Book Review: The First Assassin

The First Assassin
By John J. Miller

The Secession Winter of 1861 had drawn to a close, and the United States stood upon the precipice of civil war by the time president elect, Abraham Lincoln, arrived at Washington, D. C. on February 23, 1861. Seven states had already left the Union and more were sure to follow. For John J. Miller, this is the perfect backdrop for his debut novel, “The First Assassin.”

After the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as the sixteenth president of the United States, Miller’s protagonist, Colonel Charles P. Rook, who previously under the direction of General-in-Chief, Winfield Scott, had been tasked with organizing the security detail to protect Mr. Lincoln, ignores the direct order of General Scott to cease and desist his clandestine efforts to uncover those who may not wish Mr. Lincoln well.

Rook’s investigations lead him to the front door of the home Washington socialite and Southern sympathizer, Violet Grenier. Rook and his small network of observers and informants soon find themselves embroiled in a cat and mouse game with Ms. Grenier, and Mazorca, an alien assassin hired by South Carolina planter, Langston Bennett, to kill Lincoln.

A parallel thread follows Portia, a fugitive slave fleeing from Bennett’s South Carolina plantation, as she makes her way north to Washington D. C. She has been sent on a mission by her grandfather to deliver a photograph of the assassin, Mazorca, to none other than Abraham Lincoln himself.

Miller’s narrative is nicely paced, switching between Bennett, Rook, Grenier, Mazorca and Portia, but as the bloody body count rises Miller’s tome doesn’t quite rise up to the merits of being labeled a thriller. His dialogue falls a little flat, and any one who is familiar with a few of Lincoln’s stories and quotes, may find one or two that he might recognize. What he does do exceedingly well, is give his readers a sense of place. His novel is very well researched and Civil War era Washington, D. C. emerges from the dust of nearly one hundred and fifty years.

All in all, Miller’s “The First Assassin” is an enjoyable novel to read, in that sense the author has accomplished his task well.

ISBN 978-1935597117, AmazonEncore, © 2010, Paperback, 448 pages, $14.95

Review: The Wedding Gift

The Wedding Gift
By Marlen Suyapa Bodden

“The Wedding Gift” is the debut novel of New York lawyer, turned novelist, Marlen Suyapa Bodden. Set in antebellum Alabama, the focus of Ms. Bodden’s novel is the complex relationship between slaves and their owners.

Sarah Campbell, Ms. Bodden’s protagonist, is a light skinned slave who has dreamed of freedom her entire life. She is the product of a long term sexual relationship between her mother, Emmeline, a slave, and her owner, Cornelius Allen.

Cornelius, The Allen family patriarch, serves Ms. Bodden’s plot well as the antagonist of the story, he is manipulative, vindictive and at times physically violent. Interestingly enough, his manipulative machinations, vindictiveness and physical violence are usually focused on the females of Ms. Bodden’s novel, be they either black or white. When Emmeline stops going to him at night, Mr. Allen retaliates by selling Sarah’s sister Belle.

The Allen’s daughter, Clarissa is the engine that drives Ms. Bodden’s story forward. Sarah and Clarissa are both roughly the same age, and from childhood Sarah has been groomed to be Clarissa’s servant. As girls Sarah and Clarissa were playmates. Clarissa asked that Sarah be allowed to sit with her during lessons with her mother. Consequently Sarah learned to both read and write, at the time a crime for both the slave and the teacher. When Clarissa marries, Sarah is to go with her and act as her personal servant.

When Clarissa comes of age she is actively courted by two suitors; her unexpected pregnancy sets in motion a series of events which ultimately leads to Sarah’s freedom and the Allen family’s ultimate destruction.

A parallel theme in the novel is the subjugation of women in the American south. Sarah’s first person narrative alternates with that of Cornelius’ wife Theodora, juxtaposing the two women’s lives. On the surface Theodora Allen’s life seems genteel, she is a white woman of wealth in the south, but by highlighting the relationship between Cornelius, his wife and his daughter once Clarissa’s pregnancy is revealed, Ms. Bodden proposes that the role of a white woman in the south, is only slightly above that of the slave; that women and slaves are the property of their white male masters, and must obey them or suffer the consequences.

Ms. Bodden’s tome is well written and carefully researched. It is fully grounded on historical facts, though her narrative leans toward the melodramatic. Sarah and Theodora, her two narrators, seem to by fully fleshed out characters, but Cornelius is a caricature of the worst imaginable kind of slave owner.

Ms. Bodden’s title, “The Wedding Gift” is somewhat misleading. Sarah is groomed to be Clarissa’s servant from a very young age, and everyone acknowledges that when Clarissa marries Sarah will go with her. Sarah is never presented to Clarissa as a wedding gift.

Though the cover art was probably not within the realm of Ms. Bodden’s control, it is also a bit misleading as the big dipper is prominently displayed pointing the way north to freedom, but Sarah ultimately finds her freedom by going south. The big dipper, also known as the “drinking gourd,” looms large in slave literature and song is never once mentioned in Ms. Bodden’s text.

“The Wedding Gift” is a highly enjoyable novel. It should not be taken as an accurate representation of slavery in the American South. It is a novel, and as such it must follow the conventions of fictional storytelling. It is no more an accurate representation of antebellum life in the American south than are Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind.”

