BOOK REVIEW: Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin

Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin is a poignant story of a mother’s determined love set against the backdrop of the Civil War.

Susannah and Jacob Shelburne are South Carolina farmers with Union and abolitionist sympathies. However, their son, Francis, is a heart-and-soul Confederate, who joined the army as soon as he turned 18. There is a good deal of quiet family dysfunction in the Shelburne home, but when a telegram arrives reporting that Francis has been severely wounded in Tennessee, Susannah sets off to find him and tend to him.

The novel follows Susannah on her journey and also takes the reader back in time to see her past and the forces that shaped her. Her inner strength allows her to overcome the difficulties of travel and the hardships of caring for her wounded son in war-torn Tennessee. When the Confederates lose the Battle of Lookout Mountain and retreat, Francis becomes a prisoner of war. Susannah must use every resource she can to win him a parole he does not want.

This is a beautifully written, moving novel that does not shy away from the devastation of war.

BOOK REVIEW: The General and Julia by Jon Clinch

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Ulysses S. Grant is at the end of his life, dying of throat cancer. His last task on earth is to finish his memoirs in order that the proceeds will provide for his beloved wife as well as his children and grandchildren. Otherwise, the family will be left destitute–a situation he sees as largely his own fault. How did such a thing come to pass for the hero of the American Civil War and one-time president?

The General and Julia by Jon Clinch explores Grant’s life through his own memories as he writes his memoirs, sometimes with surprising clarity and ofttimes in a drug/pain/sleep-induced haze. It is a beautiful, contemplative novel that focuses on the man himself rather than his achievements. Given the circumstances in which he finds himself and his own…humility, Grant seems more consumed by regrets and guilt than by pride or self-satisfaction.

I knew next to nothing about Grant. I thought of him as a brutally efficient Civil War general who became an unmemorable president. Maybe some financial scandal attached? And weren’t there rumors he was an alcoholic?

This fictionalized version sweeps that image away, replacing it with one that is much more rounded. Grant was a devoted husband and father. The fact that his beloved wife, Julia, who came from a Missouri slave-holding family, kept “her girl” Jule into the early days of the war until the woman escaped is one of the incongruities in his life. Grant makes excuses for slaveholding even as he is leading the Union forces. Those excuses, and the failure of the war to make the difference he’d hoped for, haunt him throughout his life. The war years are lightly remembered even though, as a general, he was most in his element. Likewise, he does not delve into the politics of his presidential years. He does ruminate over the scandal that left him financially ruined. Interestingly, here he portrays himself as a victim of his own naivete and gullibility: he is such a good man that he is unable to see evil in others. 

Like any biographical novel, there are certainly elements of imaginative license mixed in with the historical facts. Clinch does a superb job of immersing the reader into Grant’s mind-set, so that it all seems believable – or at least, we can believe that it is what Grant believed. And Grant is now, in my mind, an admirable and sympathetic human being.

Highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

If you loved News of the World by Paulette Jiles, you’ll love her new book, Chenneville. Set in the Southwest in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, the novel follows the determined path of John Chenneville, a Union veteran bent on revenge.

Amnesia stories are tricky things, best avoided, unless undertaken with a hand as deft as Jiles’. The story opens with Chenneville awakening from a coma to find himself in a field hospital following a head injury. The war has ended, but his nightmare is just beginning.

Regaining his strength and his memory little by little, Chenneville is finally discharged to home. But home is not the same. His father has passed; his mother is traumatized and mute; the family tobacco fields and orchards are in ruins. Worst of all, he receives the news that his beloved little sister was murdered, along with her husband and one-year-old baby. The authorities refuse to do anything about it. Chenneville must take justice into his own hands. He has nothing to go on but a name, Dodd.

Chenneville has little to tie himself to his past life and no hope for the future. So the thought of murdering a man and suffering the consequences means little to him. But as he progresses in his odyssey, he recovers more and more of himself. He’s a good man in an impossible situation. He leaves a string of good deeds in his wake and allows himself to dream of better things. But only to dream. He can’t give up his hunt for Dodd. (To make things worse, he discovers Dodd is a serial killer.)

