Circle of Stones by Anna Lee Waldo

I've read the hefty beast that is Waldo's "Sacajawea". And having enjoyed that, I decided to give this first book in a series of hers a try. I wasn't nearly as thrilled with it, although it wasn't terrible.

Brenda is a young mistress of Prince Owain, who rules over Wales. On an auspicious night, she becomes pregnant with her third child but then is unlucky enough to give birth to a son at the same time Owain's other two women give birth to sons. Because of a talk earlier, Owain decides only one son may live so Brenda flees to a Druid encampment. Forces out of her control make her have to go back to Owain's court and leave young Madoc behind, where he will be fostered away from her for years.

Brenda is a mix of intelligent and "what the heck were you thinking". And we are constantly told how wise she is. I personally prefer to be shown, and there's only a little of that for her character. In fact, she always takes the road of least resistance, and it can end up hurting those around her. Owain is a weird person and completely unwise. He seems more concerned with pride than anything else, and that's kind of disappointing. Madoc, for being such an important character to the story, isn't in it very much. And we always see him through Brenda's eyes so there aren't any flaws to be found either. There were a ton of other characters too and at times I got them confused with each other. There were just so many. A lot were based on real people though, and I did enjoy learning a bit more about them than I knew before.

Waldo is gifted with lots and lots of words. While this isn't as long as some of her other books, it does tend to go on and on quite a bit. In fact, I had a hard time getting into this book at first because I was bored by the endless detail. But the further I got in the better it got. I became captivated by Brenda's tale and even while I was frustrated at times I still wanted to know what happened. She even got down to the nitty gritty on Druid medicine. That description is in everything and there is murder, sex, violence, and other such things in this book. Those at least aren't overly descriptive but they're still there. The history I can't say is all correct, I don't know enough about that period of time or region, but it seems like she did do a lot of research for the book. And she was kind enough to list her sources by type.

An ok book. I don't think it told the terrific tale that Sacajawea did, but it still chronicled a very strong woman's life. I might pick up the second book if I come across it.

Circle of Stones
Copyright 1999
432 pages

Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo

This book is not for the faint of heart or those who want a quick read. At 1328 pages for just the story and an additional 61 pages of notes this is a titan of a read. But every page is well worth it.

It starts out when Sacajawea is a young girl and covers her capture and enslavement by the Mandan tribe. While with the Mandans she is subjected to rape at around age 11 (the book makes it somewhat hard to pinpoint her age at times), learns the art of glass making, and then is eventually sold off to another tribe. This tribe is a lot kinder to her and she has a few easy years until she is lost in a wager to her future husband (the perverted Toussaint Charbonneau).

We next see Sacajawea pregnant with her first child (John Baptiste also known as Pomp) when she attracts the attention of Lewis and Clark. As her man Charbonneau is to be an interpreter for the expedition, her wit and intelligence cause Clark to ask for her to come along as well. He also reasons that a party traveling with a woman and baby will not look like a war party.

Regarding her travels with Lewis and Clark, while the travel west was covered extensively, the return was not given as much detail. Upon their journey they meet several local Indian tribes and the author seems to really hone in that all these people are fond of the native salmon, rotting or fresh, and the character's disdain for the meal. In all, I expected this to be a large part of the book when in reality it was only 300-400 pages worth of the book. While the rest of her life was definitely worth writing about, it seems like the author could have spent more time on this subject as it is one of the more well known parts of her life. The return back east lasted only a couple of chapters and didn't seem to give as much depth as everything else.

Upon her return from the expedition they settle peacefully in St Louis where Clark's wife teaches her to sew and embroider and they have no worry of starving in the lean winter months (something that is shown quite prevalently in other parts of the books when she is with her native Indian tribes).

One day, when the beatings from Charbonneau finally push her to the breaking point, she packs up her belongings and leaves and her ten year old son Baptiste stays with his father. She is taken in by a tribe of Comanche and remarries. Over the course of 26 years she has an additional five children, but only two out of them survive childhood.

When her husband dies she leaves and seeks out the white man, hoping to find her first born son. The rest of the book follows this journey until she's well into her eighties and has settled down with her daughters and grandchildren.

Sacajawea faced many hardships and Waldo's book explores many of them. It also faces her triumphs and her sorrows and really makes you believe you know everything she went through and can take a real peek at her life. Waldo also did a wonderful job of incorporating quotes and citations from numerous journals of the time at the beginning of each chapter. It provides factual background that helps make this fictional telling more believable. Each chapter starts out with an excerpt and she bases the next chapter loosely upon that excerpt, creating a story line for each chapter within the story itself. Her writing itself is very detailed and she seems to put a lot of emotion behind her words.

Sacajawea
Copyright 1984
1328 pages