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Laurel Means
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The Long Journey Home: A Novel of the Post-Civil War Plains Kindle Edition

by Laurel Means (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
A fascinating family saga set in the 1860s prairie of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Pioneer and Civil War veteran Henry Morgan sets out on a dramatic journey that takes him through mazes, river currents, down dangerous trails, and up against dead ends. From an unlikely beginning, Morgan's hasty marriage to the young and illiterate Agnes Guyette has unforeseen consquences. As they attempt to claim a government land grant two hundred miles away in Green Prairie, MN, they must fight local Indians, hostile wilderness, and desperados determined to steal their land. Filled with nonstop action and unexpected plot twists and turns, this novel is a roller coaster ride of action, intrigue and high adventure.
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    1. Print length
      387 pages
    2. Language
      English
    3. Publisher
      Chicago Review Press
    4. Publication date
      July 1, 2008
    5. File size
      4.6 MB
    6. Page Flip
      Enabled
    7. Word Wise
      Enabled
    8. Enhanced typesetting
      Enabled
    Next slide of product details

    Editorial Reviews

    Review

    In an interview with the author, Chaska Herald (3-19-09), Kathy Perschmann noted: "Long Journey Home would make an excellent book clb discussion book and there are discussion questions on readinggroupguides.com"

    "The situations that Morton and his family face are often dramatic, but do not seem heavy-handed or exaggerated. Settling the American west was treacherous, and     The Long Journey Home captures the danger and risk at the heart of the settler' experience." Nanette Donohue, Historical Novels Review (August 2008).

    From the Author

    We hear more of Henry Morton and Agnes Guyette in this novel's sequel, the Joanna Catherine Scott award winning Whispers Through the House (North Star 2011). The story follows events eight years later, in which Agnes' sister, Lucette Dubois, must find her own way as a recent widow with four young children. She is forced to make choices separating her from the homestead so long a vital part of her life and from the one man she could love, and eventually finds fulfilment through a most unusual career for a woman in the 1870s. Readers who disliked Henry Morton in Journey will arrive at a very different opinion of him. Both novels are unusual in the sense that they provide a rich background -- not of the usual Scandinavian traditions on the prairies, but rather of French Canadian immigrant life and its cultural conflicts.

    Product details

    • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00LDYD3PQ
    • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chicago Review Press (July 1, 2008)
    • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 1, 2008
    • Language ‏ : ‎ English
    • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.6 MB
    • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
    • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
    • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
    • Print length ‏ : ‎ 387 pages
    • Customer Reviews:
      3.8 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

    About the author

    Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
    Laurel Means

    Laurel Means

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    More books out! So many images, so many rich stories, writing has become such a rewarding creativity for me. When I taught English literature and writing for many years, I always wondered how those authors put images and stories into words. Entering that threshold was a revelation. I began with material from family history -- my first novel, The Long Journey Home (2008), was based on a great-grandfather's Minnesota pioneer history. Its demanded sequel, Whispers Through the House, came out in 2010. In between came my "more academic" edition of over 300 letters and documenting the story of Paul and Nathalie Means' early ministry and educational work in Southeast Asia (2009). And now for the young adults: Wagon Trail to Nowhere (June 2010) follows a teenaged girl's adventures from Minnesota to Montana in 1875,which transform her into something unexpected; Runes Beyond the Edge (Sept. 2010) projects fourteenth-century history into a teenaged Norse boy's challenges as he accompanies the king's commissioned crew into the mid-west praries and encounters rune charms, witch's spell, and ... well, please read about Harald-Son-of-Bjorn and its forthcoming sequel, Runes Beyond the Empire, in which the hero finds runes essential for survival and escape from the Emperor of China.

    First, though, read more of Sarah Pearl Lundgren's adventures on the mid-west prairies and Kill Deer Mountains of South Dakota, where she connects with native American spirituality. Ghost Trail is expected out late 2012.

    Much of my writing comes from a background in historical research,but more from my love of words and the transformation of thoughts into a realism beyond fiction. By the way, I live on the Minnesota praries with my grown children and an extended family, where I've been tagged "The Green Prairie Trails" author. Experience the prairies in my books! And, by way of a prairie afterthought, you can read about my own childhood experience in my just out short story, "A House Like None Other" (Deep Waters Anthology, Oct. 2010). Just don't get lost in the tall grass!

    Next up? A three-part family saga, biblically based, about pioneer women on -- you guessed it -- the Minnesota praries ...and ... Sumatra.

    Customer reviews

    3.8 out of 5 stars
    5 global ratings

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    Top reviews from the United States

    • Melissa Slachetka
      3.0 out of 5 stars An American Journey
      Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2010
      The Long Journey Home brings out the pioneer spirit in all of us. Set in the post-civil war Americas, this is a book about endurance and hardships, love and loss, settling and moving through the difficulties of life.