ISBN 978-1439269893, BookSurge Publishing, © 2009, Hardcover, 324 pages, $27.99

Review: Devil's Dream: A Novel

Devil's Dream: A Novel
By Madison Smartt Bell

Madison Smartt Bell has chosen none other than controversial Confederate cavalryman, Nathan Bedford Forrest as the subject for his fifteenth novel, “Devil’s Dream.” Forrest was a conflicted man of many contradictions; he was a married man, and slave trader who fathered a son with his black mistress. He was born into a poor farming family and became a man of wealth, and married a woman above his station. He was a Christian with a gambling addiction who profanely swore, but did not drink alcohol. He was a brilliant cavalry officer, brave and daring, though often reckless, who was at once loved and hated by his men.

Bell’s novel covers the twenty years spanning from 1845 to 1865. Jumping backwards and forwards through time, the author examines the complicated relationships of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s life; with his wife and family, his slaves, his black mistress, and his soldiers. Often Forrest’s family is at odds within itself: his wife, the former Miss Mary Ann Montgomery, is jealous of Catherine, Forrest’s black mistress. The author also highlights the sibling rivalry between Forrest’s two sons, Willie, who is white, and Matthew, who is black.

Added into the mix, Bell stirs in a trace of mysticism, as many of the battle scenes are told through the viewpoint of Henri, a free Haitian black, who joins Forrest’s cavalry and frequently talks with the ghosts of Forrest’s cavaliers who were killed in battle.

The books largest failing is what it doesn’t cover, and perhaps the most controversial aspect of Forrest’s life, his relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. For a novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest, this aspect of his life most certainly should have been included, and would have given the novelist so much more to work with.

Nathan Bedford Forrest, the subject of Bell’s novel, never quite emerges from the nebular cloud of his nonlinear prose. Forrest’s speech is filled with dialect, which at once is somewhat cryptic, yet manages to get the point across.

“Devil’s Dream” never quite gels as a complete novel, but rather seems to be a novel in pieces, much like a jigsaw puzzle. It challenges its reader to stay alert and demands the reader’s full attention to put its pieces together in order to see the much larger picture.

ISBN 978-0375424885, Pantheon, © 2009, Hardcover, 352 Pages, $26.95

Review: Northern Roses and Southern Belles

Northern Roses and Southern Belles
By Various Authors of the Wild Rose Press

The Wild Rose Press has released an anthology of six Civil War romance stories in a collection which they have titled “Northern Roses and Southern Belles.” Between its covers are tales of Union and Confederate soldiers and the women who loved them, ghosts, spies, Confederate raiders, and blockade runners.

This is not a book of “bodice rippers,” the tales are certainly appropriate reading matter for teenage girls, or any one else who may enjoy the historical romance genre. There are however, plenty of heaving bosoms, and men and women discovering their passions for each other. You will not find explicit or gratuitous sex scenes. Though it is not great literature, the characterizations are barely two dimensional, and plots of forbidden love and the like seem to be pulled from the standard constructions of romantic fiction, with more than a casual nod towards Shakespeare. The book does not pretend to be anything other than what it is . . . a good romp through history, or more rather, six of them

Is this a book that students of the Civil War would be interested in? It is likely not, but the holiday season is quickly approaching, and it may make a good gift for a wife, or girl-friend who may have a passing interest in the Civil War, or maybe better for a woman you wish that did.

ISBN 978-1601546708, The Wild Rose Press, © 2009, Paperback, 354 pages, $14.99

Review: The Mule Shoe

The Mule Shoe
By Perry Trouche

Many students of the American Civil War often wonder what it must have been like. What did a battle look and sound like? What sights, sounds and smells did the average Civil War soldier experience during a battle? What is it like to face hostile enemy fire, to face life on a second by second basis, where to move of a fraction of an inch could mean the difference between life and death? What goes through a soldier’s mind during a battle? What does it feel like? What does it do to you, to your mind?

Walt Whitman wrote, “Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background of countless minor scenes and interiors, (not the official surface courteousness of the Generals, not the few great battles) of the Secession war; and it is best they should not—the real war will never get in the books.” To a large degree, Mr. Whitman was right. For nearly a century and a half students of the war have combed through archives and libraries, read soldiers diaries and letters, official reports and newspaper accounts; scholars have written thousands upon thousands of books about Civil War. From these sources we try to extrapolate what it was like for the fighting men of both sides. And yet what we think we know cannot possibly compare to the experiences of those who participated in it.

How did the war, where killing could be random and from a distance or at point-blank range during hand-to-hand combat, affect the mental capacities of the soldiers who fought it? It is a question that can never be fully answered. The American Civil War occurred in an era before modern psychiatry, and “post traumatic stress” would not be a clinically diagnosed disorder for the next one hundred years.

A Charleston, South Carolina psychiatrist, Perry Trouche, has attempted to answer the question of how the war affected the mental health of the fighting men, not through a scholarly dissertation or a medical journal article, but instead though a work of fiction. A historical novel can take its reader places where works of nonfiction cannot: the inner world and thoughts of its characters.

