Memoirs and Coffee Book Group to Discuss "The Oregon Trail"

The next meeting of Bernardsville Public Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held on Tuesday, November 15 at 10:30 am. Manager Pat Kennedy-Grant will lead the discussion of "The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey" (2015) by Rinker Buck. [The author will not be present.]

In the bestselling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, "The Oregon Trail" is a major work of participatory history: an epic account of traveling the 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned wayin a covered wagon with a team of mules which hasn't been done in a century. It also tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.

Spanning 2,000 miles and traversing six states from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, the Oregon Trail is the route that made America. In the fifteen years before the Civil War, when 400,000 pioneers used it to emigrate west, the trail united the coasts, doubled the size of the country, and laid the groundwork for the railroads. The trail years also solidified the American character: plucky determination in the face of adversity, impetuous cycle of financial bubbles and busts, and the fractious clash of ethnic populations competing for the same jobs and space. Today, amazingly, the trail is all but forgotten.

Rinker Buck is no stranger to grand adventures. The New Yorker described his first travel narrative, "Flight of Passage," as "a funny, cocky gem of a book," [and, with] "The Oregon Trail," he seeks to bring the most important road in American history back to life." At once a majestic American journey, a significant work of history, and a personal saga reminiscent of bestsellers by Bill Bryson and Cheryl Strayed, the book tells the story of Buck's 2,000-mile expedition across the plains with tremendous humor and heart. He was accompanied by three cantankerous mules, his boisterous brother, Nick, and an "incurably filthy" Jack Russell terrier named Olive Oyl.

There is no charge to join the book discussion and no registration is needed. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.