Prospects of a Woman

LOCAL AUTHOR

Elisabeth Parker and her husband Nate move out west to California, ready to meet up with her father on his land claim and strike it rich, like so many prospectors have before them. When they arrive, however, they find that her father has taken up with another woman and done nothing with the claim. From there, things only grow more difficult for Elisabeth. Life out west isn’t necessarily better than life in Massachusetts; it’s just a struggle in different ways.

As the quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Muir interspersed through the book illustrate, however, the struggle doesn’t mar Elisabeth’s life. If anything, it shapes her, sculpting her out of the rough clay she had been before into a woman who can stand on her own two feet. Prospects of a Woman is a tale of a woman coming into her own, not only as an adult and American but as a human being.

I greatly enjoyed this book, though there were times when I wished the author had been a little more subtle in the narration, allowing the characters’ actions and words to speak rather than illustrating so much. Despite this, I think anyone with an interest in women’s roles in history (and any fans of the work put out by She Writes Press) will find Prospects of a Woman a worthwhile read.