The rich detail of Chenneville’s trek will carry the reader alongside him. You’ll find yourself hoping for justice and redemption. And Jiles knows how to deliver both.

BOOK REVIEW: And the Crows Took Their Eyes by Vicki Lane

And the Crows Took Their Eyes by Vicki Lane is a powerful historical novel set on the North/South border during the American Civil War. The novel brings to life the tragedy of the conflict, showing how it affected two communities in the Eastern Tennessee/Western North Carolina hills where Confederates and Unionists lived side-by-side. It presents a microcosm of the war as a whole. Even those who thought they hadn’t a dog in the fight found themselves caught up in the violence, deprivation, and depredations.

The novel is told from five viewpoints. Five first person voices. This structure is a superb way to show each side of the conflict. Aside the selfish, self-aggrandizing James Keith, a Confederate officer, the characters are all sympathetic to varying degrees. Readers will gain empathy for people’s suffering even if we don’t like their stances on the issues. 

The intertwining storylines show that there are, indeed, two sides to every story. In And the Crows Took Their Eyes that story is of an execution of thirteen men and boys in Eastern Tennessee, Union sympathizers, by a Confederate troop – what led up to it and what happened in the aftermath. It is a riveting account of an actual historical event.

BOOK REVIEW: Voices in the Dead House by Norman Lock

Voices in the Dead House by Norman Lock is the ninth book in the author’s American Novel series. It presents multi-layered portraits of two literary giants, Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott, by examining a few months of their lives where their experiences overlapped. Both went to Washington in 1862 to serve in hospitals for the wounded following the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Whitman is given the first and larger portion of the novel. Puffed up with self-importance after the publication of Leaves of Grass, his vanity is touchy, his thoughts self-absorbed, and yet, his compassion for the wounded soldiers is boundless. He volunteers in the hospitals and performs menial labor as well as purchasing small gifts for the men and spending time trying to comfort them. In between his shifts, he wanders about Washington, musing on all aspects of life, oftentimes in company with his lover, Peter Doyle, a horsecar conductor. 

Alcott’s voice is quite different. She has escaped the poverty and drudgery of her (despised) father’s home and immerses herself in the drudgery of the hospital. She is an efficient and caring nurse, but her mind wanders constantly to her past and to the men who populated it: Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne. She has passing thoughts of marriage but immediately repudiates them. She is a staunch abolitionist, but is defensive about her need to proclaim it. She, too, wanders about Washington, thinking, while she is not at work.

Lock does a tremendous job crawling inside the heads of these masters and pulling us inside as well. There is little plot. The characters come to the city, they work, they ponder, they exchange ideas with other people, and they move on. But the riveting prose and the dreamlike interior monologues of the protagonists carry the reader along.

BOOK REVIEW: The Most Hated Man in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General Stephen Burbridge by Brad Asher

 History buffs, particularly readers interested in the U.S. Civil War, Kentucky history, or “Lost Cause-ism,” should put Brad Asher’s latest book, The Most Hated Man in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General Stephen Burbridge on their reading lists.

This newly-released biography of Kentuckian Stephen Burbridge primarily focuses on the 11 months (March 1864-February 1865) when Burbridge was the military commander of Kentucky. Ambitious and fervently Unionist, Burbridge had the unenviable task of shepherding the state through a period of enlistment of Black soldiers into the Union Army. Asher makes a compelling case that it was the commander’s willingness to enlist slaves, a process that resulted in their emancipation and sounded the death-knell for the continuation of slavery in the state, that earned him the enmity of white Kentuckians, whether they be Confederate sympathizers or Unionists.

Burbridge had a storied career that included varying degrees of success as a soldier and commander, followed by the near-impossible tasks of 1) recruiting enough Kentucky soldiers to serve the war effort AND protect the state from Confederate raiders and guerillas, and 2) navigating the wartime and post-war politics of the divided loyalties of Kentuckians. These included those fully committed to the Union cause and those only nominally committed, so long as there was no Federal interference with their “right” to own other human beings. To that mix, one must throw in Confederates returning to the state following the war and swaying the sympathies of the state to the Lost Cause of the South. This succeeded to the extent that, even today, many people have a hard time believing that Kentucky was not part of the Confederacy.

Burbridge, whose zeal for the cause of the winning side should logically have seen him rewarded with post-war political appointments, instead became such a lightning rod for Kentuckians’ anger at the war’s outcome (emancipation) that he became a pariah. He spent the remainder of his life exiled from his home and regarded as the state’s most hated man.

This meticulously researched, readable, scholarly work brings to light a little-remembered Civil War Union leader—little remembered outside of Kentucky, at least—and, through the lens of his life, examines broader issues of historical memory and the enduring myths of the Lost Cause.

Full-disclosure: the author of this superb biography is my brilliant husband! That didn’t influence this review (but it’s the reason I read the book!)

BOOK REVIEW: An Environmental History of the Civil War by Judkin Browning and Timothy Silver

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

An Environmental History of the Civil War by Judkin Browning and Timothy Silver, to be released in mid-April, is the latest contribution to American Civil War history that not only takes into account environmental factors but makes the case that these factors were central to deciding the outcome.

The various chapters discuss illness (particularly infectious diseases), weather, the availability and scarcity of adequate food, terrain, use of animals and the problems associated with their use, and soldiers’ death and disability. These are placed in context more or less chronologically, although their impacts were felt throughout the course of the war.

While many of the big-picture conclusions are not revelations, the book delves into the details supporting the conclusions in a scholarly yet accessible fashion that aids in understanding. The two authors’ combined expertise makes for a wonderful synthesis of a good deal of material. For those interested in Civil War history who are not fluent in environmental history but who would like to see events examined from this angle, this book is a fine choice.

BOOK REVIEW: This Republic of Suffering. Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust

This Republic of Suffering. Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust is an unusual choice for me. It is a study of the Civil War focused on death. This isn’t one of the journalistic type histories that takes an interesting hook and builds a broad narrative around it. This book is a narrow look at what death of such magnitude did to the United States in the nineteenth century.

Topics include the problem of killing (How do men bring themselves to kill other men and justify doing so?) and dying – (What is a "good death" and how do young men reconcile themselves to the fact that they are likely to die?) How is it possible to bury so many corpses and why it is necessary to bury them? How can loved ones be appropriately informed so that they can begin the process of mourning? What is the process of mourning or what should it be, for individuals and collectively? What happens when a loved one’s body cannot be found or when corpses can’t be identified? How did death on such a massive scale change religious attitudes, politics, and governmental policies?

This is an exhaustively researched and thorough discussion of the subject. It’s a fairly dispassionate book. No exaggeration or melodrama is needed to document the horrors of the battlefield and the unimaginable grief of survivors. My only quibble is that it grew repetitive, an unavoidable complication of examining one subject from slightly different angles.

BOOK REVIEW: The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers has been on my Netgalley queue for months. It isn’t due out until January 2017, but seeing as it’s an epistolary novel, an art form I admire, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer.

The title character is Placidia Fincher, daughter of a respected Southern gentleman farmer, who is rather abruptly wed to Major Gryffth Hockaday. Hockaday is an officer in the Confederate army who has recently lost his wife and has an infant son at home. Placidia is a seventeen-year-old beauty, immediately captivated by the Major. He’s on leave at the time of their meeting. They have only one full day and two nights together as husband and wife before he is commanded back to the field.

Placidia is left in charge of a farm that is on the verge of failing. There are a few "servants" still in place, and Placidia is uncomfortable as mistress of a household where she is a stranger. She has to learn how to manage the farm, take care of a baby, and protect the property and its inhabitants from roving bands of raiders. She has to do this alone.

It’s years before Placidia is reunited with her husband, during which time tragedy and scandal descend upon her with such ferocity, it’s unclear if their love can withstand it. (They had known each other less than a week. Had they known each other at all?)

The story opens with letters from Placidia to a sympathetic cousin. Placidia is under arrest at the request of her husband for crimes committed while he was away.

The narrative unfolds slowly through guarded letters from Placidia, through the scant love letters that reached their destination during the war, and from concerned letters of family members. The time frame abruptly shifts to letters of descendants sorting through what might have happened, aided to full understanding at last by the revelations in Placidia’s diary. Although the narrative is somewhat choppy because of this format, it helps to keep crucial details hidden and add an element of suspense. One might guess the true culprit, but there’s enough doubt to keep the reader turning pages. Placidia’s strength in the face of her struggles make her a worthy heroine.

BOOK REVIEW: A Friend of Mr. Lincoln by Stephen Harrigan

There are so many books—fiction and nonfiction—about Abraham Lincoln, that I think it would be daunting for an author to add another novel to the pile. However, author Stephen Harrigan is up to the task.

A Friend of Mr. Lincoln show us Abraham Lincoln as a young man, brimming over with ambition, brilliant, witty, sometimes cruel, and with an iron-clad code of ethics which seemed to privilege "the Law" over what is morally right and to allow him an-end-justifies-the-means pragmatism when it comes to his own political career. It’s a complex and somewhat unsettling portrait of the man I am accustomed to viewing as great and noble, but I suppose everyone is young once.

This Lincoln is introduced to us from the viewpoint of the fictional poet Cage Weatherby. Also a young man at the start of his career, Cage is not a political man, but he is drawn to politicians, and there are many of those in Springfield, Illinois in the mid 1800s. Cage has met Lincoln before, during the Black Hawk War, when Cage’s troop was nearly massacred by Black Hawk’s men and Lincoln and a few other soldiers arrived to help bury the dead. The two men remember one another when they meet again, a few years later, in Springfield. Lincoln is a politician who dabbles in poetry and Cage is a poet who dabbles in politics, and the two men hit it off.

Cage is calm, thoughtful, sensitive to the needs of others, and loyal to his friends. He is also anti-slavery and evolves into an abolitionist. Lincoln is outgoing and friendly but with periodic bursts of depression that Cage must learn how to navigate. Both men are at a stage in their lives when they are interested in marrying and settling down, but they go about it differently. Cage falls in love with a woman who won’t marry him, so he settles for less–perhaps because he, too, is afraid of the commitment. Lincoln bounces from failed courtship to failed courtship, seeming unsure of what he wants or how to accommodate himself to society women.

Lincoln is a lawyer, a circuit rider, and a member of the state legislature, and Cage is a somewhat reluctant but reasonably successful business man and a determined poet. They move in the same circles and admire one another greatly, but the burden of the friendship seems to fall on Cage. Lincoln is high maintenance.

The period details and political maneuverings are fascinating. Lincoln’s somewhat ambiguous ethics and Cage’s striving to understand his friend with minimal judging make this a compelling story. It becomes even more complicated when Mary Todd enters the picture. Gage admires them both, but believes they are wrong for each other. It turns out Gage doesn’t have as much influence over his friend as he thought.

This book is wonderfully written and difficult to put down. Even if you think you’ve had enough of Lincoln and/or the Civil War, you should give this one a try.

BOOK REVIEW: Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

Susan Higginbotham is well known for her historical novels set in the Middle Ages and during the Wars of the Roses. (See my review of The Stolen Crown.) The remaining novels are on my TBR-list, but then I heard she was switching time periods and location to write a novel set in the 19^th century U.S.. The novel, Hanging Mary, is the story of Mary Surratt and her involvement in the Lincoln assassination. It sounded so intriguing I couldn’t wait to read it!

The story is told from two points of view, that of Mary herself and that of Honora (Nora) Fitzpatrick, a young female boarder.

Mary is a widow whose deceased husband, an alcoholic tavern owner, left her in financial straits. Aside from the tavern, he owned a house a ways from the center of the city, which was leased out. Mary reverses the situation by leasing the tavern and taking possession of the house, which she converts to a boarding house. Mary’s family are southern sympathizers, and they are in relatively good company in Washington City, though outnumbered by Unionists. Mary’s eldest son went off to join the confederate army. Her second son, John, and her daughter live in the boarding house. Both are more vehemently pro-South than their mother, who mostly wants the war to end and her son to come home.

