Song of Years

by Bess Streeter Aldrich
Category: "Fiction - Historical"
Pages:405
Year of Publication:1939
Date Added:01/22/2021
Date Read:07/31/2023
Notes:A story of the settlement of Iowa, centered on the area around the fictional villages of Prairie Rapids (for Waterloo) and Sturgis Falls (for Cedar Falls) in the mid-1800s. Wayne Lockwood travels west by himself when he was 19, stakes a claim, and starts a sheep ranch. His nearest neighbors are Martins, with two sons and seven daughters. Suzanne, the youngest is only 14, but she loves Wayne from the start. He thinks her a dear, but doesn't realize his love for her until just before he leaves to fight in the Civil War. When she hears that he's been killed, she gives up hope and agrees to marry a man she doesn't love. But Wayne is alive and returns on the day of Suzanne's wedding. When he finds out she still loves him, he stops the wedding and marries her himself. The stories of the other members of the Martin family are also told, albeit more sketchily.
My Rating: 6

Reviews for Song of Years

Review - Song of Years

I'm a romantic. I enjoyed the story of Wayne and Suzanne. But it really irritated me when Suzanne found out Wayne hadn't died in the war after all, but for some reason felt compelled to keep her promise to the man she didn't love. As the reader, I knew Wayne would get back in time, but Aldrich stretched it out to the very last pages, and it just got annoying. Also, much of the rest of the book read like the Little House on the Prairie books, with details about dresses and food and farming and politics that I just wasn't that interested in.

Reviewed by Roger on 2023-07-31 18:17:36

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