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Canaan: A Novel of the Reunited States after the War

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When the opening scene of this wonderful novel consists of the execution of a Santee Sioux for a crime that he did not commit, the reader is on notice that this will not be a cheerful, light hearted tale. But Donald McCaig's newest historical novel is very well crafted, insightful, and often memorable. If it serves as an elegy for the broken dreams and crushed hopes of Reconstruction, as a new nation forgot about the slaves it had freed and devoted itself to destroying the last remnants of the Plains Indians, so be it. The facts are on the author's side, and he clothes his ideas in irresistable characters, especially that of "Plenty Cuts", a Sioux warrior who was once Edward Ratcliff, an escaped slave who served as a Sergeant Major in the Union Army. McCaig covers some of the same territory explored in the movies "Dances with Wolves" and "Little Big Man" and the novels of A.B. Guthrie, and stands up to the comparisons.
McCaig has got to be one of the most underappreciated historical novelists of our time. Read this book. You will have an easier time following it if you read his "Jacob's Ladder" first, the Civil War novel in which many of the characters in "Canaan" are introduced.

This book is a sequel to McCaig's award-winning novel, "Jacob's Ladder," but enough background is given in this book to make it understandable for those readers who missed "J.L." McCaig gives us a surprisingly vivid, honest, and complex vision of Virginia, and especially Richmond, during Reconstruction. He does not mince words, accurately depicting the struggles faced by both whites and blacks in the aftermath of war, how each were exploited by the government as well as individuals, and how Northern policies, particularly with respect to railroad development, eventually led to economic ruin. Some of the scenes he paints are not particularly "politically correct," but McCaig has the courage to to tell the truth. This is not a drily told tale -- readers will empathize both with Jesse Burns, the ex-slave turned Virginia assemblyman, and Duncan Gatewood, the son of Jesse's former master, who becomes disillusioned and decides to seek his fortune out West. There a parallel tale unfolds, of similar greed and exploitative policies, this time of the Native Americans. McCaig offers an occasional first-person narrative by a Santee Sioux woman, She Goes Before, narratives that are lyrical and poetic, and speak simply of Sioux beliefs and ways. The story culminates in the battle of Little Big Horn, a "massacre" that might have been avoided, had the government kept its promises and allowed the Native Americans to retain their cultural identity and live a decent life.

This is a solid, well-written effort, and my only complaint with it is the same one I had with "Jacob's Ladder": the last quarter of the book feels rushed and isn't told with the same pacing and detail as the first 300 or so pages. As a result, the greed, arrogance, and attitude of entitlement that culminated in Custer's massacre are not as well portrayed, and not as well understood by the reader, as the similar forces that drove Reconstruction policies in the South. But my quibble is a relatively small one. This is a complex story that could have completely imploded in less skilled hands, but McCaig has done an admirable job of researching and writing this cautionary tale about Paradise: how it's defined by different groups of people, the lengths to which people will go to attain it, and the fallacy of seeking it elsewhere, rather than creating your own where you are.

This is a terrific historical novel, even better than "Jacob's Ladder."

Lee's surrender at Appomattox impacts all Americans, but especially those in the south, the border states and even out west. Everywhere people struggle to adjust to the new world order as lives and relationships have changed. In this post war era, on their Stratford plantation, family patriarch Samuel Gatewoods seems in shock as he adjusts. His son Duncan comes home having lost an arm and suffering from battle fatigue syndrome compounded by his fighting as an officer for the losing side. Instead of working the plantation, Duncan builds railroads for former Confederate General Mahone while Samuel supplies them with crossties. Mahone's financer northern carpetbagger Eben Barnwell audaciously courts Samuel's granddaughter Pauline. Samuel's freed slave Jesse gives up on his dream of reuniting with his wife Maggie sold by Samuel when he owned both of them. Instead he is elected a Virginia Assemblyman.

Out west, Lakota woman She Goes Before talks about her father's hanging and her rape as she travels to Montana to marry a former slave, Union Sergeant, Ratcliff. As the years go by, Custer is in Montana along with some of those easterners like Eben who left his wife Pauline to seek a new fortune and Ratcliff returning to his military glory days.

Though a lot is packed in this profound fascinating look at the grim Reconstruction Era, historical fiction fans will want to read Donald McCaig's CANAAN, the sequel to JACOB'S LADDER. Give yourself plenty of time as the back and forth action can turn complex and convoluted though always intense. The story line focuses on these harassed characters representing three races as each tries to survive a world no longer remotely what it was before the war. Americana readers will appreciate this strong look at what happened in the east, south and west from the day after Appomattox until Custer's Last Stand.

