- Joined
- Mar 3, 2017
- Location
- Chicagoland
I recently finished reading The March
by E.L. Doctorow Random House 2006.
The book is a fictional account of Sherman's March to the Sea told through the exploits and adventures of a large cast of characters. It opens at a plantation somewhere between Atlanta and Milledgeville, Georgia, where a group of newly freed slaves stands by the roadside watching a huge cloud of dust on the horizon that presages the approach of Sherman's army and it ends with the shocking assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Using his undeniable lyrical prose talent, Doctorow weaves together the stories of historical and invented characters - like Sherman himself; the freed slave girl, Pearl, and Yankee soldier, Stephen Walsh to whom Pearl is drawn; Will and Arly, condemned rebel prisoners, whose often comic hijinks are blended with serious life and death drama; southern belle Emily Thompson and Colonel Wrede Sartorious, the seemingly unfeeling Yankee surgeon who learns a lot about being a man from Emily.
Doctorow brilliantly demonstrates the chaos and randomness of war through the actual fighting and the deeds and reactions of his characters who are three dimensionally drawn and historically accurate. This book beautifully and realistically portrays the concept that "war is hell."
I would give this book two thumbs up or five stars or whatever and I enthusiastically recommend it to all who haven't yet read it.
by E.L. Doctorow Random House 2006.
The book is a fictional account of Sherman's March to the Sea told through the exploits and adventures of a large cast of characters. It opens at a plantation somewhere between Atlanta and Milledgeville, Georgia, where a group of newly freed slaves stands by the roadside watching a huge cloud of dust on the horizon that presages the approach of Sherman's army and it ends with the shocking assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Using his undeniable lyrical prose talent, Doctorow weaves together the stories of historical and invented characters - like Sherman himself; the freed slave girl, Pearl, and Yankee soldier, Stephen Walsh to whom Pearl is drawn; Will and Arly, condemned rebel prisoners, whose often comic hijinks are blended with serious life and death drama; southern belle Emily Thompson and Colonel Wrede Sartorious, the seemingly unfeeling Yankee surgeon who learns a lot about being a man from Emily.
Doctorow brilliantly demonstrates the chaos and randomness of war through the actual fighting and the deeds and reactions of his characters who are three dimensionally drawn and historically accurate. This book beautifully and realistically portrays the concept that "war is hell."
I would give this book two thumbs up or five stars or whatever and I enthusiastically recommend it to all who haven't yet read it.
Last edited: