LONG REMEMBER

One of the reasons that Long Remember, a novel set in and around the farming community of Gettysburg during the calamitous summer of 1863, is so haunting is that Kantor (1904–77) had a chance growing up to speak with Civil War veterans, and the skill to translate what they told him into a startling and convincing portrait of war. Its impact also undoubtedly has to do with Kantor's considerable powers as a storyteller and his ability to believably reimagine the past—talents even more evident in Andersonville, his Pulitzer-winning novel of the Civil War. Long Remember, Kantor's first novel, originally published in 1934 and now being reissued, traces the experience of Daniel Bale, a young man who has refused to fight, struggling to cling to his pacifist principles as his hometown becomes the center of an immense three-day battle between Union and Confederate forces. Kantor's depiction of the confusion, noise, and terror of a battlefield can't be bettered, and his portrait of a group of townspeople thrust into the center of a war is raw and vivid. Christian's nightmarish descent into war, and his decision to put aside his pacifist beliefs and fight for his country, are believably traced. The conclusion is both grim and moving.

A welcome reissue, offering further proof that Kantor was one of the preeminent historical novelists of the past century.