Mr. Trouche’s protagonist, Conner DuMont, is a Confederate soldier, the “new boy” in the 12th South Carolina Infantry, a regiment of veterans in Samuel McGowan’s Brigade. It is May, 1864 in Spotsylvania, Virginia and the regiment has just taken its position in the salient which gives Mr. Trouche’s novel its name, “The Mule Shoe.” Surrounded on three sides by the Federal Army, the Mule Shoe salient was the scene of severe fighting and thus Mr. Trouche has succeeded in placing Conner, whose mental status, from the very beginning of the novel, is questionable at best, in the vortex of hell.

Written in a first person stream of consciousness style “The Mule Shoe” is a fascinating view of a Confederate soldier whose mental stability is on an ever increasing downward spiral, while experiencing all the horrors that 19th century warfare has to offer.

Throughout the novel Conner hears voices and sees hallucinations. He both converses and interacts with them, and they offer a running commentary, evaluating Conner and his actions, and occasionally giving conflicting pieces of advice. At first the voices and visions are of relatives and friends of his past, but as the battle rages on, and death occurs all around him, others join in. Reality and delusion blur and blend together. Eventually Conner’s inner psyche comes to his rescue, pulling him back, literally and figuratively, from the horrible carnage of the Mule Shoe salient to a place of calmness and serenity, a place of safety, where the horrors of war have been removed, where he can begin to heal.

Mr. Trouche has masterfully written a novel blending history and psychiatry. His characters are artfully crafted, and though much of the dialog is written in dialect, it always rings true. He may not have written the real war as soldiers on both sides may have experienced it, but he has done something very much like it.

ISBN 978-1932842333, Star Cloud Press, © 2009, Hardcover, 230 pages, $29.95

Review: A Beckoning Hellfire: A Novel of the Civil War

A Beckoning Hellfire: A Novel of the Civil War
By J. D. R. Hawkins

On Christmas Eve, 1862 David Summers and his family learn of the terrible news of his father’s death, presumably at the hands of Yankee soldiers, at the battle of Fredericksburg a week earlier. The following spring, on a mission of revenge having waited until his eighteenth birthday, David enlists in the Confederate Cavalry with his best friend Jake Kimball. Together they set off on a trek that will lead them from their northern Alabama homes to Virginia where they join J.E.B. Stuart’s Cavalry.

Once in the cavalry, and having seen the elephant at Chancellorsville, and Brandy Station, the chivalric nobility of it war has lost its luster and David’s lust for revenge begins to wane. He has suffered a personal loss, and discovers that war is a brutal and bloody business, full of pain and suffering, as he sees those around him cut down, one after another, in the heat of battle.

“A Beckoning Hellfire,” is the first published novel of author J. D. R. Hawkins. Though there is much to like about her novel, but it has its problems as well. Sadly, Ms. Hawkins novel lacks originality, in both its structure and its content. She tells her story in a linear narration, and her plot is very predictable. Before their departure, Jake’s fiancé, Callie Mae Copeland, pulls David aside to tell him if Jake dies that she will marry him. David and Jake both take their own horses to the Confederate Cavalry, David’s, and Indian pony mix named Renegade, and Jake’s a nag named Ole Stella. Putting these two pieces of information together early on in her novel, Ms. Hawkins reveals too much of her plot to her readers too soon. There is little surprise for Ms. Hawkins’ readers when Jake’s horse dies of exhaustion, forcing him to join the Confederate Infantry and Jake’s own death in turn at Chancellorsville. Ms. Hawkins also relies a bit too heavily on the tried and true of Civil War fiction, case in point, when Jake and David enlist in the Cavalry, Jake’s father instructs him to put a piece of paper with the number eighteen written on it in his shoe so that when the recruiting officer asks him if he is over 18 he can honestly state yes. Scenes like this appear in many Civil War novels and movies (nearly this exact scene takes place in the 80’s television miniseries “The Blue and the Gray”).

Having said that, Ms. Hawkins does a very good job of developing David’s character arc; transforming his revenge driven exuberance to kill a few Yankees into the suffering and pain of seeing death and destruction all around him. Ms. Hawkins also does an exemplary job with her battle scenes, though brief, they are very well done, and she pulls no punches when it comes to showing her readers the blood and gore of a Civil War battlefield.

On the final page, after David, having received what seems to be a mortal wound at Gettysburg, alone and bleeding in a barn, came my biggest disappointment when I read the words: “To be continued…” For “A Beckoning Hellfire” is not a complete novel, but rather a half, or a third of one, as Ms. Hawkins has published on her blog, she has already written two sequels. As I anxiously await the continuation of David Summer’s story, I can’t help but wish it could have been told between the covers of a single volume.

ISBN 978-0-595-43531-9, iUniverse, © 2007, Paperback, 196 pages, $14.95

Review: Bedlam South - A Novel

Bedlam South: A Novel
by Mark Grisham & David Donaldson

The struggle to stay sane during the insanity of war is often a staple metaphor of the “war novel” genre. In their novel, “Bedlam South,” Mark Gresham and David Donaldson have transformed that metaphor into the reality of an insane asylum in the heart of the Confederacy.

With in the pages of their novel, Gresham and Donaldson weave the threads of several plotlines into a cohesive tapestry portrait of the disintegration of the Confederacy. Central to the story are two characters, young Dr. Joseph Bryarly, who has returned from England to oversee Wingate Asylum outside of Richmond, and the sadistic Captain Samuel Percy, who runs it. The tension between these two characters forms the warp and weave of the story.

Another thread in the novel involves seventeen year old Zeke Gibson who enlists in the Confederate army who joins his older brother, Billy, a corporal, outside Fredericksburg, Virginia. They are separated during the cataclysmic battle at Gettysburg and both fear mortal harm as come to the other.

The Dougall family became acquainted with Dr. Bryarly on their journey to America and their story forms yet another thread in the story, as does Mary Beth Greene, a mulato prostitute, and Stephen Billings, a 22 year old attorney from the North.

The authors, Mark Gresham and David Donaldson, have been friends since childhood. Mr. Gresham, the brother of legal novelist, John Gresham, has a deep interest in Civil War history and Mr. Donaldson has an interest in mental health. The novel they have written takes full use and advantage of both their interest to tell a story never before told. Mr. Gresham writing the military characters and Mr. Donaldson the characters of the asylum.

From a writing perspective “Bedlam South” gets off to a rocky start with the over use of clichés, proverbs and dialogue that boarders on the cornpone: “Don’t put the cart before the horse,” “it ain’t the size of the man in the fight,” “a one legged man in a butt kicking contest,” are just a few of the tried and true phrases that appear between the covers of this book.

At a few points the dialogue does not have the ring of truth to it: A lawyer exclaiming “Oh my heavens!” In a few instances the authors seem to hold themselves back trying not to offend the sensitivities of their readers: “son of a buck” is used a couple of times, and when Zeke’s friend Nate is killed all he can say is “lousy stinking blue bellies!” In one instance only is the word “damn” used. Their linguistic obfuscation borders on the politically correct as there are several references to slaves and blacks but not one use of the word “nigger,” an omission which is totally unrealistic considering their novel is set in the Civil War South.

That being said, about half way through the book, the novel gains its momentum that carries it through to its conclusion. As the novel progresses the characters begin to interact with each other, the separate threads are woven together to form the whole cloth. As each character gets closer in physical proximity to one another, the weaving of their storylines grows tighter. At one point near the end of the novel, I’m not ashamed to admit, I was actually moved to tears.

For their first collaborative effort Mr. Gresham and Mr. Donaldson have written a pretty damn good novel, and others are promised to follow. “Bedlam South” isn’t a work of great literature, nor I think was it meant to be. I enjoyed reading it and at the end of the day, at least as far as reading a novel is concerned, that’s all that really matters.

ISBN 9780681497566, Borders Press, © 2007, Hardcover, 308 pages, $24.95

Book Review: "The Disagreement"

The Disagreement: A Novel
By Nick Taylor

It was a time of metamorphosis, when civilians became soldiers, boys changed into men, and the enslaved set free. A nation torn asunder, North from South, peacetime transformed into a time of war, the innocence of youth, in its fiery crucible, burned away, and what remained was the hardened knowledge of adulthood.

It is this cataclysmic time of change which Nick Taylor has used as the setting for his debut novel, “The Disagreement.” Written as a memoir, Taylor’s book is less a novel of the Civil War, and more a coming-of-age story of its narrator, John Alan Muro, who has announced to his family his intention to become a doctor, a profession on which his father, now the owner of a local woolery, turned his back years before.

John Alan’s hopes to attend medical school in Philadelphia were dashed on his sixteenth birthday when his home state, Virginia, voted to secede from the United States. Not wanting to send their only son off to war, Mr. & Mrs. Muro decide to honor their son’s wishes and send him to medical school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

At the University of Virginia John Alan meets the people who will populate the rest of his life, his roommate, Braxton Beaucom III (B.B.); mentor, Dr. Cabell (rhymes with rabble) and his niece, Lorrie Wigfall; and patient, Lt. Stone (formerly Dr. Stone). It is where John Alan grows from a boy to a man, from a student to a doctor, where he learns about love and heartache, and the hardships of war, and making due without.

Mr. Taylor’s narrative takes us behind the scenes of a Confederate General Hospital and shows us its inner workings; where supplies of drugs are low or nonexistent and medical science must turn to home remedies for its medical cures. As the war goes badly for the Confederate cause, Mr. Taylor shows us the wreckage of war, through the hospital’s over-crowded wards where the wounded, out of necessity, get the only the slightest of the doctors attentions and death is everywhere.

“The Disagreement” is a wonderful debut novel, and a joy to read. Mr. Taylor has skillfully written a novel whose characters and the world in which they inhabit emerge from the chrysalis of the Civil War and have been truly transformed by the experience of it.

ISBN 978-1416550655, Simon & Schuster, © 2008, 360 Pages - Hardcover (7×10) - $24.95

A House Divided: A Review of "Two Brothers"

Two Brothers: One North, One South
By David H. Jones

With the coming of the American Civil War many families found themselves torn apart by conflicting ideologies and loyalties. Fathers and sons, uncles and nephews, brothers and cousins sometimes faced each other on opposite sides across a field of battle. Often times, and certainly with more frequency the families most severely divided came from the border states of Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland. The Crittenden and the Todd families are but two examples on a lengthy list one might compile of families that were split apart by the war. The Prentiss family of Baltimore, Maryland is a family that could also be enumerated on just such a list.

In his novel, “Two Brothers: One North, One South,” David H. Jones tells the story of the Prentiss family. Clifton, the older brother, fought for the Union cause and rose to the rank of major in the 6th Maryland Infantry, while his younger brother, William served in the Confederate Army with 2nd Maryland Battalion. Both were mortally wounded minutes and yards apart at Petersburg, Virginia in the closing days of the Civil War.

After the battle the brothers were taken to Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C. where they are cared for in separate wards. One of the volunteers in the hospital was Walt Whitman who frequently visited William, and upon William’s passing located Clifton to inform him of his brother’s death. Two other Prentiss brothers, John & Melville, arrive soon after, and Whitman tells the three siblings what he has learned about William’s service with the Confederate Army.

Unfortunately Mr. Jones’ novel has a few serious flaws. The title of the book, “Two Brothers,” is somewhat misleading, as Clifton’s storyline is often overshadowed by that of his younger brother. The story is told from the opposing viewpoints of Clifton and William; however William’s story is filtered through Walt Whitman, which brings me to the narration.

There is not a central narrator in Jones' novel. Clifton Prentiss tells his part of the story and Whitman is left to relate William’s. There are several times throughout the book, especially at the beginning of chapters where it is not all together clear as to who exactly is narrating, Clifton, Whitman, or a literary 3rd person narrator. Whitman’s narration is particularly flawed as he relates details that he did not have first person knowledge of and most certainly could not remember with such clarity. This is problem when the novel wanders off with the secondary characters of sisters Hetty and Jenny Cary and their cousin Constance Cary, in which Whitman is giving third hand information to the surviving Prentiss brothers. Whitman was not present for any of the events related, and for some of them neither was William. How did Whitman come to know of such things? Many of the episodes involving the Cary’s are tangential in reference to William’s story and should have been judiciously pruned from the novel.

There is far too much exposition in the book. There is a writer’s axiom that states: “Show, don’t tell.” Jones spends too much time telling the story, and instead of showing it through the eyes and actions of his characters. I got the impression that Mr. Jones, knows a lot about the Civil War, and just couldn’t help inserting his knowledge into the story… for one example, the book is set in June of 1865, at one point the author makes a reference to Lew Wallace and notes that he would later gain fame as the author of “Ben Hur” which would not be published for another fifteen years.

The dialogue does not ring true, especially when it is weighted down, as it often is, with exposition relating details to the reader that would have been common knowledge to anyone during the war.

The characters are two dimensional, there is no character development. The war years were years of turmoil and angst for any and all who lived through them. There is plenty of room for Mr. Jones to have taken literary license and given motive to his characters actions, or gone into their heads, to see the story through their eyes, to show us what their motivations and how they felt about things. It was an opportunity missed, and therefore the reader is left not caring about the characters. As for John and Melville Prentiss, they serve absolutely no function in the book at all. The character of Walt Whitman is used solely as a literary device to tell the story, and is also never fully fleshed out as a character.

There is much to like about Jones’ novel, negating its structural and narrative problems, it is a great story, and I enjoyed reading about the Prentiss brothers and the Cary Sisters. But unfortunately even the most beautiful house cannot remain standing when it is placed upon a weak foundation.

My Favorite Civil War Novels

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love to sit down with a good novel from time to time and loose myself in the pages between its covers. My reading is nearly split 50-50 between nonfiction and fiction. When I read novels I mainly read historical fiction, a couple of times a year I’ll veer off to read the latest Janet Evonovich book, and every so often I’ll pick up a novel from the best seller list to read, but by and large historical fiction is what I love to read when I'm NOT reading nonfiction. I especially love to read Civil War novels. Here is a list of just some of my favorites:

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara – Hands down the best Civil War novel of all time. Mr. Shaara, in his Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, covers the turbulent three days of the Battle of Gettysburg through the eyes, minds and hearts of the men who fought it. I read it about every 12 to 18 months or so.

John Jakes’ North And South Trilogy – My first foray into historical fiction. I think I must have first read North And South (the first book in the series) sometime around 1983 or 1984. Mr. Jakes is the grandfather of the family saga and follows the Hazard and Main families from the antebellum years (North And South), through the Civil War (Love And War) and to the end of Reconstruction (Heaven And Hell). It is truly a panoramic vision of those years as Mr. Jakes is a master at interweaving the plot lines of multiple characters.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier – Though not really a book about the war as much as it is set during the war, it follows Inman, a wounded Confederate deserter, as he walks his way across the North Carolina wilderness to his home on Cold Mountain, and Ada, the woman he loves. I fell in love with the language of this book.

And lastly…

Gods and Generals & The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara – the prequel and sequel to his father, Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels. Both books pale in comparison to the volume that spawned them, but taken on their own merits they are good reads. If anything I think their drawback is they try to cover too much historical terrain. The Killer Angels focused on the three day Battle of Gettysburg, while Gods And Generals covers the two years before Gettysburg and The Last Full Measure covers the war's final two years.

