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Columbia: Reflections in Broken Glass

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Set during the American Civil War, Columbia: Reflections in Broken Glass explores several core themes through the competing motivations of one central and ten supporting characters, including the subjective nature of justice, the overt and subtle oppression of racism, the enduring truth of art, and the unending search for purpose in human affairs.

On the narrative level, the novel tells the story of Theodore Lomax, a young man committed to the ideal of human freedom who joins the Union Army late in the War. Assigned to a force bent on the complete annihilation of the Confederacy, Lomax at first participates in the destruction of civilian property in Columbia, South Carolina, believing the acts are justified by Southern resistance to the Northern cause of emancipation. But when the destruction escalates into violence against the civilians themselves, Lomax becomes suddenly disillusioned, and in his confusion he strikes out in opposition to his own countrymen. He is quickly ostracized as a result and, when not fully embraced by the southerners among whom he seeks shelter, Lomax struggles to tell right from wrong in a world turned seemingly upside down.

On a structural level, the story is told from Lomax's perspective in chapters interspersed with narrative sketches of incidents from the lives of the supporting characters. These alternating stories are the reflections in broken glass referred to in the novel's title, and provide a non-linear progression for both character development and their relationships. In the painful intersection of all these lives, the novel speculates on the paths that converge to bring the characters together, and doubts the existence of a design that could be the master of such complexity.