An intense peek into the last gasp of the Civil War as well as a thoughtful rendering of the Southern perspective.
A debut historical novel details the Civil War experiences of a Confederate soldier.
James Augustus McEachern was born in 1840 in Darlington, South Carolina, a small town that had been home to his family since his great-great-grandfather fled Scotland and settled there in the 1750s. He joined the Arlington, Virginia, militia in 1861, eager and proud to defend the Southern way of life that he felt was unjustly assailed by avaricious Northerners. James served as a member of the Hampton legion, part of the Texas Brigade. Wounded twice, he fought in many of the Civil War’s most pivotal battles, including those at Fort Sumter and Antietam, rising to the rank of second lieutenant. Author McEachern (Caledonia: A Song of Scotland, 2015) focuses on one 24-hour period, running from the early part of April 1, 1865, to April 2, during which more than 14,000 Union soldiers broke through the Confederate line of defense at Petersburg. This was the hinge moment in the war that sealed the fate of the Confederacy; a mere seven days later, James and his company surrendered at Appomattox. The engrossing narrative is told from James’ perspective, sometimes conveyed through correspondence to the woman who later became his wife, Victoria (“Vicee”). Three of those letters are authentic originals, and in one of them, he proposes to Vicee only days after the battle at Fort Sumter. James eventually returned to Vicee and helped her raise their only child, but he never fully recovered from the wounds he sustained in battle, dying at the age of 34. McEachern’s principal preoccupation seems to be historical fidelity, and his vivid, dramatized account stays closely hewn to fact. His research is impressive, and he writes with restrained elegance and poignancy, capturing poetically the brute horror of war: “Then, I heard thousands of feet running towards us. The dawn was just breaking, but we were still mired in mist. The grey, gloom of night still wrapped herself around us.” Furthermore, a moving love story, beautifully depicted, emerges out of the smoke and fire of the conflict.
An intense peek into the last gasp of the Civil War as well as a thoughtful rendering of the Southern perspective.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-64045-664-8
Page Count: 303
Publisher: LitFire Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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