      The novel starts out a little on the slow side with veteran soldier, Henry Morton, returning home after four long years of war. He discovers his wife is dead, his daughter has run away, and his two sons want to start their own lives in the city. Because of his service in the military, Morton is granted 160 acres of land in Green Prairie, Minnesota, and makes the brave decision to leave everything and start over.

      Lonely and looking for comfort, Morton impregnates and later marries a young, inexperienced French girl, Agnes.

      "Bringing a bride home before the cabin was ready was the last thing he expected. He felt torn between embarrassment and resentment. He noticed Agnes looking around the room and wished she'd say something - anything." The characters are complex and well-written, and the story picks up speed when Morton discovers a plot to stop him from keeping his land.

      "Morton here has a complaint to file, Sheriff," explained Ryberg. "Seems some men are after him, a couple of them here in town you know. Thinks they burned down his place as well."'

      "Know about the fire, happened last Thursday. Went out there myself to investigate."'"And now his wife is missing."

      At first, it seems quite jarring to hear Minnesota towns spoken about, but soon it seems natural. A sense of history and pride will fill every Minnesotan, native or transplant.

      "As I walked out into the wilderness of this world" is a line that Morton keeps reciting as he struggles to keep his life together. What both characters come to realize is that there is wilderness and wildness all around them, but with love and friendship they are never alone. This exceptional novel brings us a coming-of-age for Agnes and a rediscovery of self for Morton.

      The Long Journey Home by Minnesota writer Laurel Means brings out the pioneer spirit in all of us. Set in the post-civil war Americas, this is a book about endurance and hardships, love and loss, settling and moving through the difficulties of life.
      First time author, Laurel Means lives in Chaska, Minnesota.
      One person found this helpful
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    • Jim Duggins, Ph.D.
      5.0 out of 5 stars Home is Where the Heart Is
      Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2009
      Verified Purchase
      Although "The Long Journey Home" is certainly a love story, it's much more than that. Far more than boy meets girl, this story, as promised by its title, is a journey, and an adventure of Odyssean proportions. Author Laurel Means has written a major novel of the westward journey of thousands of Americans of the 19th Century, and on the way two such Americans find and lose love, then find it again. In between happy endings there's a journey that will tear the heart right out of your chest. When land was what the American government had most of and to get it developed was its greatest priority, vast tracts of acreage became a kind of G.I. Bill for veterans of the revolutionary and civil wars. Then, too, a national pastime for American shysters following both wars was to find ways to steal it from the veterans. That is one, but only one, of the intriguing plots in "The Long Journey Home."

      A novel chock-a-block with character development, where the good guys duke it out with the bad guys and win (but only afer three hundred pages of gut wrenching struggle and misadventure, crooked gamblers, alcoholism, and gambling addiction, stolen homesteads and hostile Sioux warriors). The truly wonderful part of this novel is that the author actually lets us see the characters grow and develop. They are not just cardboard figures playing good and bad parts. Many novels portray characters of some complexity, but Ms. Means actually presents characters who grow and change.

      In addition to characterization, Laurel Means has carefully plotted this narrative with credible twists and turns to keep you turning pages and biting your nails. Readers will enjoy the visual map and the second wave of western land grants after the civil war, jumping off from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, a migration to the west of big skies and the last of the great buffalo herds. In that process, the reader will experience travel in a conestoga, learn how to build one, how to pack one and how to live in one, fording rivers, and building log cabins. One is brought to a new appreciation of the army and the forts built to protect hapless travelers and settlers. Ms. Means scholarship is also to be congratulated for this work.

      Finally there's a satisfying quality about this book--the reader has grown with the characters and has applauded the victories and hissed the villains until the end. If not with glorious triumph, the denouement for these characters is earned, just and fair. There's something uncommonly satisfing about the earned achievement seen in this novel.
      3 people found this helpful
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    • Gerard Becigneul
      5.0 out of 5 stars great story...made me want a sequel
      Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2009
      This was a great story and I really liked most of the characters. There was one character I didn't like and truthfully that made the story even more real! The story and all of the descriptions of life around the story were great. There is tons to learn about life right after the Civil War; it was realy hard. I truly hope there is a sequel. When the book ended, I didn't want the story to end. So many more people to learn about!
      One person found this helpful
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    • T G B
      5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful story- well told
      Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2008
      Ms. Mean's has written a wonderful post-Civil War story of life on the plains. The novel strives for historical accuracy over easy stereotypes, realism over cheap sentimentality and the author makes the wise choice of portraying her characters as fully realized human beings with all of their strengths and weaknesses helping to shape their fate. A reader is given an accurate and inspired journey through the hardships and struggles of a family trying to survive in an often harsh and difficult environment. Within these struggles, there is also a tale of the power of hope, faith and love.

      Well done.
      2 people found this helpful
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