Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1391384 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 249 pages

Customer Reviews

HOW HARD LIFE USED TO BE!
Anyone who thinks life was better in times past should read this book. It is about the Donner party, a group of midwesterners who hoped on the frontier trail to California, only to face misery, hardship and death in numerous forms. In one case, a young boy breaks his leg, and dies in agony following a makeshift operation. In another a sick man is left to die on the trail, unable to keep up. And the party had to deal with hostile Indians and unsavory characters as well. It was a time when travel to the West coast from New York could be done faster by sea than overland.

I am a bit new to the Donner story so I can't compare Limburg's telling to other books on the adventure. But it certainly kept me reading. One could almost feel the optimism present in April when the group set out, and then the agravation and, ultimately, fear and despair. The reader will ask himself what he would have done in the situation, glad all the while for the comforts of modern life.

NO!
I think people are a bit confused here. The story of the Donner Party is gripping, intense, chilling, gruesome etc etc. It is an incredible story that has survived for a reason. We can applaud Limburg for not ruining that for us - the book is a page turner that I finished in a sitting, however, Limburg's writing was not the reason. Frankly, "Deceived" is a poorly written account that merely spews the research of others into an easy to read format. The book contains far more flat, unnamed characters than can be digested and lets many plot lines drop away without a thought.

You'll note that most books about the Donner party are given rave reviews (probably for the reason I just suggested). I recommend that you look for another book on the subject as there must be better.

You'll get more than you think
I, like everyone else, thinks of one thing when thinking about the Donner Party--canabalism. There were many wagon trains headed west in the years just before the Civil War that never made it, or suffered terrible hardship, but it is the Donner group that we all remember. Author Peter Limburg has done a marvelous job separating the sensationalism from the facts, and writes a poignant tale of people, just like us, looking for a better life in a new place. I always appreciate a book that solidly puts me in a different time and place--this book didn't disappoint.