Customer Reviews

Confederates

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Keneally uses the high point of the Southron Confederacy as the setting for this brilliant historical novel. Reaching through the ranks, he selects a Shenandoah Valley private and his mates - "confederates" - to reveal the horrors of war with vivid reality. Usaph Bumpass moves with Stonewall Jackson's Virginians through the Valley and into the first Confederate invasion of the North. Through it all Usaph carries concerns about his "swamp tramp" Ephaphtha living at the edge of the combat area. Her loyalty, her past, her well-being, all intrude on his thoughts while he's trying to survive. Never once, however, does he question why he's in the war. The Confederacy is a miasma of conflicting values. Even natives of the South have uncertain views of what precisely is the "cause" they're fighting for. Keneally ably presents us with these variations of philosophy and the people holding them.

Equally fluent in passion or pathos, Keneally's describes battles, intrigues and romance conveyed with powerful reality. With a solid research foundation, he fashions images of people and events with superb clarity. From domestic struggles to the clash of battles, we share every emotional upheaval. Keneally portrays the intensity of war with an surprising clarity as it cuts off friend and foe alike. For a man who once trained for the priesthood, he places the reader alongside his people with deceptive ease. A master at conveying people and environment, he deserves full recognition for his talents. This book will remain a classic of Civil War literature. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

I'd intended to read this book for years (came across it in a book of good reading recommendations), but didn't start reading it till last week. It is a real page-turner, and not only held my attention as I read it but made the kiind of impact that led me, after I had finished the book, to brouse through it again.

In my opinion, it is not only a major fictional recreation of a key stage in the U.S. Civil War (basically, the months that culminated in the battle known to the north as Antietam [the south as Sharpsburg, which is how it shows up in the endpaper maps], but one of the top ten war novels that I've read over the last 50-odd years. I'd rank Keneally's CONFEDERATES just below WAR AND PEACE and Crane's RED BADGE OF COURAGE, and somewhat above Hemingway and the few good World War II novels (Mailer, Waugh, and the forgotten Russian Stalin-era novel, Simonov's DAYS AND NIGHTS).

The detail in the book, both of the feellings of soldiers in combat and of factual material (very good material on field surgery in the Confederacy - probably not hugely different than in the North, but the whole book is done, with a few exceptions, from the perspective of the "doomed cause" of the South) surpasses most of what I've read. The feel of the book (its literary quality) is interesting: it is gritty and realistic, but the rhythm and style sufficiently echoes nineteenth century writing at its best so that you really feel you are there, with men and women of that era.

I have three suggestions:

1. If you haven't read this book, get a copy and read it.
2. If you read it years ago, read it again. I've noted in my calendar to read it again in a few years. Among other things, it adds to our insight, I think (as good books often do), on situations that we are trying to understand and deal with today.
3. The publishers should bring this book back into print and movie producers (or TV) should give it serious consideration for a high-quality production.

An Australian author writing about the American Civil War? It is not as silly as it sounds, and in the hands of Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark) it is quite engaging. Stretching from the Seven Days Campaign to Antietam, this novel covers the lives of a group of soldiers in the 'Stonewall Brigade' of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The chief protaganists are a farmer (Usaph Bumpass), his wife at home (Effie), a painter with Northern sympathies (Decatur Cate) and an ameteur composer (Gus Rameseur). Don't be put off by the length - it is an addictive read that you will find hard to put down. It is a very good worm's eye view of the reality of war: hours of sheer boredom followed by moments of sheer hell. The battle scenes are quite good and even the romantic sub-plot remains sensible and realistic. My only gripe is with some of the better known historical characters - for Civil War buffs the faults will be obvious (including the maps in the cigars) but for ev! ! eryone else it should not be too much of a problem.

Unlike War and Peace, Confederates spurns all romanticism, employing instead the dignity of ordinary men and women and the mundane details of real life to convey the horrors of warfare with a realism perhaps unmatched in Civil War literature. With no comic relief, no hints at happy endings, and no escape from the inevitability of this nightmare, the cumulative effect of Keneally's novel is staggering.

The Confederate army we meet here consists of ragged and hungry teachers, musicians, small farmers, orphaned children, men in their 60's, conscripts, and even the sorely ill and walking wounded, who share their stories and simple dreams as they trudge resignedly and painfully across Virginia toward their destiny-the Battle of Harper's Ferry/Antietam. Despite the tactical brilliance of General Tom "Stonewall" Jackson, the battle itself eventuates in the most horrific blood-letting and soul-wrenching trauma I've ever seen described. Homely details, described in a plain, almost offhanded manner, lend great irony and bring the enormity of the carnage into focus: split-rail fences with their "crops of dead," cornfields with human remnants "lying in heaps that must be climbed," young soldiers forced to tread on "a mat of Christian boys," and the very air above the cornfield "flying with bits of the corn crop and with limbs, naked and clothed, and with haversacks and heads and hands."

I cannot imagine any Civil War novel which will affect the reader more profoundly than this one. Exhaustively researched, historically accurate, brilliantly depicted, and absolutely unforgettable, it pulses with the lives of our forebears and makes gratitude seem inadequate for their sacrifices.

I just finished reading this this morning. It was a very unique view of the war and how it affected the soldiers, and, to some extent their families. Usaph Bumpass (was there ever a more "hillbilly" name?) leaves his beautiful wife, Ephie, with his aunt and goes off to war with Stonewall Jackson's men. We meet up with them in the summer of 1862, when the group is joined by conscripts, including one who has just left Usaph's wife after painting her picture and falling in love with her. Intertwined in the story is that of Searcy, an English newspaperman, and Dora Whipple, a hospital matron of Northern leanings. As the summer wears on, we go into battle with the brigade and learn their history, leading up the battle of Antietam.

Yes, there is a lot of discussion about bowel movements, but that was important back then. Yes, there is a lot of sex in the book; I don't know if the women of the south were as immoral as he paints them as, but they were people and had needs.

I found the discussion, often frank, of how men died to be probably the most horrible and yet most poignant parts of the book. These boys joined and walked off to find glory and have stories, and yet, so many of them end up with horrible deaths. And you are there, you know what they think. You can envision it. One boy is vaporized by a cannon; later they wonder where he has gone, and no one knows. How sad that seems.

One part I did find troubling was that quite a bit of the Dora Whipple story details appear to be pulled from Phoebe Pember's "A Southern Woman's Story", which is cited as source material. I wouldn't have been so bothered had it been battle incidents that were being quoted, but this was different; they weren't inspired by, they were taken directly from Pember's journal.

A lot less troubling, but still inaccurate was his description of the invasion of Maryland. The army crossed at Edwards' Ferry, downriver, and, to my knowledge, there was not a settlement at White's Ford. Nor is it in Frederick County. It was part of the Medley District. Small detail, but, with the subject of the civil war, you have to pay attention.

This must be one of the best things Keneally has ever done and how it avoided winning the Booker is simply mesmerizing. This Australian author really has no right to go about writing on such a closely-studied and well-documented theme as the American Civil War and the various side issues that went along with it. I suppose that's why I stared at the spine of this book as it sat on a shelf in my library for year after year, without ever opening it. Yet it has proven one of the more delectable pieces of writing of the past ten years, the more so for being such an "unlikely find." Whatever possessed this Aussie to tackle such a subject and how did he settle on this method. For Keneally takes us on the road through Manassas and Bull Run and, as we know, onto Appotomax, although this particular narrative stops short of that final episode. He leads us through soldier's fields, some filled with the detritus of a southern army being overpowered only by a lack of resources, some filled with these same good folk, but now in the innumerable pieces that cannon and sustained breech-loading fire leave behind. He takes us in close to the generals, gives us some insight into the vast movements, both political and religious, that were swaying these mighty armies back and forth across the map of Old Virginny, and even shows us something of what the common soldiery were, perforce, leaving behind at home.

It's an uncanny tale, cannily related by a gifted writer and storyteller at the top of his mark. If you can stomach some gruesome details along the way, you will not be one ounce disappointed by this book. It's masterful.

Many Civil War novels convey the physical carnage of 19th century battle. But few transmit the moral horror of slavery and the war the way CONFEDERATES does. It seems to have taken an author from far-off Australia to get to the war's central fact: it was a battle for human liberation in which brave and devoted individual Confederates fought to preserve a horrendous system. In the course of the book, ten or so related characters endure the war's relentless meatgrinder from the Seven Days to Antietam, with few surviving in one piece. Most shocking and effective: the stories of the nurse who spies for the North, and the country boy who thinks he can't be killed. (The latter contains some truly bizarre supernatural elements which work perfectly to enhance the theme.) Lincoln's Second Inaugural says that only blood can expiate our nation's sin of slavery. CONFEDERATES shows that expiation playing out in individual lives. See also the same author's other masterpiece, SCHINDLER'S LIST.

This book seems to have been written with a lot of research. This book very much strikes you as realistic look at a band of friends in Lee's army. One can find himself believeing the story to be true. There are 3 stories here, those of a nurse in the Confederate army and her British lover, the story of Stonewall himself and his aides and peers, and of a handful of simple privates in Stonewall's command. All the stories are full and interesting and don't feel like they are too short or too long. They all describe life during the Civil War with much detail, and all seem lifelike. At times the book is sad, sometimes funny, and often greusome. It really captures the spirit of the rebel soldiers. The only problem with this book is one part where a very supernatural thing is witnessed by a soldier that involves cryogenic freezing of people and anual bringing back to life. It is very out of place and is never really resolved. None of the rest of the book has any magic or witchcraft, and this part seems like it was just thrown in for fun. That said, that part is rather interesting. All Civil War buffs like me should read it, and anyone can learn a great deal about the hardships and issues of the war.

For once, I'm in agreement with other reviewers: this is the best. Keneally has as his characters members of the Stonewall Brigade, from the completely fictional Usaph and his companions to Stonewall Jackson and Kyd Douglas. He's reasonably historically accurate, and presents an exciting, effective story without romanticizing. His use of language is almost beyond reproach. His fictional account of the battle of Sharpsburg is the best I have read. If I have one criticism, it's that I thought Ephie was a little too "easy" for the time period, but that's minor. Read this.

Ever wonder what happened when you were hit point blank with grape shot from a cannon? Neither had I, but now I know, in vivid detail.

An epic novel that puts you emotionally in the middle of the Civil War. The descriptive detail Keneally delivers to those fortunate enough to read this book brings the war alive. The mid-19th century mind set and thought process is alive and understandable. It is all here, all you need to do is read. The author may be from Australia but there must be a reincarnation woven into his soul.