An Interview With John Jakes

John Jakes has been called the godfather of historical fiction. Among the many works he has authored are the eight volume “The Kent Family Chronicles,” the “North and South” trilogy, “Homeland,” a novel of the Crown family of Chicago who’s stories interweave with the history of the twentieth century and its sequel, “American Dreams.” Mr. Jakes is also the author of “On Secret Service,” “Charleston,” “Savannah or A Gift for Mr. Lincoln” and most recently “The Gods of Newport.” A few years ago I was privilaged enough to interview him for “Fiction Fix” the monthly newsletter of Coffeehouse For Writers. Here is the interview:

*~*~*~*~*

Q: Why and how did you get started writing?

JJ: I began writing short stories in earnest during high school, submitting them to science fiction magazines I was reading at the time. I was fortunate enough to sell my first story at age 18.

Q: What is your educational background – where did you go to college and what was your major?

JJ: Education: A.B. in creative writing from DePauw University (Greencastle IN), then M.A. in American Literature from Ohio State (Columbus). I intended to continue for a Ph.D. in English but ran out of money, and went to work in advertising for 17 years, doing my own writing at night and on weekends.

Q: You started out writing science fiction and then switched to historical fiction. Why?

JJ: During my 50-year career I’ve written in many genres, because I like so many different kinds of literature. I was reading history for enjoyment as early as high school, but didn’t begin writing historical novels until the 1960’s. My later specialization (1970’s and after) grew out of my longtime interest in American and world history.

Q: You have written several works as series, most notably “The Kent Family Chronicles” and the “North and South” trilogy. You have been called “the Godfather of the family saga.” What is it about writing in this fashion that most appeals to you?

JJ: I have never been successful with a genre series as such; I was able to sustain only four novels about my 5’1” private eye, Johnny Havoc. Books in a genre series simply repeat themselves; I always get bored. But a series of novels carrying a family or group of characters through several generations is different because each historical period is different, hence I’m not simply rewriting the last novel. I realized this only after writing several volumes of THE KENT FAMILY CHRONICLES, but I’m sure it’s the reason the concept works for me.

Q: How many books have you now written? What is your next book and when can we expect to see it in the bookstores?

JJ: I can’t tell you how many books I’ve written: I’ve lost count. I was a client of the Scott Meredith agency for 22 years. During that time, I ghost-wrote a considerable amount of work besides my own. For instance, I did a young adult biography under another author’s by-line when the author couldn’t fit it into his schedule. I wrote half a dozen paperback novels under the byline of a deceased mystery writer whose widow wanted to carry on with earnings from her husband’s series character. I would guess my total output would be somewhere between 60 and 70 books.

Q: Writing historical novels entails a lot of research. How do you do your research? Do you have an assistant to help you?

JJ: Research is one of the best parts of doing what I do: I learn something new with every novel. I always begin by reading general studies about the period involved. When I find events or specific subjects that interest me, and a plot begins to shape itself in my mind, I research those specific events or subjects --cultivation of rice in the Carolinas is a good example from NORTH AND SOUTH--and then weave many independent pieces of research into the final story. I don’t have assistants, though I have people in New York and Los Angeles that I can and do call on to work the libraries there to turn up specific hard-to-find diaries, letters, out-of-print books and the like.

Q: Can you describe any writing pitfalls that other writers should avoid?

JJ: The greatest pitfall, I think, is procrastination. A writer should write even when the “feeling” isn’t there; otherwise you’ll never finish a long project. I scrupulously avoid talking about a project until it’s finished; I believe that chattering far and wide about what you are going to do steals a lot of energy and creativity from the final work. I know this is something of a superstition among writers, but it’s one I’ve honored for more than four decades.

Q: How do you decide which point of view to use? Do you have a preference?

JJ: I have no formula for deciding on point of view, though generally I find that third person works better than first for the kind of novels I’ve written in the last 20 years. This is chiefly because I often cut away from a leading viewpoint character to do a short chapter from the VP of another character. This is simply a variation of the novelistic technique that goes back to Dickens and others; D. W. Griffith studied Dickens and developed much of his film editing technique from it.

Q: Do you have a problem crossing the gender line? Is it easier for you to write male or female characters?

JJ: I have no problem crossing gender lines to write female characters. In fact I love writing about strong women, and have done so several times, most successfully in my opinion in THE FURIES (Kent Family Chronicles Volume IV) and volumes one and two of the Crown Family Saga, HOMELAND and AMERICAN DREAMS. Readers have never objected or complained.

Q: Describe your revision process. How many times do you rewrite a story? When working from draft to draft do you have a plan or a focus as to what aspect of your story you want to work on?

JJ: My working method is fairly simple. I know before I start each day just how much I want to finish that day--let’s say a chapter. I draft it quickly, then revise several times until I’m satisfied with it. Using a computer has been enormously helpful because of ease of revision. Let’s say I work from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. In the old typewriter days, I might revise a chapter once in that time, manually re-typing it and filling it with all sorts of squiggles, arrows, letter-coded inserts, etc. Today, in the same amount of time, I may revise the same amount of copy five, six, seven times because the computer makes it so much simpler.

