They support “the belief that the world and people in it are good.” And they provide “relief to the pain we experience when we see others suffering.”It was her fourth point that stuck with me. For anyone who has ever dreamed of seeing America slowly from the back of a wagon, The Oregon Trail is a vicarious thrill.A week ago, a British researcher published an article titled “Stories of kindness may counteract the negative effects of looking at bad news.” As you might imagine, I was intrigued.Kathryn Buchanan of the University of Essex shared four main takeaways from her research: Stories of kindness remind us of our shared values. In that sense, you’d think the book would be slow-paced and fusty, but it’s really something else: raw, visceral, and often laugh-out-loud funny. The experience of The Oregon Trail stands squarely opposite much of what is modern-it’s slow travel with poor communication, it places struggle before comfort, and it represents a connection with history rather than a search for the newest of the new.

This makes The Oregon Trail a rare and effective work of history-the trail stories of the Buck brothers bring humor and drama, and the pioneer biographies supply a context that makes every other aspect of the book snap into sharp relief. The Oregon Trail attains its considerable narrative power by interweaving pioneer history with Rinker-and-Nick-and-mules interpersonal strife with poignant memories of the author’s father, who took his own family on a covered wagon journey through New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1958. Simultaneously a majestic journey across the West, a significant work of history, and a moving personal saga, Buck’s chronicle is a “laugh-out-loud masterpiece” ( Willamette Week) that “so ensnares the emotions it becomes a tear-jerker at its close” ( Star Tribune, Minneapolis) and “will leave you daydreaming and hungry to see this land” ( The Boston Globe). Buck’s voice, which is alert and unpretentious in a manner that put me in mind of Bill Bryson’s comic tone in A Walk in the Woods.” -Dwight Garner, The New York TimesĪ major bestseller that has been hailed as a “quintessential American story” ( Christian Science Monitor), Rinker Buck’s The Oregon Trail is 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-that has captivated readers, critics, and booksellers from coast to coast.

“Absorbing…Winning…The many layers in The Oregon Trail are linked by Mr. “Amazing…A real nonfiction thriller.” -Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books “Enchanting…A book filled with so much love…Long before Oregon, Rinker Buck has convinced us that the best way to see America is from the seat of a covered wagon.” - The Wall Street Journal

The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck