Theory of War

Rating:
Summary: Generational Stain of Experience
Review: I was fascinated by the way Brady traced the stain of Jonathan's experience through the lives of his children and grandchildren. Without knowing why, they replicated his dysfunctional understanding of human interaction, over and over again: failed relationships, crippling depression, emotional escapism, and stunted personal growth. We are each of us the sum of our predecessors' experiences, whether we like it or not.

Rating:
Summary: "Theory of War" By:Joan Brady
Review: The narrator of this novel, Malory Carrick, an American woman residing in Britain who returns home to visit her uncle Atlas and to learn the true story of her grandfather from his diaries who had been a "boughten boy" just after the American Civil War. Her grandfather Jonathan Carrick, a white boy is sold into slavery at age 4 for fifteen dollars to a struggling brutal Kansas Tobacco farmer Alvah Stoke. Jonathan lived his adolescence working endlessly at planting, harvesting, picking off tabacco worms, wrapping tobacco plugs, and his ultimate humiliation, getting beat and bullied by his vicious tormentor Stroke's son, George. To the Stoke family Jonathan was " an animal that you need just need to break", but the hatred towards George grew till Jonathan couldn't take anymore and beat him till he was surely dead, then he escaped at the age of 16 taking the Trans. Continental to Denver to finally be free. Twenty years later Jonathan gets an education he has always wanted and soon after he marries, has 4 kids, and becomes a successful farmer. However, he neither forgot nor forgave the past. Soon after he finds out that George Stoke is alive and well as the US Senator now a "fat, cobra of a politician" he becomes Jonathan's target once again.

Joan Brady writes the story with such feeling and heart about her grandfather that it touched me as well. Jonathan Carrick's story is unusual because he was a white slave, which made it more interesting for me to read because you don't hear of cases such as these. The story about Jonathan's life made a serious impact on her family through out the generations and it made me realize how important your families history is. I think Joan Brady did a good job making Jonathan's history one everyone will remember.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing read
Review: This book was fine and dandy up to Chapter 3-6 (up to page 90 of 209 pages on my copy). But the book ran off the rails from then on. The plot became rambling. New characters were introduced just to perform bit parts to advance a bad arbitrary plot. It seemed the writer was just having the protagonist wander hither and thither in order to try to fill in pages. Three items of vulgarity that were thrown in were distasteful and unnecessary. The book ceased to be a satisfactory read in its second half, compared to its first half. As the first ninety pages were a good read, the rest of the book became a let-down.

My copy says that this was 1993 Whitbread Book of the Year. It doesn't deserve an award in my opinion.

Not a book I would recommend other people to read.


Rating:
Summary: one of the best books I've read in ages
Review: This is a brilliant and beautiful book. Joan Brady overcomes the challenge of weaving her life into fiction without making a mess of truth. The links she makes between present and past are haunting and the questions she asks are most satisfyingly without answers. I am deeply grateful that this book is in the world.

Rating:
Summary: The parts are better than the whole
Review: This is a tale of white slavery in 19th century America with a part-claim to authenticity, featuring many nice observations, descriptions and anecdotes. Some reviewer compared this book to Jack London, which has its merits - and whenever Brady tells her story like London would she is at her best. There are many memorable incidents, and the main protagonist's fate is drawing the reader in. When Jonathan makes his appearance as a small and babbling boy with a natural talent for invention, the novel is taking off. The descriptions of 19th century farmlife, of pioneers' Denver or the first visit to a brothel are really well done. Still I was not completely happy with this book. The fictitious narrator, a grand-daughter of Jonathan, jumps back and forth in time, rather obtrusively showing that slavery not only managed to destroy Jonathan's life but that of his children and childrens' children as well. Brady gives these characters room enough to disrupt the main story but not enough to make them really interesting. The novel seems to be a mixture of fiction and authentic biography which does not really work out in the end. "Theory of War" is a rewarding read, no doubt, but rather for its many well-executed scenes than as a whole.