Q: In your books you have so many characters and subplots, how do you keep them all straight?

JJ: I always write a detailed outline for a long novel. Often I’ll veer away from it as the writing leads me in new directions, but at least the plan is there. The outline keeps my characters and subplots clear and in front of me at all times.

Q: Have you ever attended a writer’s conference and if so did you find it useful?

JJ: No, I don’t attend conferences, though I have taught at one, the Antioch Writers Workshop (1994). I know many people find such get-togethers helpful, but they just don’t fit my style of working.

Q: What is your personal writing goal? What motivates you to write?

JJ: Personal writing goal? Always to make the newest book better than the last. I write to communicate one on one with an individual reader. I write to create the kinds of books I would enjoy reading. I write to share information about history in an entertaining way. The immense amount of fan mail I receive tells me I succeed pretty well with all these goals.

Q: What authors do you admire most and why?

JJ: The list of authors I admire is long. At the head of it stands Charles Dickens, whom I consider the greatest novelist in the English language. He was both a master storyteller, peerless in creation of memorable characters and suspenseful narratives, and a master stylist. The combination of those two elements in a single writer identifies a genius, and they are rare. Among American writers I prize Poe, Faulkner, and especially F. Scott Fitzgerald. Readers who are interested can check out the bio page of my Web site for some additional favorites.

Q: Do you have any advice for the aspiring write that is working on his/her first novel?

JJ: My only advice for a first novelist is to finish the thing and get on to the next one, whether the first one sells or not. In writing, the race is often not to the most brilliant, but to the most persistent.

If you would like to learn more about John Jakes you may do so by visiting his website http://www.johnjakes.com/.

A Portrait of Love and War

Shades of Gray:

A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia
By Jessica James

“You think I think that an artist’s job is to tell the truth,” says U.S. Poet Laureate, Tabitha Fortis, in an episode of The West Wing. “An artist’s job,” she continues, “is to captivate you for however long we’ve asked for your attention. If we stumble into the truth we got lucky.”

One may think that’s a pretty bold quote to start of a book review, and it may be, but this reviewer was certainly captivated by Jessica James’ Shades of Gray: A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia.

With her use of two diametrically opposed perspective points, Ms. James has successfully drawn the historical fiction and romance genres together and created a multi-dimensional picture. She begins with broad strokes of her pencil and sketches the outlines of two characters. The first, Andrea Evans, clothed as a boy known as Andrew Sinclair, is a scout and spy for the Union Army. The second, Captain Alex Hunter, the dashing and noble Confederate Cavalry officer who would like nothing more than to capture and kill his nemesis, Sinclair.

A novelist must ask his or her readers to suspend their disbelief and accept the world as the author has presented it to them. In the first few chapters of “Shades of Gray” I found it hard to suspend my disbelief; the plot twists and machinations which draw Ms. James’ two characters together seem a bit contrived and forced. But, once Andrea finds herself confined to Captain Hunter’s home the artist’s rapid strokes of her pencil revealed to me all that came before was mere background to a much more intimate picture she was trying to draw.

Next Ms. James slowly begins the delicate job of drawing sharper lines and defining her characters through their conflict. Both believe strongly in the cause for which each is fighting, both have very strong opinions about the opposing sides and often the two characters seem to be at war with one another.

With an artist’s touch she begins to smudge and gently soften the harsher outlines of her subjects. As affection grows between the Union spy and her dashing Confederate cavalryman, Jessica James’ transforms her characters with small strokes of her pencil, intricately drawing in detail, shading darker here and or lighter there.

The reality of the outside world cannot be held back in a country torn apart by civil war, and the divided loyalties of Ms. James’ carefully crafted subjects threatens to tear them apart. With an artist’s gift she draws her audience into making assumptions about her subjects, and demands them to look closer at the picture. With a guiding hand, Ms. James allows her readers to discover that the picture they thought they were seeing isn’t really the picture she has drawn at all.

In Shades of Gray, Jessica James’ skills as an artist are unquestioned. She as drawn a picture filled with conflict and love, loyalty and betrayal, history and romance, and a passion of lives lived in the moment. And along the way I think she may have also stumbled into truth.

A Short Story Wrapped in Novel Wrapping Paper

Savannah, or a Gift for Mr. Lincoln
By John Jakes

When writing reviews I usually try to put them at a length of about 500 words, give or take a few. However, upon contemplating this review of John Jakes' latest work of historical fiction, "Savannah, or a Gift for Mr. Lincoln," I think I would find it difficult to find 250 words to say about it much less 500. I anxiously await the release of any new John Jakes novel. I was slightly disappointed by "Charleston" as not meeting previous John Jakes standards, such as "The Kent Family Chronicles" or his masterwork, the "North and South" trilogy. So imagine my surprise when my slight disappointment with "Charleston" turned into extreme disappointment with "Savannah."

I can really say nothing about the plot of "Savannah" as after having read it, I remember precious little of anything that happened between its covers. I dare any John Jakes reader to say that about any of his other books. But what I do remember of the story centers around 12 year-old Hattie Lester's attempts to save her family's plantation, "Silvergrass," from the soldiers of Union General William T. Sherman, who have arrived just outside of Savannah from their march through Georgia in December of 1864.

