5.0 out of 5 stars
I Wish I Were in the Land of Cotton!, July 24, 2006
With its big Confederate colors across the cover and opening scene scouting the fringes of a battle in Northern Virginia, I was initially afraid that Michael Loyd Gray's debut would follow in the deep wheel ruts of countless Civil War historical novels that had covered this territory before. But Michael Loyd Gray's Dixie has moved on.
The Confederate States has abolished slavery more than a century before, and has also abolished the NRA and ejected Charleton Heston. Former Texas governor George W. Bush has also left the South due to its legislation against corporate rape of the environment and executives that screw over their workers. This novel celebrates a culture that Southerners can rightly take part in.
By the 1999 of the novel's opening, the United States and the Confederate States have lived side by side in peace for 135 years. They have fought side by side in both World Wars and the Asian conflicts that came after. Both nations love Elvis and watch Hollywood movies. Both have been overrun by Starbucks and Taco Bells. There is a sentiment that if the Berlin Wall could come down, perhaps it's time for these brother nations to finally set aside their differences. Confederate Nation is a story of reunification.
True, there are protests and a bomb outside the United States embassy in the Confederate capital of Washington D.C. But this novel is not the expected Tom Clancy-esque sci-fi of colourful generals and exciting charges across American landscapes, this time with mechanized cavalry. No way. Gray's story is more human, more interesting, more believable and wonderfully involving. Main character Grail Hudson, an Illinois-based professor and CSA expert, journeys south to witness the reunion first-hand, and soon finds himself on the podium beside US President Bill Clinton and CS President Jimmy Carter signing the reunification bill into law as a sixty-four year old Elvis Presley sings "Love me Tender."
That's right, Elvis is out of retirement, alive, well (if a bit senile) and one of the main characters in this wonderful novel. Why? Read Mr. Gray's explanation for yourself in the sidebar accompanying our interview. Let me just say: it works. It feels good.
Grail, Elvis, and a redemption-seeking former porn star named Wad Upshot set off in "the mother of all Cadillacs, a red El Dorado convertible with white leather interior and green and yellow dice hanging from the rear view mirror" as Confederate Nation becomes a wonderful road story in search of Grail's old man. This is great stuff, careening off into new territory while making old landmarks take on new meanings.
How so much fun was packed in 162 short pages I will have to re-read to find out.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book, May 10, 2006
Confederate Nation
Special appearance by Elvis Presley
by Michael Loyd Gray
General Fiction
Published by iUniverse 2005
Reviewer: Pamela Ackerson (author of Home of the Braves, We the People)
Confederate Nation is a unique story with twists in the plot that keeps the reader intent on wanting to know what will happen next. Michael Gray puts a different perspective of how our country would be if the South won the war against the North and we became two separate nations. Reunification is impending when the main character, Grail Hudson, a historian and professor at the University of Illinois, learns that his father is alive ... and a southern radical. Hudson's quest for truth takes him to the Confederate States where he finds himself entangled with the famous Elvis Presley and Robert, an ex porn star, as his traveling companions.
The novel is an entertaining journey of discovery with enough reality weaving through the story line to grab the reader and make them want to keep turning the pages.
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