Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Gail Ward Olmstead for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
When I saw Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip available to read, I was immediately enchanted. This is the fictionalized account of Katharine Prescott Wormeley making a road trip from her family home in Newport, Rhode Island to her second home in Jackson, New Hampshire. She is 77 years old at the time of this undertaking in 1907, driving an automobile that is not yet all that common. Everyone seems worried about her making the journey alone, but the trip ends up being quite fun for the spunky lady.
The book takes us through her adventure at a time when automobiles only went about 10 miles per hour. This meant multiple stops for Katharine (or Kate) along the way. Nowadays, I can make the trip in about 4 hours, tops, and I have.
The book was a delight all the way through. Katharine ruminates on her life. As a society “old maid” she lived a rather progressive life for her times. She served as a volunteer nurse for the United States Sanitary Commission (which became the Red Cross) on a hospital ship during the Civil War, then as Superintendent of a hospital near her home in Rhode Island. She is also noted for her many translations of French works into English, including the writings of Moliere, Balzac, and others.
Along the way, Katharine meets people who are very interesting and saves a life, twice. She crashes a Vanderbilt Society event (not those Vanderbilts), meets a future movie mogul, and confronts a rival she had for a man’s affection.
This is probably where most of the material came from that Gail Ward Olmstead used to craft the story. Frederick Law Olmstead, the designer of Central Park and many others, is a distant cousin of the author’s husband. When she wrote a book about him, Katharine’s name kept coming up. The two were quite close, although no one can say for sure what was between them.
I loved the book and was prepared to give it five stars until I got to the end. Katharine arrives in the area of Jackson, New Hampshire, and talks about seeing the Old Man of the Mountains. Now, I live in the area, and even when I vacationed up here I could have told you that there was no way to see the Old Man of the Mountains from this side of the White Mountains. It’s in Franconia. Katharine may have seen it in the past, but that would have been quite a trip back in the day.
I did research to see what became of the home she built in Jackson, her beloved Brookmead. It is now The Inn at Thorn Hill. Back in May, the author hosted an event there, and I’m just sorry I didn’t know about it. I would have loved to have attended.
Except for that nitpick and one or two others, I did enjoy Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip. It was a fun, slice-of-life adventure at a time when automobiles were just beginning to change the world. I’ll definitely be purchasing the author’s book on Frederick Law Olmstead as well.
Katharine’s former home in Jackson, NH. It is now known as The Inn at Thorn Hill.
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Categories: Book Reviews
That error about the Old Man of the Mountain is the kind of goof that keeps me from attempting to write historical fiction. Before I embarked on my current novel (which is a period story but not a full-out historical), I started (and abandoned) a story fully set during the Normandy campaign in the summer of 1944. Partly, I admit, because it was overly ambitious (I haven’t even written a historical short story!), and partly because I didn’t have anyone cheering me on at home, but mostly because, even allowing for creative license, I didn’t want a reviewer to write, “Diaz-Granados clearly failed to do his homework, especially where military hardware is concerned. Anyone familiar with the Normandy campaign knows that the Germans didn’t use (insert name of panzer model here) until December of 1944!”
I’m truly hard on myself when I get a date or historical fact wrong. In my defense, though, the one mistake I made in the original draft “Reunion: A Story” – the date of Jim Garraty’s last day of high school (and mine!) – wasn’t carelessness or inattention to detail. I was convinced – back in 1998 – that the day in question was June 14, 1983. It wasn’t till I looked at some of my yearbook inscriptions after I published the novella that I realized, “Holy crap! I got the date wrong.” That’s one of the reasons why I decided to revise “Reunion: A Story” in the spring of 2023. No one, not even classmates who read the first edition, ever told me, “Hey, nice story, but you got the date wrong!” And had I not bothered to look at my yearbook out of nostalgia (I wasn’t even thinking about “Reunion: Coda” yet), I wouldn’t have been the wiser.
I think it’s different when it’s a relatively small group that would pick up on the error- such as the date of graduation from your school – versus something a much larger group would pick up on.
As I said, though, the book is good otherwise and I still recommend it and I bought another book by the author. It doesn’t have to be perfect – it just has to be good.
I agree. And reducing your rating from five stars to four shouldn’t faze Gail Ward Olmstead. 4 out of 5 stars is still a strong recommendation.
This sounds really interesting! Thx for the post, now on my list of BTR 😎