" is not the hardest thing these women will have to overcome. First of all, the reviews for this book are harshly divided. People either absolutely loved it and would include it on their list of books they would take to a deserted island. While others wish it could be part of a book burning party. However, I have to say that I am somewhere in between. This is far from a favorite for me and I would have to say that I am a bit leery about recommending it to my friends because I think they would find the characters to be shallow, the plot to be insipid, and the overall message to be muddled. Still, that's no reason to get out your lighter fluid. The way I would describe this novel is a western for women filled with the adventure of a John Wayne movie and just about equal in character development. With such a diverse cast of characters I thought I would find one that was intriguing. But alas...they were nothing but cliches and offensive ones at that. I wasn't as repulsed by the characters as some other reviewers but I didn't find them in any way enlightening. I think that it would make a great book club book (and it has) because people are so divided and feel passionately about it. www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com

This must have been an incredibly difficult book to write. We are seeing everything from the perspective of a doctor who is suffering from Alzheimer's. She is not always oriented to time and place, and does not always realize which people are with her. There are three main parts to the book: first, when she is living at home, second, when she has been moved to a rather nice assisted living facility, and third, when she escapes from that facility and wanders through the streets of Chicago. There is a mystery at the heart of the book: the protagonist's friend has been killed, and the fingers of one of her hands have been surgically severed. Since our heroine was once a hand surgeon, the eyes of the police are on her. She doesn't believe she's committed a crime, but doesn't really know. We see all the suspects through her eyes: the son with money problems, the unstable daughter, the hired help. We glean nuggets of information and learn bits and pieces, but everything is fragmented and difficult to put together. Despite this, the book flows smoothly. We can empathize with our heroine, even if we see that she wasn't always a perfect, or even particularly nice, person. You want to keep reading to find out more information. And the information is given out organically, meaningfully. I don't know if I'd describe this as a literary mystery or not, but I've never read anything quite like it and I would recommend it without hesitation.