Book in Review: A Daughter of the Land

Since one of my goals is to finish reading all of Gene Stratton Porter's books, I decided to get started right away. My first book of 2009 was called A Daughter of the Land. Like many of Ms. Porter's books, this one takes place in rural Indiana. The story begins in the late 1800's with a young woman named Kate, at the age of 18. Kate is the youngest of a large family, and works hard for her parents on their large farm. She helps her mother in the house, with dishes, with meals, with the laundry, and in the potato patch so that her older sister can teach the local school. When it comes time for Kate to be able to go off to "Normal" to gain the knowledge she needs to be qualified to teach her parents refuse to assist her or even give her permission to leave the farm. One Sunday Kate hears a preacher encourage his congregation to "take the wings of morning". Unsure of what this meant, Kate considered this phrase in addition to her current situation. After pondering this, she realized that it must mean to take the opportunities life brings you and fly with them. Kate grabs ahold of that idea, and uses it to propel her to "Normal" and take charge of finding a school to teach at. For a while things seem to be progressing as smoothly as possible, but like is common in real life she finds herself in a few valleys. Life for all of us is filled with hills, where we feel nothing could harm us, and also valleys, where at times life seems to get the best of us. Kate's life in this story seems to have some of the lowest valleys. Most of the difficulties she has to go through during her life, people I know have never experienced and hope we never have to. However, somehow these difficulties only develop the best in Kate. She is better off for the valleys she has experienced, whereas some of her sisters are worse off for all the hilltops they have been on. Despite being estranged from her family, witnessing many deaths and disappointments she does find happiness and joy and love, especially during the end of her life. Though this is a fictional story, I think having a happy ending after living through such adversity is such a great example of what real life can be.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't hardly put it down. During the middle of the story, I was starting to wonder if she would ever reap benefits from the adversity she faced. When I got to the end of the book I realized that this was one of the best stories I had read in a long time. How often do we read books about someones whole life? I'm not sure about you, but a lot of the books I have read (classics even!) end with the two favorite characters, who are usually from the younger generation, "hooking up" which suggests that they live "happily ever after". A Daughter of the Land was refreshing to me because even after Kate endured so much, she was able to get her "happily ever after" even if it was in her later years. In conclusion, I would highly recommend this to anyone to read, and especially those looking for something to make them appreciate their lack of valleys in life.