Enemy Women : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: when the dipper's handle had turned under the mountains
Review: this is a brilliant novel, with a few flaws, that makes the civil war come alive like no novel i've read before. since it will be compared to cold mountain my two cents is that cold mountain was a struggle to finish and enemy women flickered by like the scenes were projected on a screen. paulette jiles writes with an effortless beauty that makes you think writing a strong novel is nothing more than sitting down at the keyboard and tapping away. i hear she is a poet and wonder if she has books availavble.
my first problem with the book is the opening. there's 12 pages of prologue before the story begins on page 13 with the sentence: in the year before the war began adair's father brought home a horse early on a winter night. before that we are told the war has begun, people are doing evil things. if this is so important why not start with a scene of the civil war beginning? jiles tells in narrative about great fish fries in the south in celebration of the war beginning. either make this a scene to start the novel, or cut it and begin with adair first seeing her new horse coming across the snow. i can't believe an editor didn't demand this. screenwriters call this warming up, and cut to the opening scene that draws the audience in. i wish novelists had a bit more screenwriter in them.
my second problem with the book is it doesn't go where i want it to go! adair and her two little sisters, savannah and little mary, set off across the ruined landscape of the war to find their father, who has been beaten and taken by federals. now here is a touching scene! here is great empathy! three young girls, bickering like sisters do, set out across the civil war to find their father. but adair is sent to prison as a rebel spy, and the little sisters are not seen again. (I am 50 pages from the end of the book). when the book becomes a love story across enemy lines--like that hasn't been done before--the whole time i'm all, yea but what are savannah and little mary up to?
but i loved the story, the writing, the characters, the humour, and adair randolph colley. enemy women could be an american classic, read and beloved when we're as dim as the ghosts who lived through the war of northern agression.

Rating:
Summary: Historically educating but disappointing overall
Review: While I am grateful to the author for educating me about the imprisonment and atrocities suffered by Southeast Missouri women during the Civil War, the story was far too contrived to be compelling, or even a particularly good read. To ask the reader to willingly accept that a hat, when needed by the protagonist, just magically gets thrown out of the house against which she is leaning, or that her family's horses, previously stolen by Confederate sympathizers, would be fortuitously returned to her, is just too much for an intelligent reader to believe. Although likened to Cold Mountain, this story is far less of a page-turner plot wise. The reader is asked, with miniscule development to believe that Adair would quickly fall in love for a Union soldier and yet later, to believe that she can't even bear to be in the same room with Union soldiers. Without educating us as to whether Adair is a Confederate at heart, we are provided with her forced "confession" that suggests she believes in preserving the Union and yet left to wonder how does she really feel about secessionism. Rather than finishing this story, I would have preferred to read more of the materials from which those historical excerpts that begin each chapter are extracted.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful writing about tragic events
Review: I have had this book on my shelf for two years and I finally decided to read it. I couldn't help but feel depressed and constantly anxious for Adair Colley and her situation. Which by the end made me admire her strength and courage. I did love the poetic air of this novel, and I will happily read Paulette Jiles again.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling (3 1/2 stars)...
Review: I didn't love this book, but the beautiful and subtle writing compelled me to turn the pages. The story of Adair Colley has a slow start. She is a young Missouri woman who is taken prisoner during the Civil War. While in prison, she is interrogated by Major William Neumann. Despite their differences, they fall in love. (There is no way to describe it without making it sound like some trite romance novel, is there?) They are separated and she travels the long journey home -- hoping to find her father, her sisters, her horse, her home, her life. Needless to say, it is a difficult journey. This novel is banal and contrived at times, but the writing is rather poetic and it does vividly portray the horror of the Civil War. I'm a sucker for historical novels, and the Civil War has always intrigued me. All in all, the story, despite its predictability, is compelling enough to read.

Rating:
Summary: Authentic, beautifully written....stays with you..
Review: Enemy Women is a story about life during the Civil War, but it much more than "just" that. It is a story about life and loss, love and hate, hope and despair. It is a story about what happens when no one can remain neutral.
The story centers on a young Missouri girl, Adair Colley, who watches her father being beaten and dragged away by the Union Militia. Her brother escapes off into the mountains and Adair is left to take care of her sisters, the family home, and locating the prison where her father may be located. She is arrested while on the search for her father and taken prisoner in a womens' prison in St. Louis, far away from her home. Her life in the prison and her subsequent journey to find her sisters, shed light on the realities of the war on a day to day level.
Each chapter of this revealing novel begins with excerpts from historical accounts, from private letters and diaries and from military documents that vividly relate actual events that follow the journey of Adair Colley. They serve to emphasize the true face of the Civil War and the authenticity of the story and it's events, showing that the events portrayed did in fact have mirror images in historical fact.
The vividness of this story is not in the conclusion of the story but it is in the journey of Adair Colley. The author, Paulette Jiles, writes with a creative beauty and an intensity of observation that captures the reader and transports them through Adair's eyes and private thoughts into war torn Missouri and the chaos and wonder that coincide in amazing ways.
Paulette Jiles is an acclaimed poet and has used her beautiful, evocative talent to create a clear, realistic and unforgettable picture of the life of Adair Colley, strong and independent, and the perilous times in Civil War Missouri.

Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: What did I miss? The stellar reviews surprised me as I found the book to be tedious and without a spark of realism, (except for the historical abstracts which were the best part of the book and for which I gave the book 2 stars instead of the 1 star the fictional part deserved). Too many coincidences, two dimensional characters, disagreeable Adair, delusional major (what does he see in the mercurial Adair?) and dull dialogue disappointed me. It all adds up to a big D if I were grading it in school. The subject,Southern women's fate in the war zone during the Civil War, is a good one. Too bad the execution does not live up to its promise. The author does merit my thanks for including the historical notes which I shall re-read instead of finishing the book.

Rating:
Summary: Wow, wow. Cold Mountain, from a feminine perspective
Review: Adair Colley is an 18yo girl on the lam during the waning months of the Civil War. She and her family have been routed from their rural home by the Union militia, divided, some have maybe been killed, and when she's falsely accused of being a confederate spy, she's incarcerated in a prison for women in St. Louis. There, Major Neumann, her interrogator, falls in love with her, and she with him. He advises her to 'go over the wall' and promises to find her back in her little home town when the war ends.
The last two thirds of the book relate Adair's 'adventures' as she struggles to return to her home. Occasional chapters are devoted to the trials her lover faces as he works his way through the remainder of the war, gets discharged, and begins looking for her once again, but mostly, this is Adair's story - - - and it's terrific. Well-researched, with many quotes from letters, dispatches, and diary entries of the period, Enemy Women gives a feminine perspective to the Civil War.
Jiles' writing soars into literary realms in many places in this debut novel, and her portrayal of the diverse characters is amusing, horrific, true-to-life, and riveting. Cold Mountain, one of my favorite books of the past 5 years, was heavy going and sometimes plodding, often depressing. By comparison, Enemy Women is highly accessible, never confusing. Depressing at times? Yes, but leavened always by wit, compassion, and hope.
Do NOT miss this book. It was recommended to me by the manager of Cody's Books on Fourth St. in Berkeley, and she knows her business.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Perspective
Review: I hadn't really thought about how women faired during the Civil war until I read this book. It was a different perspective to see it from. However, although I liked the main character, the author's style of writing threw me off. I found the lack of quotations and exclamations made the character's dialogue seem flat and it was difficult to determine the tone. I suppose this was supposed to be artistic, but I personally didn't like the style.

Rating:
Summary: Good novel about a brutal war
Review: This is one of the better Civil War novels I've read. The brutality that existed in Kansas and Missouri during the war always makes me wonder how the people there ever got over their bitterness and learned to get along. The story starts out with an attack on a man and his family by a group of Union soldiers, then follows the oldest daughter as she tries to find her captured father and ends up in prison herself. It's a well-written book and I really got a kick out of Adair. I enjoyed the story of her adventure.

Rating:
Summary: A Civil War Romance
Review: This is a vividly told tale of a young woman separated from all that she loves by war, who keeps her spirit high, finds true love, and deals with every hardship fate throws her way. There may have been many like her who did not survive, or who came through the experience defeated and lived out a miserable life; but this is one courageous and indominatable gal, and I suffered every page for her torment, and exhulted in every one of her triumphs.