Enemy Women : A Novel

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: Beautifully Written!
Review: This is a great book that shows what happened to women who broke the law during the Civil War. The poetic writing style helps the book along during some of its duller moments. Adair's story is capitvating at times but the battle scenes were a bit boring for me.All in all it was an overall good book that I would recommend to people who love Civil War novels.

Rating:
Summary: Almost 5 stars!
Review: A rich narrative, including excerpts from historical documents at the beginning of each chapter to compliment the story. The ambiguous ending was disappointing because the author's bravery throughout seems to weaken at the end, leaving the reader to determine what happens to the characters she created. Yet I would read more of Paulette Jiles work - she has that gift - to make you want to read to the very last letter.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully understated
Review: Adair Colley is a marvellous creation, and this novel is a very worthy conveyance with which to bring her to you. In a beautifully understated but still highly descriptive narrative, she is revealed as a gritty and pragmatic survivor. Starting low key, and punctuated by actual historical excerpts, the horrific story creeps up on you, finally painting a full picture of both the times and a very alluring character. Paulette Jiles is a writer of some significance.

Rating:
Summary: It had great potential BUT...
Review: I thought this book was terrible. I read all the reviews and was ready for a great read. I knew that Jiles was a poet and this was her first novel but knowing that didn't help. The story was too pat, everything conviently turned up right when it was supposed to. I just didn't feel it was realistic. The description of the area was very interesting but she didn't do much with it. It was just a backdrop for the novel. Also, there were epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter that just didn't seem to tie into the story. I read them initially but finally I gave up in the hopes that it would get better or just be over more quickly. We read this as a book group choice and it was universally hated. I would recommend skipping it.

Rating:
Summary: A good story with a big style flaw
Review: This was an interesting novel because it illustrated how gritty and personal the American Civil War was in Missouri. The story was good enough to keep me engaged and I cared about the characters.

Good is not up to the level of `Great', however. I have to give my rating a one star penalty because, for whatever reason, the author does not use quotes to distinguish dialog from other prose. This was a pretentious distraction that really chopped up the flow of my reading of the novel. It was useless and damaging. I'm surprised the novel's editors let it go.

Rating:
Summary: --An amazing story--
Review: I listened to the recorded tapes of ENEMY WOMEN. The narrator was Karen White. It took me several tapes to become accustomed to her style of reading, which was very slow.

ENEMY WOMEN takes place during the American Civil War, and is the story of Adair Colley, an 18-year old girl from the southeastern part of Missouri. The first part of the book begins with a history of Missouri at the time of the Civil War. The Union and Confederate positions are explained and the reader is given the complete background for the story. After that each chapter begins with some historic information which is documented.

Adair Colley, her brother and two sisters live with their father who is a respected member of his community and a Justice of the Peace. He decides to stay neutral and have nothing to do with the armies inhabiting his state, but the militia will not accept his position and he is arrested. After the Union militia arrests Adair's father, they set the house on fire and steal almost everything that the family owns, including their livestock. Adair and her two younger sisters follow the militia so that they can plead for their father. He is innocent of being a spy, but if you are not acclaimed as a Union supporter, you were considered guilty. When Adair herself is denounced as a spy and imprisoned, she faces a horrible existence. Her interrogator is Major William Neumann. The only way she can get out is to admit to a crime that she didn't commit or, if possible, escape. Major Neumann despises his job and tries to help Adair. Their attraction to each other leads to their falling in love, but when he's reassigned, she must find a way to get out of the prison.

I had no previous knowledge of the part that Missouri played in the Civil War and this story was almost shocking in the way that entire families suffered immense deprivation and even lost their homes. Mothers and daughters of soldiers were imprisoned along with thieves, murderers and prostitutes. It was a sad time in the history of the United States.