Write your own review!
Donna_M
Follow the Stars Home
A welcome trend in historical fiction is to present little-known figures who play significant roles in history. Development of the steam engine included women such as as Lydia Roosevelt, daughter of an architect and married to Nicholas Roosevelt, a man very much her senior. She shared the work with her husband on an experimental journey on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
This book is offered as a re-imagined story of their most important voyage. By re-imagining Lydia, the book creates a character dedicated to the work and her family and a determined colleague to her husband. It is written almost as a diary, detailing daily problems and solutions.
The novel contains an interesting story, but the repetition of affectionate displays between the husband and wife quickly became a bit tiresome. It is true that Lydia Roosevelt began the voyage while eight months pregnant and with a young daughter as well and faced many challenges. While the voyage, its successes and difficulties provided the core of the story, the daily family life and the affection continually expressed were very prominent and without much emotional depth.
I would recommend this book for general readers who would like to learn about a little-known part of history but also remind readers that it is a re-imagining of the character and not a biographical retelling.
Molly_A
"Follow the Stars" Is a So-So Read
In Diane C. McPhail's latest book, "Follow the Stars Home," the reader is introduced to an enterprising young family attempting to travel the Mississippi River on one of the first ever steam paddleboats. The story is narrated by Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt, the matriarch, as the family begins their travel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a planned destination of New Orleans, Louisiana.
"Follow the Stars" starts out a bit slow, and Lydia spends a fair portion of her narration bemoaning her father's disapproval of her marriage to her much-older husband, Nicholas. She is also eight months pregnant and mother to a toddler, Rosetta. However, the adventures they encounter along the way keep the story moving and provide intrigue to the reader. I was particularly fascinated their travel over the falls in Ohio, and by the earthquakes in 1811-1812 that devastated the lower Mississippi region, especially the town of New Madrid (now Missouri).
Overall, it was a good read, but the story would benefit from less repetition and more spice. The major historical events that took place were somewhat over-shadowed by Lydia's insecurities and self-indulgence in her controversial marriage.
Cindy_Cardinal
Lots of potential but a disappointing read
I wanted to read this book because I had recently read a non-fiction book where Benjamin Latrobe was mentioned and the narrator of this book is his daughter. The book taking place during the New Madrid earthquake was interesting and had potential to be more so. I also found the author's notes and questions at the end of the book to be interesting. As to the story itself, I may have enjoyed it more with a third person narrator. Lydia is referred to as intrepid, but often times I found her to be fearful and a whiner. This story had so much potential and I found it to be an okay read, but nothing exceptional.
Gwen_C
Follow the Stars Home
How could a book that had a historic river adventure on an inaugural steam & paddle boat including dangerous waterfalls, birth, continuing earthquakes, a fire, river geysers, Indians and needy people turned away be tedious? I blame narrator Lydia with her mind flitting around concerns for her father's approval of her husband Nicholas, her children's wellbeing, her mother's death, etc. Daughter Rosetta's every move bored me. I think a good rewrite would make a much better book…or even a movie
Julie_P
Follow the Stars Home
I love historical fiction, and this was a topic about which I knew little - the first steamboat on the MIssissippi River, how it came to be, and the story of its first journey, but this novel failed to engage me for some reason. Maybe it was the writing, which seemed overly descriptive, particularly about Lydia's marriage, her love for her husband, their age difference, and her children. None of this added to the story, but rather made it seem to plod along. McPhail included some interesting facts and anecdotes, especially towards the end when the earthquake occurred, and they were maneuvering through unknown, destroyed territory. I appreciated the fact that Lydia was an intelligent, independent young woman who seemed determined to be a part of her husband's contributions. Overall, an interesting topic, but could have been more engaging.
Paula K. (Champaign, IL)
A Good But Imperfect Historical Novel
Follow the Stars Home has such promise, but in the end the promise not fulfilled. The novel tells the story of Lydia and Nicholas Roosevelt, who make the first paddle steamboat trip down the Mississippi River in a boat Nicholas designed. Along the way they encounter, among other perils, the infamous New Madrid earthquake. The novel is narrated by Lydia, who accompanied her much older husband on this adventure as well as on a previous unsuccessful flatboat trip on the same river. She is accompanied by their two young children, one of whom was born on the paddle boat on this journey, and two female servants. Regrettably, the tale is filled with repetition, much of it tedious iterations of her love for her husband and children; her traumatic childhood loss of her mother, abandonment by her father, and subsequent reunion with him and his new wife; of a blossoming on-board romance between one of her servants and a crew member, and more. I really wanted to love this novel, but in the end I really just wished that it had been more rigourously edited. Still, fans of historical fiction will appreciate learning about this remarkable historical navigational achievement.
Dawn_Zuber
Fascinating story told through too modern a lens
The true story of Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and her husband, inventor and steamboat pioneer Nicholas Roosevelt, is fascinating. However, I found myself distracted by the very modern points of view the author gave Lydia.
Despite facing numerous challenges, such as a dangerous boat journey along the Mississippi River, including navigating through the Falls of the Ohio, potential attacks from Native Americans, and a destructive earthquake and its aftershocks, just after giving birth to her second child and taking care of a toddler, Lydia frequently reflects on her significance in history. In Chapter 19, she writes, "I am part of this history, this wild adventure. Will anyone remember that I was? Are women never remembered unless they happened to have been a queen?" This seems far-fetched. I'd expect her to focus on survival, not worry about being excluded from history books because she's a woman.
In addition, Lydia comes across as a modern woman who is an equal partner in her marriage and muses about the roles we assign men and women. I know there were feminists in the early nineteenth century, but I don't think their thoughts about women's rights were as nuanced as today's. For example, after a crew member apologizes for using the word "hell" in front of her, she muses to herself, "What a shame that men cannot simply be themselves in front of women!"
There were several unresolved storylines, too. For example, Lydia worries about food and fuel shortages, but the steamboat floats past earthquake-destroyed settlements for several days without running out of food or fuel.
The story was interesting, but I expect more realistic details about cultural attitudes and roles than I found here.
 (1).gif)