Harriet Klausner

In much the same vein as Charles Fraziers historic tales, Cold Mountain: A Novel and Thirteen Moons: A Novel, another Appalachian native, Donald McCaig, exhibits a similar knack for human warmth. Both have steeped themselves in the essential minutiae of historical fiction, the detail needed to bring old times into clear focus: the tools, the food, the conflict, the gender roles and the primitivism that let a reader visit another century and then provide characters whose fates seem worth following through a 400 page slog.

McCaig is at the top his game here. He couldn't get much better. This sequel to JACOB's LADDER reprises some of the same characters but this book is smoking with energy and brilliantly drawn scenes. It seems clear that his ex-slave Private Ratcliffe aka Plenty Cuts aka Top has simply wrested the book away from McCaig. And oh, what a sweet abduction.

Set in the dozen years following the close of the Civil War, CANAAN takes readers from Virginia to Montana to New York City and other points south, east, and west. The action is fast and filled with stunning imagery. The carpetbaggers are treacherous. The freed slaves range from bootlickers to insubordinate. And the Indians, Oh the Indians are so well done that McCaig might single-handedly bring back the WESTERN. (Larry McMurtry, take heed).

As I mentioned, Ratcliffe steals the show from the ranks of the Union Army as it musters down to the banks of the Little Big Horn and the climactic demise of the Custer boys. I can't give away any more. Read the book.

A masterpiece!

An amazing book - a fast read - picks up where Jacob's Ladder ends thru the Battle of the Little Big Horn - If you like Civil War era books, you will love this one. I just happen to come acros these books when I purchasd his new one - Rhett Butler's People - I highly recommend this book!!!!!!

I'm not going to write a long review or quote from the book.

I simply liked the book. Reasons:
It brought new perspective to me.
I liked the recipes that were inserted in the front of many chapters - nice touch.
I liked the period language and thoughts.

I found the story compelling and read through the novel quickly. I have already made a recommendation to personal friends to read this book and thought I would share with you, that recommendation.

Donald McCaig's novel "Canaan" follows half a dozen families from a variety of venues, from slave and plantation owner, poor and rich, and Native American from half a dozen tribes during the reconstruction era in the east and the simultaneous rush to settle the west. Reconstruction in the east involved volatile economic forces and a massive displacement of people. At the same time settling the west involved the deliberate and cruel displacement of thousands of Native Americans who's land had been theirs since the beginning of time.

Only a scholar and humanist of author McCaig's stature could balance so many balls -- and he does that brilliantly. While large scope history is being delineated in this book, small "c" characters with ordinary lives are falling in love, marrying, raising children, and trying to make a living--all of that in a nation in chaos. Consider that from the perspective of the variety of people (literally all Americans of the period, natives, ex-slaves, politicians and stockbrokers, etc.) are portrayed. Using alleged newspaper articles, correspondence, etc., the novel is an assemblage of vignettes and portraits of social customs of all Americans on this relatively new continent.

There are so many truly great things in "Canaan" it is difficult to choose just a few as examples, but I found one of the most charming to be a Lacota Buffalo Hunter who assumed the spirit of a Buffalo Cow and danced her dance leading the herd into a trap. While the scope and sequence of the novel is breathtaking, author McCaig also provides countless "micro" examples of his control of language that is clean and fresh, and sometimes humorous.

"The room's liveliest object was a plain-faced clock in an ebony case that hesitated as if the clock was taking a breath between each tick and tock;" "The buttons marched up her corseted bosom like funeral coins;" "The Brooklyn ferry hooted past great sailing vessels, shouldering aside steam tugs, fishing smacks, and lighters."

In all, Donald McCaig has written a really fine book with obviously awesome research for the tiniest details. History buffs, and that's most of us, will love this book, but it's also probably true that Mr. McCaig has let his love of history overpower the novel and it's difficult to follow the drama of characters in conflict with so many interjections of historical information.

This book is the sequel to Jacobs Ladder, Both Books set in the Civil War time period. Good read but not as good as the first book to me. You will however enjoy the book.

First of all, let me state that the book is good, in my opinion. Second of all, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed. But my dissapointment is really the fault of Mr. McCaig because he did such a marvelous job with "Jacob's Ladder" the precursor to this book. I was so thrilled to find that Mr. McCaig had followed up with "Canaan" that my expectations were really in the stratosphere.

In summary, a very good book as a stand alone, but if you've read "Jacobs Ladder," I would stop there.