From Publishers Weekly
Based on archival letters of Mary Bullitt and military studies of her husband, Gen. Henry Atkinson, this ambitiously researched, gracefully narrated first novel by lawyer and law professor Gilchrist traces an exciting time during the Black Hawk wars of the mid-19th century on the Missouri prairie and has already been optioned for a film. After only three days of courtship, the notoriously difficult Louisville belle marries the autocratic older general and for the next 16 years they make their home at the unpromising outpost of Jefferson Barracks, Mo., where he is stationed to enforce federal Indian regulations. These include trying to keep the Sauk, led by the proud, relentless Black Hawk, pacified, while at the same time taking their land. There is also a personal vendetta to settle between General Atkinson and Black Hawk, involving murders each man had committed, and the novel, related in flashbacks by the recently widowed, outspoken Mary, becomes her attempt finally to understand her emotionally remote husband. Her story is told by stages and dated in a diary, as Mary grows from new bride to young mother to maturing woman, always reflecting on her volatile relationship with her husband as he, in turn, is altered by the pursuit of his nemesis. Gilchrist incorporates first-person accounts by tertiary characters such as Bright Sun, the general's Indian interpreter and possible romantic admirer, and Mary's young cousin Philip, both of whom accompany the general on his campaigns. Characters are fleshed out to the smallest detail, from the physical torments of soldiers in the field to Black Hawk's stuttering fury. Gilchrist has managed to create a work that is both historically riveting in the manner of 18th-century captivity narratives and as deft in the depiction of a beleaguered marriage as C.S. Godshalk's Kalimantaan. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Another highly touted debut by a lawyer, although Gilchrist seems to be keeping her day jobAfor now. Mary Bullitt finds herself betrothed to Gen. Henry Atkinson, to whom her mother has just introduced her, and heading out to conquer the great American West. The book has already been optioned for film. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Janet Wallach author of Desert Queen Micaela Gilchrist is an extraordinary writer. From the first page of the book, she sweeps you off your feet and plants you firmly on the frontier. It is clear that she has done intensive research and she uses it in her keen descriptions, her brilliant use of language, and her finely drawn characters. She breathes life into every person and place and puts the reader smack in the middle of history. Bravo!


Book Description
In the tradition of such memorable bestselling authors as Willa Cather and Edna Ferber, or such more recent successes as Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain and Philip Kimball's Liar's Moon, Micaela Gilchrist has written a first-rate, romantic and deeply moving historical novel, rich with the kind of detail that brings history to life and peopled with the kind of larger-than-life characters that stand out against even the brilliant, tumultuous, bloody backdrop of the struggle for the West. Inspired by the real-life letters and diaries of Mary Bullitt, an outspoken and strong-willed young Southern belle whose life on the frontier is the stuff of legend and of epics, The Good Journey is the sweeping and enthralling story of two extraordinary people, set against a West that was still to be won. It is at once a love story, the intimate portrait of a marriage and a fascinating recreation of the Black Hawk wars, the long, bloody clash between one of the great Native American leaders and his principal opponent, a tough, resourceful and determined American general with deeply conflicted feelings on the subject of Indians. When Mary Bullitt first meets General Henry Atkinson, who has come east from his outpost on the Mississippi specifically to find a bride, she is barely civil to him, and that only to humor her mother, who is anxious to have her oldest daughter make a good match and get on with her life by becoming a wife and mother. No one is more surprised than Mary herself, therefore, when only a few days later she finds herself married to this intriguing older stranger and headed away (in circumstances of extreme discomfort) from the civilized life she enjoyed in Louisville, Kentucky, into the unknown wilds of the western frontier. The midwinter journey from Louisville to St. Louis, where the General has his headquarters, is arduous, but nothing prepares Mary Bullitt for the rigors -- and very real danger -- of life at the edge of the vast expanse of the Western Territory, a name given at the time (approximately 1820) to everything that lay beyond the Mississippi River. Living conditions are primitive, especially compared to the wealth and luxury Mary left behind in Kentucky, but more unsettling still is the constant threat of attack from the Indians that hangs over their daily lives -- and Mary's growing awareness that she knows even less about this man she has married than she does about the place and the people who live there. The unfolding of their marriage -- and the appearance in their lives of Bright Sun, a pretty young Indian woman who seems to have a close and mysterious relationship to the General, and of Black Hawk himself, a fierce and determined enemy whose connection to the General is tangled, deeply personal and another mystery -- takes place against the background of war and hardship, as Mary struggles not only to find herself, but to make a success of her marriage with a man even more stubborn than herself. The Good Journey spans the approximately twenty years of Mary and the General's marriage, during which many battles, both large and small, are waged. In the end, none is a clear victory, for nothing is won without a loss, whether it is something as substantial as more land for the settlers or something as basic as Mary's gradual uncovering of the hidden secrets of the General's past. Micaela Gilchrist's debut novel offers a journey that you will not soon forget.


