Mispronunciations

So many mispronunciations in a book trying to be historically correct. Super distracting. Gila River, saguaro cactus, Quechan Indians, Cocopah Indians. Any school child in Yuma AZ could help you out. Please re-record.

20 people found this helpful

2/3s of this book is about the BOOK, not Oatmen

The title should be "How the Book Came to Be". I am returning it. Writing and reading just average.

9 people found this helpful

book overview

this book was very factually informative. I would have loved to hear more about Oliver's days with the Indian tribes

8 people found this helpful

Need updated narrator

First, it is pronounced “H” ila river not Gila - other pronunciations are incorrect as well.

7 people found this helpful

I loved the history

struggled to finish. the guy reading could put a person to sleep with his reading.

5 people found this helpful

Misunderstood Tatoo Re-Visted by a Great Historian

Margot Mifflin has sorted through the litany of speculative anecdotes about Olive Oatman's life before, during and after her captivity to bring the most accurate biography possible. Not only has she attempted to delineate fact from fiction, but she also addresses the plausible reasons for inaccuracy (some by Olive herself) and many of the perpetuated myths about this tattooed lady.

It's nice to have some legitimate historians reviewing the apocryphal biographies that have been allowed to pervade our knowledge of history. Modern media is a culprit of such violations (e.g., portrayal of a fictional character, but stealing Olive's tattoo and history in television) but isn't alone; Oatman's biographer took many liberties to better sell the story. As previously mentioned, numerous accounts attempted to frame the story to suit the narrative of the time (e.g., the American Indians were all savage brutes waiting to steal everyone's daughters and therefor must be annihilated).

It's actually quite ironic that Ms. Mifflin decries the provocateurs seeking to gain monetary advantage by selling this tale with falsehoods yet herself inaccurately uses the "Mormon" tagline description of Olive and her family. Ms. Mifflin describes in full detail the exact break between the Mormons in Illionois and the separated and Mormon unaffiliated Brewster company her family was traveling with when her family was slaughtered. She then tries to slander the Mormon faith by providing snippets of texts from the Book of Mormon and tacitly surmising that Mormons believed their ancient scriptures prophesied an "assimilation of Indians" that would result in their skin turning "white and exceedingly fair and delightsome." See what I did there Ms. Mifflin... not very fair is it. This is what garnered only a four star rating instead of your deserved five.

Although the narrator wasn't horrible, he did randomly emphasize words in every sentence; sometimes choosing multiple random words within the same sentence.

23 people found this helpful

Became a tedious read

I was riveted in the beginning, but after Olive left the tribe that became her family, the author wandered off into writing copious amounts of what other people wrote about Olive and whether or not it was accurate. While I understand that some of this was necessary, the story of Olive's life faded behind all of this chatter. It became a rather tiresome read for me.

4 people found this helpful

Incredible story

This story attempts the filter through the facts and fiction of the true story of Olive Oatman! It is just incredible! Whether there is still fiction or if it's 100%, this story is heart wrenching endearing and fantastical! To hear that there were other slightly similar tales is also mind boggling! I especially love the reading of the actual letter at the end! Wonderful book that I highly recommend for readers and writers of the Old West, Native American History, American History and Historical Romance!

4 people found this helpful

Narrators and producers need to do their homework.

Any additional comments?

When reading a piece of western history, the narrators and producers need to do their homework and learn how to pronounce place names that aren't Anglo, the number of errors, particularly the mispronunciation of one of the key landmarks the Gila River (the "G" is pronounced like at "H") is incredibly distracting. There are also problems with saguaro cactus, mesa, some names of native tribes... It's a disappointing production.

13 people found this helpful

More about history than the girl

Disappointed the book didnt talk more about Olive. Once you get past the first few chapters it became more of a history lesson about those times.

2 people found this helpful