The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party by Allan Wolf

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party by Allan Wolf Elizabeth Bush Wolf, Allan The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party. Candlewick, 2020 [416p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780763663247 $21.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 7-12 Fictionalized voices of eight members of the ill-fated Donner Party, journal excerpts, narration by Hunger, who dogs their every step, and documentation of the rising death count by silent Snow that blankets them, alternately recount how the famous California-bound wagon train opted for a shortcut and were trapped, with no shelter and few rations, by early winter storms. The book opens near the point of the doomed route decision, and although the trek had already claimed several lives, Hunger was about to claim a far larger share of victims. There's plenty of scope for melodrama here, but given the reality of death by starvation, the roles of prayer, recrimination, despair, and hallucination are apt. The scheme of multiple voices allows Wolf to first establish personalities and then to follow the respective fates of those who remained at Truckee Lake, those who chanced traversing the mountains on snowshoes, and the pair who, due to an ironic twist in circumstances, spent crucial months in the relative comfort of John Sutter's California fort, waiting to mount a rescue. End matter, ranging from Wolf's commentary on how he approached fictionalizing this historic chapter to lists and statistics and thumbnails on Donner Party members, earns its hefty page count. Remarks by the author on his effort to salvage the reputation of Ludwig Keseberg (probably tarnished by contemporaries for his immigrant status), and on his misgivings over how—or whether—to construct identities for the indigenous guides (probably Miwok converts to Christianity) who were murdered for their flesh, are particularly illuminating. This title will have strong appeal for fans of Brown's To Stay Alive: Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party (BCCB 10/16). [End Page 58] Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois