by John William Huelskamp ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2016
A marvelously researched historical novel about Union soldiers and sympathizers, both moving and educational.
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A Civil War tale tracks the braided lives of six friends whose lives are upturned by national tumult.
In this debut novel, best friends Will and Aaron, 16 and 13 years old, stumble upon a wigwam in 1857 in the Illinois woods, a makeshift Native American hut concealed on the river bank. In the wigwam, they find a tomahawk and a medicine bag filled with colored beads. Over time, the structure becomes the official meeting spot for their extended group of youthful fellow travelers, and the physical symbol of their unbreakable bonds. Within the group, romance blossoms between Will and Allie, a self-assured tomboy who eventually disguises her gender to fight in the war, and between Aaron and Jenny Putnam, the daughter of a fire marshal. Another friend, Elmer Ellsworth, particularly close to Allie, becomes a colonel in the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry, and dies taking down a Rebel flag, a harsh reminder of the war brewing in the background. Huelskamp has crafted a scrupulously researched historical novel, culled from the exhaustive study of previously unpublished letters and diaries. Both characters and events are factual, embellished only when the demands of dramatization—largely the concoction of dialogue—must be met. Unfortunately, the dialogue is the volume’s weakest component, often so sentimental and emotionally overwrought it borders on the outright cloying. At one point, Allie learns that Elmer commands a regiment of his own: “ ‘I don’t want Elmer killed!’ Allie stated. Her voice began to crack a little. ‘He’s my friend and brother. He taught me how to fish and trap muskrats. He should be comin’ back home. I don’t want him to be hurt!’ ” The book as a whole, though, is a scholarly triumph, deftly bringing alive the volatile atmosphere of a nation in peril. Major historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Congressman Elihu Washburne appear prominently, humanizing a conflict too often interpreted as a contest of impersonal factions. But the story’s real driving force is the stark juxtaposition of youthful innocence—radiated by the self-professed “friends of the wigwam”—and the savagery of war. Huelskamp’s investigatory rigor is the principal virtue of the novel, but it also manages to be an entertaining, and tender, tale of the relentlessness of love against daunting odds.
A marvelously researched historical novel about Union soldiers and sympathizers, both moving and educational.Pub Date: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-34882-6
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Barrington Group Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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