One of her first boarders is Nora, daughter of a comfortably well-off banker. Nora’s mother died when she was very young, and she needs a respectable place to live. Nora is firmly in the Union camp, but has been taught by her father to be discreet and respectful of others’ opinions.

It isn’t long before John brings home a new acquaintance, the famous actor John Wilkes Booth. A handsome man with extraordinary charm, he ingratiates himself with Mary and captures the heart of Mary’s daughter. Nora, too, is mildly infatuated with the actor, but she is much more pragmatic and realistic. She grows more fond of him for his kindness, but recognizes the unlikelihood of his interest in either Mary’s daughter or herself.

The war is, naturally, a source of daily interest and consternation in the Surratt household. The occupants follow the news and attend historic events where the president speaks. They also attend the theater to watch their new friend, taking pride in the acquaintance.

However, Mary grows more and more concerned with her son’s activities. John has become secretive, and he keeps bringing strangers around to the boarding house insisting they be given temporary lodging. The guests are not the type of people Mary is comfortable having in her home. Still, when she senses John is in danger, and armed with reassurances from Booth that they have no intentions of causing anyone harm, she increases her support of them.

The rest, of course, is history.

Higginbotham grows her characters with skill. While it is easier to sympathize with Nora, an intelligent, caring woman caught up in a situation over which she has no control than it is with Mary, who seems at times to willfully allow herself to be misguided, it is also possible to understand how a mother could make missteps where a beloved son is concerned.

This is wonderful historical fiction, informative and emotionally involving. A great choice for book clubs!

BOOK REVIEW: Our Man in Charleston. Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South by Christopher Dickey

I should read more U.S. history. Whenever I do, I’m embarrassed by how little I know. But the sorry truth is, I’m more interested in medieval and Renaissance European history, and don’t read a whole lot of nonfiction to begin with, so straightforward US history falls to the bottom of the pile.

Fortunately, after noticing a review of Our Man in Charleston. Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South by Christopher Dickey in my newspaper, I saw the book available from Netgalley and was intrigued enough to request it. This wonderfully informative book relates the story of Robert Bunch, the British consul assigned to Charleston in 1853. Bunch was intelligent, ambitious, and sly. Although appalled by slavery and disgusted by the manners and affectations of the majority of southerners he came across, he was able to hide his true opinions, ingratiate himself with the locals, and send damning dispatches to his counterpart in Washington as well as corresponding with ministers in London for nearly ten years. His careful collection of information and keen insight helped to shape Britain’s role as the American Civil War loomed and then erupted. His own situation (and that of his wife and child) became increasingly precarious as the southerners grew first more violent and then more desperate.

Our Man in Charleston is meticulously researched and is written in a straightforward style. It is primarily a political history, awash in names and negotiations and details. For me, it was a slow read—the type of book I had to put down frequently and then return to, not a book I could read all in a sitting. And yet, it was not a book I considered abandoning. Bunch was more a bureaucrat than a cloak-and-dagger spy; nevertheless, I wanted to follow his journey along to the end.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

ESCAPE TO THE PAST WITH: Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini

DISCLAIMER: I received this book for free from the goodreads first reads program.

I really wanted to read this book! Mary Todd Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln are fascinating individuals and even more interesting is their complex relationship. Countless shelves can be filled with what has been written on Lincoln during the White House/Civil War years. And yet there always seems to be more to explore.

In Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Jennifer Chiaverini uses the viewpoint of Mrs. Lincoln’s modiste, her friend and confidante, Mrs. Elizabeth Keckley, to present a different, more personal, side of the Lincolns during the White House years.

