Book Review: The Indifferent Stars Above
The narrative of westward expansion and the plight of the pioneer is inextricably linked to the American story. The story of how our country came to be the nation it is today cannot be told without including the tales of westward migration, manifest destiny, and the push to expand the United States “from sea to shining sea.” The story of the ill-fated Donner Party is one that has remained at the forefront of westward expansion -- mostly due to the salacious accounts of cannibalism that accompany that tragic tale.
The Donner Party is the collective name given to a number of families who set out west for California from Independence, Missouri in the spring of 1846. However, a disastrous choice to take an unproven, supposed shortcut spelled disaster for the group and they found themselves stranded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for the winter. Supplies dwindled and the situation became desperate, only ending when a handful of the pioneers managed to trek through the mountains with little more than the clothes on their back for nearly a month.
The Indifferent Stars Above has received praise from The New York Times, Association of American Book Sellers, Washington Center for the Book, The Boston Globe, and more.
While it is reasonable to assume that the horror stories of the Donner Party’s journey were exaggerated over time, the truth behind their doomed expedition is much more chilling than one would ever expect. Whether we like to admit it or not, we as people have always been fascinated by stories that expose the darker side of human nature. While sensationalist claims of cannibalism draw people into the story of the Donner Party, they are not the reason the tale endures. At its very core, this story represents triumph against unimaginable adversity as well as the range of human suffering that exists in the world -- a fact that is remarkably illustrated by Daniel James Brown in his book, The Indifferent Stars Above.
The Indifferent Stars Above depicts the Donner Party journey in a way that is so captivating that at times it becomes surreal. Despite this, the experiences described are never unbelievable or beyond comprehension; they instead offer a refreshing contrast to the morbid sensationalism and yellow journalism that too often accompanies the Donner story. In fact, Brown’s humanization of the individuals involved, as well as the masterful ways in which he utilizes historical and scientific detail to provide context, transforms the Donner Party story from a hyperbolic, exploitative myth into an intimate account of personal tragedy.
In order to recount the Donner saga, Brown follows the story of one survivor in particular -- Sarah Graves. He does not focus on Sarah exclusively but instead uses her experiences as a vehicle through which to tell the story of the Donner Party as a whole. This unique approach allows Brown to break through the cliches that surround the frontier men and women of the 19th century to illustrate their humanity. Thus, the historical figures we meet through The Indifferent Stars Above are dynamic, multi-faceted, and flawed human beings; they are ordinary Americans embarking on a promising new life, only to find themselves confronted with the full spectrum of Mother Nature’s harsh and cruel indifference. Brown illustrates this point in the book’s introduction when he explains:
“Like all people in all times, the emigrant men and women, as well as the Native American men and women, of the 1840s were complex bundles of fear and hope, greed and generosity, nobility and savagery.”
Sarah Graves in an undated photograph provided by Kathy Larson to Daniel James Brown
In order to illustrate the remarkable attention to detail and story-telling which makes The Indifferent Stars Above such an excellent read, let us go over the first few chapters in which Brown sets up the story of the Donner Party. It begins far away from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the Illinois town of Steuben Township. We are immediately introduced to the rest of the Graves family. Not only have we met 21-year old Sarah, but we meet her father Franklin and her mother Elizabeth, as well as her numerous younger siblings. Additionally, we meet the love of Sarah’s life -- a young man named Jay Fosdick. In fact, the first part of the book is titled “A Sprightly Boy and A Romping Girl” -- embodying the youth, innocence, and hope that Sarah and Jay felt when they were engaged to be married with their entire lives ahead of them.
We learn about Sarah’s childhood and how her parents were regarded as generous, hardy people by their neighbors. Through humanizing descriptions, Brown immediately brings Sarah and her family to life -- telling the readers about how that spring, she found herself facing the toughest decision in her life to date: marry the love of her life, Jay, or follow her family to California. In the end, it seems that all would work out perfectly for her however: Sarah and Jay would be married in front of the Justice of the Peace on April 2, 1846. Franklin had gone to the courthouse that day to complete the paperwork for the sale of his. The young lovers had accompanied him:
“They had resolved to go to California together, to build their new life there. Mrs. Jay Fosdick, as she could now call herself, had all she could hope for: her young man, her beloved family, the prospect of a home of her own in a place said by many to be a sort of paradise on earth, and an opportunity to see a world far wider and more exotic than the narrow confines of the damp river bottoms in which she had grown up.”
However, at the same time we begin to become familiar with the Graves family -- we are also introduced to a man named Lansford Hastings, a shady character and author of The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California. At the same time in which we as readers are getting to connect with the Graves family, Brown begins to weave in details about Hastings and his less than benevolent motivations. In fact, it would be a shortcut of Hastings’ own devising as well as his motive of personal enrichment would ultimately doom the Donner Party.
