Unto This Hour: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: An absorbing novel , an interesting cast, an excellent read
Review: I had never read any Civil War fiction before, as I generally stick to non-fiction accounts of the conflict, but I absolutely loved this book. A fascinating look at the lives of of slaves, generals, sergeants, privates, common folk and journalists set around the Battle of 2nd Manassas. As a student of the War, I truly appreciated the historical accuracy of the novel with regards to troop placements and ponts of conflict, as well as the real historical characters that Wicker includes in the story. I particularly liked the sub-plot involving the general/slave-holder's wife, home alone with all the slaves. Worth the read, without a doubt.

Rating:
Summary: With all the action missing in "Gone with the wind" !
Review: I have nothing against "Gone with the Wind", neither "Little Woman"... but If I ever have to read again a book/novel/historical-fiction about the ACW it will be UNTO THIS HOUR.
ABSORBING READ AND VERY GOOD TAPESTRY (Second Manassas/Bull Run period... for those who need a precise background...).
For me the best novel about the ACW by far... excepting "UNHOLY FIRE" wich I also recommend eagerly...
ENJOY.


Rating:
Summary: The best historical novel I have read
Review: I own many non fiction publications on this war, from the full 4 volume set of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, written in 1880 by the Generals and leaders who participated in the War of Northern Agression, to the fictional Shaara novel The Killer Angels.

None of my other publications literally made me feel as though I not only was an eagle watching over the battle;but also, in the trenches behind the un finished railroad atop Sudley Mountian.

Selfishly, I would like to see a new printing of this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Very well-done historical novel
Review: The scope of this book becomes apparent when you realize that all of its 636 pages (in the hardcover edition) concern one battle, Second Manassas. Wicker exhaustively portrays the battle from many different viewpoints -- generals and footsoldiers on both sides, local people, photographers, telegraph operators, etc. The plethora of characters sometimes gets exhausting. On the other hand, if you find a specific plot thread boring, you know something better will be coming up in a page or two! Wicker has done an interesting reconstruction job in that he has changed and renamed historical people and events: substituting his own characters for real people, taking anecdotes from original sources (for example, the scene at Manassas Junction where they can't decide what to cook first) and making them his own. He does well with battle and hospital scenes and with the dialogue and experiences of common soldiers. I like his ability to incorporate sex into the story without losing the "period" feel or becoming silly. Particularly good scenes include Hart's duel and the death of Cady. As for why this doesn't get five stars: There are one or two scenes where the rawness, the cynicism, just gets a little too over the top. Wash is not believable, and one of the hospital scenes was just too cruel even for me. The writing is fluent and enjoyable but it neither is nor tries to be "literary". Overall, I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: An ACW masterpiece.
Review: There are probably two big groups of readers : Those who will reread "Gone with the Wind" ad infinitum, and the rest.
I must confess I belong to the rest, such thing gives you the opportunity to discover such gems as this one.
I agree with another reviewer GIVE US A NEW HARDBACK EDITION for keeps.
What more can I say?.

Rating:
Summary: The best historical novel I have read
Review: This novel saw the light in the 80's, and any such work must necessarily be compared with Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize story, The Killer Angels. This is scarcely fair. Tom Wicker's complex story is far richer in characters and POV, and in many respects more accurately portraying the battle it chronicles.

The peculiar thing about Unto This Hour is the degree to which it is dominated by a character who says few words, and whose point of view is never employed. Stonewall Jackson is a dusty, shabby man on a too-small horse, his eyes hidden by a battered cap pulled low. He is always on the edges of this story, and his seemingly random and often apparently haphazard decisions, never explained to subordinates, draw a terrible net around the Federal army sent to confront him.

The story is seen through the eyes of many, but a few stand out. Most compelling for me was the Iron Brigade colonel Reverdy Dowd, based loosely on Wisconsin's Rufus Dawes. His baptism of fire at Brawner's Farm and his rapid maturation as a commander -- this happens a lot! -- appealed to me as a combat veteran. He lets us glimpse how terrible battle is when your information and insights are limited, and gives us the viewpoint of a natural soldier learning his trade.

I also enjoyed the fictional "Sertorius," a British former officer detailed as a correspondent to observe the war. His contempt for both sides in this conflict, and his dismissal of Jackson, contrast with delightful irony when his soldier's eye suddenly perceives that apparently random and rash actions are part of a plan he never glimpsed until the trap was sprung.

There are others -- most disappointing, the dashing cavalry aide Fargo Hart, but including the tragedy of the professional soldier Hoke Arnall, probably based on Dorsey Pender; the rough Corporal Gilmore and his passion for a youthful poet; a group of rowdy Confederate messmates caught in a terrible struggle; the bombastic John Pope, caught in his own illusions; the duplicitous McClellan; the furious, competently driven engineer Herman Haupt; the staff colonel with aching teeth; and a host of supporting characters and vignettes.

Like southern authors from Faulkner to Conroy, Wicker cannot resist a glimpse of the ignorant and hapless small farmer and his ramshacle family and resentful slaves. What is it about writers from the south?

But the most haunting image, counterbalancing the presence of the taciturn Jackson, is a soldier with a traumatic head wound, walking around the battlefield in undead oblivion and functioning with eerie, mindless habit. Both Jackson and the soldier are silent, and we wonder if each is responding automatically to the horrors of combat -- one grimly manipulating its flow based on some innate art, the other drifting with it in numb oblivion.

I've done a little of both in my time of service.