Mrs. Keckley was born into slavery but was able to buy her freedom thanks to her skill as a seamstress. She moved to Washington, D.C. where she began making dresses for the elite of society, including Mrs. Jefferson Davis. She was uniquely placed to hear the women’s thoughts on the impending arrival of the president-elect, Mr. Abraham Lincoln, as well as all the talk of the increasing likelihood of southern states’ secession from the union.

After Lincoln’s inauguration, when many of Mrs. Keckley’s patrons left for destinations further south, she was able to secure a chance to make a dress for Mrs. Lincoln. Before long, she was Mrs. Lincoln’s primary modiste and a valued part of the Lincoln household. From that vantage point, she had an intimate knowledge of the Lincolns’ interactions with each other, of Mary Lincoln’s troubles (her extravagant expenditures, her social gaffes, her difficulties with her husband’s cabinet members, and her hot temper), and of some of President Lincoln’s political quandaries. However, her discretion and loyalty during those years was absolute.

Chiaverini does a very good job of presenting well-researched material. It’s a sympathetic portrait of Mary Lincoln but by no means a flattering one. As for the president, through Mrs. Keckley’s admiring eyes, he is always given the benefit of the doubt even when she doesn’t understand why is isn’t moving faster or farther to help her people.

In addition to the president and first lady, we are presented with the life story of Mrs. Keckley, a talented, level-headed, gracious woman who ends up quietly devoting a good portion of her life to the Lincolns. For a time, it is greatly to her benefit but after Lincoln’s assassination, she continues to stand by Mrs. Lincoln though she has nothing further to gain and, in fact, has quite a bit to lose.

This is a quiet, contemplative type of book. In some ways, it reads like a very interesting biography more than a novel. There is a lot of introspection, letter writing, overhearing of gossip, and sharing of news. The big historical events happen off-stage. So while it’s difficult to feel immersed in the story in an emotional way, it’s a wonderful imagining of the life of Mrs. Keckley and her view of the Lincolns.

I’m adding this on to my list of books for the Historical Fiction Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry.

ESCAPE TO THE PAST WITH: Wilderness by Lance Weller

Holly at Bippity Boppity Books gave Wilderness by Lance Weller such a strong review that I knew I had to read it. I’ve been trying to use my library more, partly because I tend to READ the books I take out of the library. They have to be returned. When I buy books I tend to toss them onto the pile and who knows when they’ll ever get read. To my delight, I got my hands on a copy of Wilderness fairly quickly.

The book pieces together a narrative from the perspective of several different characters, but the main protagonist is Abel Truman, a Civil War veteran who fought for the Confederacy. He was a New Yorker by birth, but personal tragedy set him to wandering and he happened to be in the south at the time the war broke out. Moreover, he more or less believed in the southern cause. If not that, he believed in his friendships with the men he fought beside.

Thirty-five years later, living a solitary life (solitary except for his well-loved dog) in a shack on the Pacific coast, Abel comes to understand that he is dying from a slowly progressive illness. One morning he decides to return home to die and he begins the long dangerous trek, taking only a few provisions, his rifle, and his dog.

Along the way he runs into two evil men who want to steal his dog and who would have no qualms about killing him to do so. But Abel is a tough old man. And surprisingly lucky. Abel’s path crosses that of the would-be thieves more than once during the course of his journey with increasingly violent results. Other settlers and wanderers are also caught up in the crossfire. As Abel interacts with them, the reader is given deeper and deeper insight into the type of man he is.

Interspersed with the story of Abel’s current day journey are chapters detailing memories of his past–his wartime experiences. The war is what shaped him, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. And then, going even farther back, Abel is forced to dredge up thoughts of the tragic loss that preceded the war.

Wilderness is a moving story. Abel’s life is portrayed with sensitivity and depth. He’s a good man but flawed, and journeying with him is time well spent.

This is a debut novel by an author who has previously published award-winning short stories. So read it with the expectation of literary historical fiction. At times, I found the writing style overwhelmed the story–as if the point had drifted away from what was being said to how prettily it was being said, and I found myself skimming ahead to where it would get back on track again. But most of the time there is a good balance between fine writing and a compelling story-line. I had to keep reading to see where Abel was going.