Within the first chapter of the book, the hopes and dreams of the Graves family are effectively set on a collision course with Hastings’ selfish motivations and it will only escalate from there as disaster becomes more and more imminent. The next chapter introduces us to the titular Donner family -- brothers George and Jacob Donner as well as their wives and children -- in addition to the Reed family, consisting of James and Margret Reed as well as their own children. As the story progresses, the world in which the Graves, Donner, and Reed families lived and died begins to come alive in front of us.
James and Margret Reed were among those who headed west as members of the Donner Party in 1846.
By the second chapter, the Graves arrive in the towns of St. Joseph and Independence, Missouri -- which at this point in history was the end of the United States’ official borders. Not only does Brown depict the families involved as dynamic and complicated beings, but he also provides historical context throughout this chapter which really makes the world in which the 1846 migrants found themselves truly come alive. We learn that as Sarah’s family begins setting out to start their new lives: the Mexican-American War begins. This introduces us to the political and social climate of the times, highlighting the importance of historical events and ideals, namely manifest destiny, and the ways in which they influenced Sarah’s life and the lives of those like her. Furthermore, we learn about the role that towns like St. Joseph and Independence, Missouri played in the westward expansion of the United States -- how they were bustling centers of commercial activity and brimming with excitement as travelers descended on the towns in order to start their new lives. Brown includes an excerpt from the local newspaper, one of the many examples of his effective use of primary sources throughout the book, to illustrate this point:
“What an idea it gives us, and what an insight into human nature — HOPE, the bright, beaming star is ascendant in their sky, alluring them on…”
Despite all the hope we sense in the members of the Graves family, Brown ends the second chapter with a chilling bit of foreshadowing -- another element which he utilizes with eerie precision throughout The Indifferent Stars Above. Hastings, for all the bad advice he was prone to give, correctly advised migrants on the importance of leaving for California before the first of May. He argued that failing to do so would leave the travelers “very liable to be detained by impassable mountains of snow until the next spring, or perhaps forever.”
Sarah Graves’ younger sisters. At the time they began their journey westward, Mary Anne was nineteen, Eleanor was thirteen, Lovina was eleven, and Nancy was about to turn eight. The youngest sister Graves sister, Elizabeth, is not pictured here. She was nine months old when they left for California.
It is then that Brown informs us of a chilling fact: on the day that the Graves family officially left for California, the 1st of May was three weeks behind them.
Part One of The Indifferent Stars Above is short but effective, establishing the key players in the story and providing appropriate context. Part Two’s title however, harkens to the increasing trouble to come: “The Barren Earth.” However, as the Graves, Donner, and Reed families officially link up and begin their journey as a unit, things keep going from bad to worse. By the time we arrive at Part Three, hauntingly titled “The Meager By the Meager Were Devoured,” the full extent of the Donner Party’s nightmare begins to unfold.
By far the best part of The Indifferent Stars Above is Brown’s inclusion of the personal stories and lives at the center of the Donner tragedy is one aspect that gives the story he tells much more depth but he goes far beyond that. As things begin to grow worse for the Donner Party, Brown includes extensive research on how extreme conditions like starvation and freezing temperatures impact the human body and psyche --effectively putting the reader in a headspace where they are able to somewhat understand the seemingly incomprehensible levels of human suffering Sarah and the others faced in the unrelenting mountains that winter.
Brown’s decision to use Sarah’s experiences in order to tell the story of the Donner Party by extension is a crucial and sobering reminder of the fact that human beings, dynamic and flawed with as many hopes as fears, are at the core of history. He often uses Sarah and the Donner Party to illustrate to the reader that the people of the 1840s were not so different from us today and how vital it is to give proper context when telling history:
“As Sarah lay in the cold darkness of the California foothills that January night, living the nightmare in which she found herself, the larger world of course went on without her. Like all tragedies, hers took place in a historical context, and as is often the case the context sheds light on how Sarah must have viewed her own situation as it unfolded.”
The Indifferent Stars Above is remarkable in that it reminds us that history does not exist in a vacuum. It reminds us that the study of history at its core is the study of humanity and an opportunity to reflect on our very own nature as people. While it might be the morbid stories surrounding the Donner Party that draw one into reading The Indifferent Stars Above, readers will find themselves utterly engrossed in a telling of history that will have them reflecting on the depths of their own humanity by the end of the story. It is a must read for any love of American history.
Please feel free check out The Indifferent Stars Above and other works by Daniel James Brown on his website. His latest work, Facing the Mountain, was released earlier this year and tells the story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II.