Only half of my disappointment in "Savannah" lies at the foot of John Jakes himself. It is too simplistically written. His characters are underdeveloped and there is next to no plot. At best "Savannah" should be called a short story. It does not by any means or stretch of the imagination live up to the John Jakes works of the past, in which the writing is good, the characters fully developed, and the plotlines, though somewhat resemble modern day soap operas, are often interconnected. Indeed, "Savannah" seems to have been written for the young reader of between 10 or 12 years old, and if that is the case then Mr. Jakes can and should be forgiven.

I reserve the other half of my disappointment in "Savannah" to the publisher, Dutton. As sited above, "Savannah" is in reality a short story, and the editors of Dutton have done their best to lengthen it into a full-fledged novel, or at least something that resembles a novel.

First I'll tackle the size of this book. All of my other hard cover John Jakes books measure 9.5" x 6.5" while "Savannah comes in at a wimpy 8.5" x 6" and when placed on a shelf next to her sister John Jakes novels, she appears to be slightly out of place.

Secondly, Dutton has succeeded in lengthening "Savannah" to a novel of 288 pages, not only by the reduced size of this book as already stated, but by using a substantial font size and line spacing to give the book lots of "white space," and they also threw in a couple of illustrations for good measure as well.

Thirdly, if my theory of John Jakes writing this novel for a much younger audience is correct, I then fault the marketing department at Dutton for not marketing it as such. Even if this was marketed as a children's book many John Jakes fans, such as myself, would have purchased the book because it was a John Jakes book with the full knowledge that it was written for children and would not have been disappointed at all by it.

And lastly, Dutton further aggravated my disappointment in this book by its inflated cover price of $23.95. I refused to buy it at that price, even though it was a John Jakes book, and waited until it was 50% off to buy it at my local book store, and even then I felt like I had been robbed.

But the question is can I recommend this book. Well that's a tricky question to answer and my recommendation would depend on who was asking me. If you are a die-hard John Jakes fan who froths at the mouth at the mere mention of a new John Jakes book hitting the shelf, then yes, I would recommend it, with the reservation that the book is geared to a younger audience, and as such the characters and plots are much simpler than regular John Jakes fare. If you are 10 to 12 years old with an interest in the Civil War, I would recommend this book for you, as it seems to have been written with younger readers in mind. But if your are an avid reader of historical fiction where fully developed characters struggle to over come adversities of their time, and revel in the detail of such, no I would not recommend this book. And to the casual reader, I offer, "read it. You might like it, but don't blame me if you don't."

Okay so I did have more than 250 words to say about "Savannah." This review came in at 805 words.

Note: This is a review of the hardcover edition of this book.

Enemy Women

Enemy Women
By Paulette Giles

In the cannon of Civil War fiction Missouri's place in history has often been passed over for the more famous and larger conflicts in the east and south. Though Paulette Jiles' debut novel, "Enemy Women," attempts to bridge that chasm, sadly it serves as little more than filler rubble at the bottom of the canyon.

The novel's unfocussed beginning, impedes the identification of Adair Colley as the story's protagonist, instead we are left to wander among the members of the Colley family. Slowly as the family is separated by the misfortunes of war, the story settles on Adair, a young woman who, in an era where nearly every one has chosen sides, Union or Confederate, seemingly has no particular loyalty to either side. Her brother, John Lee, has fled into the hills to evade capture by the Federal soldiers who also have beaten and arrested her father, looted their farm, and stole their horses. Adair and her two sisters head north on foot in an effort to win their father's freedom and she soon finds herself in a St. Louis prison accused of aiding the Rebel bushwhackers.

During her confinement Adair is interrogated by Major William Neumann, a man who longs to be out fighting in the field instead of commanding a prison filled with women and children. Of course Major Neumann is destined to fall in love with Adair and when his transfer to a field command in Alabama is granted he helps her escape from prison and vows to find her after the war is over. And once again Adair finds herself afoot, this time heading south back to the family farm, where she hopes when the war is over her family will one day be reunited.

Jiles uses historical excerpts from letters, diaries, official accounts, and whole paragraphs from nonfiction works to preface each chapter, but they interrupt her narrative and stop the story cold in its tracks. She obviously used these materials, all previously published (there is absolutely no new material here), as research for her novel and if it appeared anywhere in the book it should have been referenced in author's notes at the end.

Jiles' knowledge of southeastern Missouri's geography and her descriptions of it are nothing less than extraordinary, so much so that the landscape itself is almost transformed into a character. Sadly the same cannot be said for the rest of Jiles' characterizations, which are two dimensional and as thin as the paper they are written on. We learn little about the lives of Major Neumann, Adair or her family prior to 1864, and know next to nothing about their thoughts and desires past their immediate needs, which drive the thin veil of her contrived plot.

"Enemy Women" is clearly a case where the characters serve as pawns on the chessboard of plot. Had Jiles let the characters think, act and speak for themselves this could have been a great book in the pantheon of Civil War fiction rather than the disappointing, mediocre work of historical fiction that it turned out to be.