Rating: 
Summary: The Revolution in the South
Review: I might not have read this book if I had not gone to a book signing by President Carter. I had not been particularly interested in the subject.
I gave it four stars rather than three for two reasons: President Carter's research is astounding, and the book did keep my interest throughout.
I do agree with most reviewers that it is a history book trying to be a novel. But I did not mind. I acually found Ethan, the fictional protagonist, to be a flawed but sympathetic human being, like most of us.
"The Hornet's Nest" shows the ugliness and brutality of the American Revolution. There aren't too many "heroes" here (a much over-used word anyway). It gives one pause for thought about who the American people really are.
I do hope President Carter writes a sequel or at least a history of the next 20 or 30 years in the South.
Rating: 
Summary: The Hornet's Nest - Review
Review: I have great respect for Jimmy Carter. He is a wonderful human being. His kindness, understanding, vision, and willingness to do what must be done are outstanding positive examples for human growth. I am grateful for his book about the South's role in the Revolutionary War. Historians fail to mention their contribution to the success of this conflict. However, I don't understand why he chose Ethan Pratt as his main character. To say that Ethan's character flaws are deficient is to say the least. I understood Ethan's inner conflict with the war. Initially, he was a pacifist that eventually grew into militarist. But, he proved himself a coward in several situations. How could he sleep on the eve of his brother's horrific execution? Why didn't he attempt to rescue him? Or, at least talk of the desire to save him? How could he separate with his wife and have an adulterous affair with his neighbor's wife. He abandons , pretty much, his wife Epsey and impregnates his neighbor Mavis on the heels of the murder of his and Epsey's son Henry. Carter's choice of this man as his main character diminishes his attempt to deliver the passion and fervor of the southern mind during this time in our Nation's history.
Rating:
Summary: It works as a history, but not as a novel.
Review: I have tremendous admiration and respect for former President Carter. I am truly sorry I can't post a better review of his first novel, but - well, here it is.
The book's greatest strength is the tremendous amount of research that went into it. It works wonderfully well as a history of the American Revolution in the South, and that's certainly a neglected viewpoint. It is also, exactly as I would expect, well written from a technical standpoint.
Presented as nonfiction, I'd have found it enjoyable reading; but for me it didn't work as a novel. Its characters speak in stilted, pedagogical voices, imparting information to modern readers when they should be interacting with each other in believable fashion. The endless pages of detail would be appropriate in a history book, but in fiction they make excruciatingly slow reading because they fail - most of the time, anyway - to move the plot along. Getting lost in the story and caring about the characters might happen for some other reader, but it wasn't possible for me. I learned from this book, but I can't say that I was entertained by it.
Rating:
Summary: I give it a C+
Review: The Hornet's Nest will have a place in literary history because it is the first fiction book writen by a former president but the book is more than just a trivia entry. Hornet's Nest is a decent work of fiction. It's a little dull in places and no-one can compare this to John Jakes's stuff. People won't be reading it 40 years from now but that's okay. The book has sturdy, business like writing. Most of the details are correct. Carter doesn't try to make his hero sound like a 21rst century man and except for one silly mistake (Nobody wore trousers back then. Men wore breeches and they were always tight) it works. This isn't the greatest fiction I've read this year but it's far from the worst.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting history - not very interesting storytelling
Review: This book was given to me as a gift this past Christmas. I am a fan of Jimmy Carter's humanitarian efforts but I hadn't read any of his literature. The book starts out nice with the Pratt's in Philadelphia and their journey to North Carolina. After that, it gets hard to follow. The basic problem as I see it is that there is a wealth of historical facts that Mr. Carter tries unsuccessfully to spin an interesting tale around. My main complaint is that he skips from character to character without warning. He will be going in depth on how Ethan feels about his political sentiments and the next sentence he is introducing a completely new character. The next time we get back to Ethan may be 50 pages later. This back and forth writing style is irritating and prevalent throughout the entire book. Personally, I find this hard to follow. I like historical non-fiction as-well-as fiction; however, this book does not succeed as either. I recommend this book only to the reader that is very interested in learning about the Revolutionary War and doesn't mind the confusing and hectic writing style of the author.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent history crippled by 8th-grade writing
Review: This could have been an excellent book. The plot is interesting, the historical details are accurate and richly detailed. And the characters certainly had potential.
But the writing is so amatuerish, pedantic, and lacking in emotion that it ends up being difficult to complete the book. This latter quality is why I rated it poorly. The plot is so straightforward that it may as well be a textbook.
Nevertheless, I DO recommend this book for anyone interested in the era and circumstances surrounding the birth of the United States. It provides a good account of the North Carolina Regulators, a mostly overlooked and usually misunderstood event essential to understanding the true situation in the lower colonies.
It also provides interesting details of life during this period from the perspective of the ups and downs of the middle class.
I applaud former President Carter for the exactness and extent of his historical research. I also am in debt for the focus on such an over-looked but crucial period of our country's history. But I heartily wish that he had utilized the services of a competent writer to make the book more readable.
Rating:
Summary: A War Within A War.
Review: After eight previous published books written by our former U.S. president (one co-authored with Rosalynn) he has been a busy man writing an over-long novel purportedly about the South's particiapation in the Revolutionary War. He wrote journals, poems, meditations, a primer on aging, memoirs, and some inspirational pieces. This, however, is totally fiction (more than 900 pages in the LP version). He uses letter to the militia to keep up morale from the Governor's agent. He involves the Creeks and Cherokees in this eight year war (1775-1783) taken place in Georgia of all places.He and Rosalynn build houses for the poor working class, and I wonder when he has time to write. This can't compare with CITY OF DREAMS, which was based on many years of research. He mentions the brutality of this war. There is great brutality in any war, even when the American Indians are not the enemy. His ending, "For the next half century, legal and military battles would be fought over the conflicting claims for land, and the ravages of slavery and its aftermath would affect the nation for another 150 years." His next novel, no doubt, will be about the underground railroad in which the Southern blacks were secretly moved to the North, the atrocities of the Civil War and its aftermath in the South, or maybe he will do a bit of research and write about THE TRAIL OF TEARS in which our beloved Cherokees were forced to relocate to Oklahoma. The Creeks, I think, stayed in Florida. Maybe his home state of Georgia.
|
