Customer Reviews

"Going Home"

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lorraine Tate has taken authentic Civil War documents, added personal accounts and done a remarkable job of interleaving them into a modern story of passions bordering at times on the supernatural. A very good read.

Going home weaves one story, in epistolary form, of a family disrupted by the War Between the States (as they might have called it) with the tale of a modern family disrupted by the tragic and untimely death of their wife and mother. How each family deals with the conditions forced upon them is both engaging and satisfying. But more than that, the author examines the relationship between knowing and remembering, the effect of one generation on the next and how and where to find strength in a troubled time. I found this book thought provoking and multi-layered, yet accessible and entertaining.

Going Home appeals to a wide range of readers. It contains drama for the younger crowd with history mixed in for the more mature audience and maybe even the history buff. Tate really has a talent for submerging her readers into her story by making you laugh out loud in some spots as well as gasping from shock just around the next corner. Going Home is the perfect balance between fiction and non-fiction, and I can't wait to read the next book by Lorraine Tate.

This book has everything; drama over family values, civil war history, suspence, and romance. The problems faced by the people in these stories are real, and we are all sure to find one of the characters in the book to identify with. The factual history so elequently woven throughout the book was gripping. I could not put it down.

Lorraine Tate elegantly blends fiction and non fiction as she creates haunting love stories from the Civil War era and modern day. She moves from the past to the present and back again through letters and supernatural visions. Her knowledge of Civil War history is deep and creatively intertwined with delightful fictious characters.

Lorraine Tate's Going Home is a tapestry.

The fabric of the novel is an intimate story of love and suffering during the Civil War, traced in letters which cross the battle lines as the Civil War sweeps across the South.

Woven into this Civil War fabric is the story of a modern family on the verge of unraveling, a family which is ultimately knitted together as the past is revealed to be indivisibly connected to the present.

At once grand and intimate, the powerful emotions and the meticulously detailed observation of this book fill the senses of the reader.

Lorraine Tate has done a wonderful job of intertwining fiction & non-fiction. The reader goes on a journey with a modern day family & at the same time learns a little. Can't wait for the sequel.

Going Home is an immensely readable book that captures the reader's attention from the beginning and never lets go. In this creatively written story, we see the the past come to life in the current lived experiences of a family in crisis. Based on historical events that took place during the Civil War, we see a family's "intergenerational transmission process" in operation, as visions of the past emerge in a vehicle beyond words to impact the present. As we are transported from present to past and back again, we see how long-ago family stories and experiences come to dwell in and impact future generations. At the end of the book we are left yearning to know more about this family's story and ultimately about the possibilities of "forgotten" stories of our own families. Lorraine Tate is a masterful storyteller.