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Summary: Wonderful Writing and Characters
Review: This is written in the tradition of Eudora Welty. There is richness of language in the story telling. In the many unique characters who have been everlastingly changed by the events of the war, there is always a sense of humor. "If you laugh enough, bad things sulk away from you." Wonderful writing style.
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Summary: The construction of womens lib. and southern reconstruction
Review: This long and multi-layed novel meanders like a stream on a plantation in antebellum North Carolina -- with momments of clarity that strike like a shot in the gut. This novel has more to say about the dues paid by women in the 19th Century than it does about the civil war, slavery and reconstruction combined. Finally, a reality check for Gone with the Wind. A great Summer read you will never forget
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Summary: Struggled to Finish
Review: When I started reading this book, I was so excited to have discovered Gurganus as a storyteller. He has done an admirable job of portraying a soldier's experiences in the Civil War, as well as capturing the unique characters of a community with humor and empathy. However, I soon found myself drowning in prose. Some of the stories drag and drag to the point of tedium. Eventually the author's world view began to distort things as well: his premise is that the only true romantic love to be found is based on adolescent same-sex relationships. The two main characters, Lucy and William Marsden, both pine for their lost first loves, Shirley and Ned. Their marriage seems one of convenience, without any real passion or complexity, which casts a depressing pall over the entire novel. Lucy has nine children, but only three are actually well-drawn: Louisa, Ned and Baby. The rest just help to populate her busy domestic life, like nameless faces. Considering the length of the book, there certainly was room for more character development. The dialects and poor grammar seem contrived at times (especially since Lucy was raised in a wealthy home), making the narration often difficult to read. Although this is an admirable attempt at capturing an era gone by, I think that the novel's flaws would turn me away from reading it again.
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Summary: good stories when you're not drowning in prose...
Review: When I started reading this book, I was so excited to have discovered Gurganus as a storyteller. He has done an admirable job of portraying a soldier's experiences in the Civil War, as well as capturing the unique characters of a community with humor and empathy. However, I soon found myself drowning in prose. Some of the stories drag and drag to the point of tedium. Eventually the author's world view began to distort things as well: his premise is that the only true romantic love to be found is based on adolescent same-sex relationships. The two main characters, Lucy and William Marsden, both pine for their lost first loves, Shirley and Ned. Their marriage seems one of convenience, without any real passion or complexity, which casts a depressing pall over the entire novel. Lucy has nine children, but only three are actually well-drawn: Louisa, Ned and Baby. The rest just help to populate her busy domestic life, like nameless faces. Considering the length of the book, there certainly was room for more character development. The dialects and poor grammar seem contrived at times (especially since Lucy was raised in a wealthy home), making the narration often difficult to read. Although this is an admirable attempt at capturing an era gone by, I think that the novel's flaws would turn me away from reading it again.
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Summary: The Memories
Review: When I was a little girl my father would drive us up to Birmingham on Saturdays to visit my grandfather David, whose father John was in Nathan Bedford Forrest's baggage train. It was always amazing to hear the stories he would tell.And that's a lot like Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All; the memories, I mean, and the stories. This is an excellent book, especially for Daughters of the Confederacy or other organizations that look at the Civil War. I highly reccomend it.
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Summary: This book is excrutiatingly I boring
Review: While the author has some interesting points to make, he is no storyteller. I found the massive book a huge snooze.
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Summary: Very compelling depiction of woman's struggle to survive.
Review: With wonderful imagery, this novel follows Willie Madsen as he marches off to war, hand in hand with his best friend Ned, two thirteen year old boys with not a clue that war is much different from a Sunday school picnic. The story is told in the rambling voice of 99 year old Lucy Madsen, Cap. Willie Madsen's widow, a victim and veteran of this war in her own way. Although Lucy wasn't born until well after the end of the civil war, her war wounds are just as deep and her struggle is the struggle shared by all women who fight to maintain their identity in our patriarchal society
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