About the Author
Micaela Gilchrist, a lawyer, lives in Evergreen, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Based on the lives an actual 19th-century couple, The Good Journey captures the strangeness and intensity of life on the American frontier. In this novel, as in history, Louisville belle Mary Bullitt catapults into a new life almost as soon as her brief courtship ends with wedding vows. Her marriage to General Henry Atkinson, 22 years her senior, makes her an officer's wife; but almost every aspect of her new life in the outpost wilds seems primitive or threatening. The bloodiness of the Black Hawk Wars and her husband's terrible secret prod Mary towards a maturity that no nice Southern girl would have imagined.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Good Journey is the story of two people, set against a West that was still to be won. It is at once a love story, the intimate portrait of a marriage and a recreation of the Black Hawk wars, the long, bloody clash between one of the great Native American leaders and his principal opponent, a tough, resourceful and determined American general with deeply conflicted feelings on the subject of Indians." "When Mary Bullitt first meets General Henry Atkinson, who has come east from his outpost on the Mississippi specifically to find a bride, she is barely civil to him, and that only to humor her mother, who is anxious to have her oldest daughter make a good match and get on with her life by becoming a wife and mother. No one is more surprised than Mary herself, therefore, when only a few days later she finds herself married to this intriguing older stranger and headed away (in circumstances of extreme discomfort) from the civilized life she enjoyed in Louisville, Kentucky, into the unknown wilds of the western frontier." "The Good Journey spans the approximately twenty years of Mary and the General's marriage, during which many battles, both large and small, are waged. In the end, none is a clear victory, for nothing is won without a loss, whether it is something as substantial as more land for the settlers or something as basic as Mary's gradual uncovering of the hidden secrets of the General's past."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Based on archival letters of Mary Bullitt and military studies of her husband, Gen. Henry Atkinson, this ambitiously researched, gracefully narrated first novel by lawyer and law professor Gilchrist traces an exciting time during the Black Hawk wars of the mid-19th century on the Missouri prairie and has already been optioned for a film. After only three days of courtship, the notoriously difficult Louisville belle marries the autocratic older general and for the next 16 years they make their home at the unpromising outpost of Jefferson Barracks, Mo., where he is stationed to enforce federal Indian regulations. These include trying to keep the Sauk, led by the proud, relentless Black Hawk, pacified, while at the same time taking their land. There is also a personal vendetta to settle between General Atkinson and Black Hawk, involving murders each man had committed, and the novel, related in flashbacks by the recently widowed, outspoken Mary, becomes her attempt finally to understand her emotionally remote husband. Her story is told by stages and dated in a diary, as Mary grows from new bride to young mother to maturing woman, always reflecting on her volatile relationship with her husband as he, in turn, is altered by the pursuit of his nemesis. Gilchrist incorporates first-person accounts by tertiary characters such as Bright Sun, the general's Indian interpreter and possible romantic admirer, and Mary's young cousin Philip, both of whom accompany the general on his campaigns. Characters are fleshed out to the smallest detail, from the physical torments of soldiers in the field to Black Hawk's stuttering fury. Gilchrist has managed to create a work that is both historically riveting inthe manner of 18th-century captivity narratives and as deft in the depiction of a beleaguered marriage as C.S. Godshalk's Kalimantaan. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Another highly touted debut by a lawyer, although Gilchrist seems to be keeping her day job--for now. Mary Bullitt finds herself betrothed to Gen. Henry Atkinson, to whom her mother has just introduced her, and heading out to conquer the great American West. The book has already been optioned for film. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews