Gold Rush Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Nellie Cashman by Thora Kerr Illing
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
* Last semester I took a creative non-fiction course; the last course I needed for my double major and before I started research for my thesis. In this course, the prof wanted us to read a “creative non-fiction” book, i.e. a biography/memoir, and write a review on it.
Below is the review I handed in for marking, with only minor changes. I admit, this may not be my best work, but my prof was of the opinion that my writing was sloppy, unclear, unfocused and in need of major editing. I got an A- on it.
My prof urged me to take a good look at the feedback she included in the returned digital copy of my assignment and then give her a call. The returned copy was void of any comments, I felt uncomfortable calling my prof over an assignment on which I got a satisfactory mark.
ElliotScribbles
It was the strangest and most stressful course I took during my graduate studies. And now without further ado, my (awful) review: *
I came across this book a few months ago by chance when I was browsing through Goodreads.
I had never heard of the author nor of the subject of this biography, but something called me to it.
It may have been the fact that recently my interests in reading material have motivated me to take a closer look at women in history, fiction and the arts and I thought this biography would make a great addition to my collection.
The synopsis on the back of the book promises the reader an “engaging and illuminating biography” of a remarkable woman, who made a name for herself in a world ruled by men.
Sadly, the biography falls short in keeping that promise. Instead of finding an account of Nellie Cashman’s life and adventures in as much detail as possible considering the limited resources that are available on her – according to the author – the reader finds themselves tugging along as names of famous men are dropped for the purpose of keeping the reader’s interest, since it appears the author assumes the reader’s knowledge of these men and the famous deeds they have accomplished.
Very early on I began to wonder about the true intention of the creation of this biography. I found evidence that pointed towards a slightly feminist perspective, but it also contained signs of an attempt to bring in as many famous and prominent figures as possible.
In addition, there were many tangents that the author began to explore and quickly dropped only to bring to a lacklustre conclusion at the end of a chapter. I must admit with much disappointment that the avenues this biography attempted to explore fell flat and left me with an ever-increasing mountain of questions with each page I read.
To begin with, the author is adamant that Cashman made a name for herself during an era when men ruled the west coast, yet she was an honourable woman. The author points out multiple times throughout the book, starting with the introduction that Cashman never married, but had many fellow prospectors, who admired her.
The book is filled with statements of that nature and quotes the author found of men commenting on Cashman’s character. This point was repeated so many times during the 184 pages of rather large font that I began to wonder who the author was trying to convince of Cashman’s purity, the reader or herself?
The main character or rather main subject of this biography was supposed to be Cashman, hence the title, but the subject of Cashman was kept at an arm’s length, resulting in us, the reader, never being able to establish a connection to Cashman and not being able to fully immerse ourselves in the life that was so extraordinary. Again, I found myself asking what was so extraordinary.
As mentioned above, more emphasis was put on the fact that she remained chaste than trying to bring this remarkable woman to life in the pages of this biography. The author states that Cashman enjoyed giving interviews and in fact gave a lot of them over the years, telling many stories of her adventures.
For the amount of detail and actual story given, I wonder why they weren’t included in this book. There were barely any quotes from her interviews, the information that was provided felt like it was scarcely scraped together from tiny snippets of facts that could be found on her life and they were overshadowed by the constant mentioning of other, I can only assume, more important figures in the history of the gold rush: men.
Names such as Wyatt Erp and Doc Holliday were mentioned many times and during certain parts in the book, they appeared to take over the story. I have heard these names before, yet I am not familiar with their part in American frontier history. If such names are deemed important enough to be mentioned in this biography, the author should have taken a few pages to explain their significance with respect to Cashman’s life as well as American history.
Neither were accomplished. The writing was awkward and at times I was not quite sure what the author intended to convey. There was a roundabout way the author focussed on thoughts and details that never came through clearly at all.
There were also so many tangents that led nowhere, that were dropped and then casually mentioned a dozen or so pages later, where I thought any of these interesting pieces of information would have been a great chance to establish Cashman’s character.
For example, on one of Cashman’s trips up to the Yukon she was supposed to meet with her nephew in Victoria. He never showed, there was a sort of scandal that centred around an imposter, but at the end it was resolved. The author took the chance to, once again, show Cashman’s honourable nature by giving him, the imposter, money before she continued her journey. She met her nephew many months later; not a word was said about his whereabouts and the circumstances of his delay.
Stopping here for a moment, I must make several comments about this example, which truly does not include any more detail in the biography. Firstly, these are highly detailed snippets of facts that the author was able to uncover that begs the question of why she did not include anything further on the scandal, which in all fairness as it was related in the book did not really come across as a scandal? Where did the author find these facts?
I perused the author’s endnotes and at times they would only state “and other sources” as her resources. Furthermore, why would the author not include anything further about the nephew? She knew as much that he was on his way and was only able to meet his aunt months later. Was it because of bad weather? Was there a shortage of transportation or money?
A few sentences would have been appreciated. If nothing further could be found, then a simple sentence as to the mystery of the nephew’s delay would have established a reader-writer connection.
There would have been no doubt in the reader’s mind, thinking that the author might have kept something from the reader. On the other hand, the author gave minute detail on mining operations and machinery that contained too much jargon for a reader without any prior knowledge to keep up.
Overall, I must say I was very disheartened by this very short biography that claimed to tell the fascinating story of a remarkable woman’s life. When it comes to describing life in the Klondike, nothing new was shared and everything that would have mattered the author only glossed over.
Generic images were included that provided little or nothing at all to the reading experience and the substance of this biography.
Unfortunately, the figure of Cashman could not be illuminated with the enthusiasm with which she seemingly lived her life during the gold rush era. I am thoroughly disappointed and feel let down.
