Winner of the 1959 Pulitzer, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor follows the wiley antics and coming-of-age of.... wait for it.... you guessed it: Jaimie McPheeters.
The year is 1849, and gold has been discovered in the west. Dr. McPheeters, Jaimie's father, is deep in debt, and eager to start affresh on the trail for fortune. Jaimie, eager to escape another year of school, eager goes with him, leaving his mother alone in Kentucky to fight off the creditors. The remaining chapters depict their adventures, fortunes and misfortunes alike.
From the begining, I had a great feeling about this book. Maybe it was residue from finishing yet another great read. Perhaps it was because my father enjoyed it so much. Or maybe it is just that Robert Lewis Taylor is just that good. Whatever the reason, I breezed through the first chapters with little henderance. However...
After Jaimie's second encounter with less-than-friendly natives, my enthusiasm began to wane. Wondering if Taylor simply took Huck Finn from the Mississippi River and placed him the gold rush, I barreled through, waiting for the entire book to be comprised of kidnappings and sterotypes. To my great delight, Taylor proved my worries invalid, mixing things up a bit with fool's gold, showdowns, and thievery.
And as with all great books, the ending came much too quickly. I feel much like Jaimie as he watches his father leave for the last time: "Probably I should have felt sad, because I had an uneasy feeling that we would never see him again. But I couldn't help smiling instead. It was alright. The pot of gold, the real strike, his dream run to earth, lay somewhere up ahead, around the next bend of the trail. It was alright. That next bend was my father's pot of gold, just as I'd said in my letter. I wondered how long he could have lasted before those beckoning hills stirred the old restlessness. How many months before the ranch itself was an enemy, and, the first crack had appeared that told of trouble coming? We waved goodbye, and I watched him ride away to keep his appointment with Fortune."
So we part ways here. I continue on my quest a little better for having know Jaimie McPheeters, and I'm optimistic as I select my next Pulitzer, Humbolt's Gift by Saul Bellows.
Until then, my friends... Happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment