Customer Reviews

Grant Speaks

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

This is a graceful and beautifully written book which revolves around a wonderful double conceit. First, that U.S. Grant stole the identity of a local namesake and took his place at West Point and second, that Grant had a mystical vision which promised that Grant (but which Grant?) would lead vast armies of men in the cause of human redemption. The power of the tale is that Grant can never know if he or the man whose identity he stole is the subject of the vision. Before the Civil War, Grant a failed peacetime soldier and businessman is sure that he is simply an impostor. As the great general who leads the Union Armies in the cause of human freedom, he is convinced that he really is the promised redeemer. As a sick and broken businessman after his term as president, he again faces his life as if he were a failure. Ehrlich's Grant teaches us we can never fully know the impact of our lives in the moment and that the decisions we make cannot simply be justified on the basis of a vision or divine command. We are responsible as moral actors for our acts whose results we can never fully anticipate.

This is certainly not a perfect book. General Sherman's addiction to the "f" word is jarring and anachronistic. The final section falls a bit flat. But these shortcomings don't prevent Grant Speaks from being a moving and entertaining novel

So far I agree with all the negative reviews of this book, but no one has mentioned the most stupid part. How about when Mary Lincoln lunges for Grant's crotch and gyrates against him? Poor Abe, poor Grant.

I am not an expert on Grant, but even I know from reading here and there that the man was loyal as the day is long to his wife. Had any woman grabbed his crotch (aside from Mrs. G.) I am sure he would have fled red-faced into his room and locked the door.

There's a lot of offensive material in here, starting with the dust jacket. All in all, any author that smears U.S. Grant as badly as this deserves all the negative reviews. Avoid this trash like the plague.

I find it funny that some reviews tell people to read biographies rather than this fictional work. If you're interested in a history lesson this likely isn't the book for you. I'm sure you'll glean the general flow of Grant's life from GRANT SPEAKS, but biography it's not. And I can't be happier.

This book is a page-turner. While rooted in history, it diverges in wonderfully creative ways! It is a bold book with something to say about Grant, the period in America, and the human condition in general.

At times I felt the book tried too hard to be funny when all it needed was to look at the humanity it had set up, but overall this a solid four-star selection.

Kirkus Review: "Ehrlich has invaded Thomas Berger's territory and emerged (as might be expected) without victory, but without disgracing himself either."

Agreed, except he did disgrace himself and President Grant.

If you had a Minus 5, that is what I would rate it. Buy Simpson, Porter or Grant himself from amazon.com and spare yourself this drivel.

Grant speaks to us all in Ehrlich's spellbinder about winning, losing, and the extraordinary life of US Grant. Who knew how interesting Grant's story was, even before the fictionalizing begins? Selling firewood on a street in St. Louis in rags one day, a busted clerk in a leather goods store a few years later, and then a general within a year. Start with this type of truth, add imagination and perception, and you end with a fascinating delight. I finished it in two days and wanted more.

Both funny and serious, the book is filled with characters that light up every page -- from the driven Sherman to the extraordinary Eli Parker. The portrait of Lincoln is warm and human, even if if not in line with the hagiographic canon. But even beyond the characters and the story, the book has a great, great voice -- that of US Grant himself. We hear and understand his success as a soldier and his failure as a President and why they stem from the same characteristics ("Politics is like war without the physical violence or lasting resolution, which is unfortunate, as organizing violence and pursuing resolution were all I was ever good at.")

One senses that Joseph Heller and Sam Clemens found a way to collaborate from the great beyond and then invented Ehrlich as a psuedonym.

As a fan of George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman' series, I was intrigued by the premise of Ev Ehrlich's 'Grant Speaks'. It seems that the Ulysses S. Grant that was a hero of the Civil War and President of the United States of America wasn't Ulysses S. Grant but actually a Hiram Ulysses Grant, who took over the other Grant's identity following a shameful episode. This is an enjoyable dismantling of history, featuring cameos of real historical figures like Lincoln, Lee, Sherman and of course the ersatz Grant. A winner all the way..but it would be advisable to read Perret's Soldier and President' or even Grant's 'Personal Memoirs' to know what's fact and fiction! If you love that cad Harry Flashman, you'll love 'Grant Speaks'!

There is much inaccuracy here and I feel like I know Ulysses better than anybody. Ulysses was a great and glorious hero, a brave and wise statesman and handsome to boot. This book treats him like a scaliwagging carpetbagger and as a drunkard, which offends me mortally.

The Ulysses Grant I am acquainted with (wink) does not appear within the soiled and degrading pages of this vile tome.

I have failed to discover any works by the self-professed "historian" whose reviews grace this website. He flatters himself.

"I personally haven't contacted any of the historians mentioned to review Ehrlich's book, why would I?"

One who claims that Grant scholars endorse it might cite some evidence in support of that contention, and that would come as a result of soliciting their opinion. That's what a historian would do. Perhaps you find such practice alien to your nature. I don't begrudge someone who likes this book, that's their prerogative. I happened to find it a trivial, mean-spirited exercise in low humor. But for the person whose crusade it is to give positive reviews, get a life, grow up, or at least go back to your insular world and stop disparaging real historians (and you are not one), it's petty and childish. I'm sure you have students who handle situations with more maturity. They would be embarrassed to see their teacher act as he has.

If you believe that MARRIED WITH CHILDREN is high culture, you'll love this "masterful romp" of absurdity that feeds on the fertilizer of ignorance. If you want to understand your nation's past in general or Ulysses S. Grant in particular, go elsewhere. Beware, however -- you won't see reviews by a certain self-professed historian (or any of the book's other celebrants) attached to ordering information. Some people like their history warped to match their own inclinations and predilictions as they bounce from web site to web site to share their prefabricated assessments. My compliments to Warner Books' publicity department.

I consider myself a serious student of the American Civil War, so made the mistake of picking up this "historical novel" while on a business trip. It might have been intended by the author to be funny, but is an insult to anyone who knows or cares anything about U.S. history, the American Civil War or truth in general.

It is a blatant and vicious attack on the character and reputation of Ulysses S. Grant, his family. and other great or lesser figures of the most critical period of our country's history. The victims include Abraham Lincoln, W.T. Sherman, James Garfield, and Samuel Clemens. It is a badly written hatchet job that like an Oliver Stone "documentary" appeals only to the ignorant and self-absorbed intelligentsia who are gullible enough to believe anything, as long as it agrees with their own biased views.

God knows Grant was a flawed individual and not a terribly successful President. But he deserves better than this. He was, after all, a bone fide hero in a time of heroes.

Then I noticed on the fly-leaf that the author was once part of the Clinton administration, where heroism is laughed at, lies are commonplace and blatant corruption a way of life. This piece of literary trash, when taken in that context, fits the environment the author formerly was part of, not historical reality.

Alternative history is always a lot of fun, putting a fictional 'what if' spin on actual events. Instead of, for example, a novel addressing what life would have been like if the South won the Civil War, "Grant Speaks" poses the question, 'What would Grant's memoirs have been like if he was an impostor following a vision received while he was high on mushrooms in Mexico?'

Some people will have a hard time with this book--if they don't like their history varnished and decorated, if they don't like 'great men' shown, literally, with their drawers down--then this book will not please. If, on the other hand, you have in some small corner of your mind longed for someone to come right out and call George Armstrong Custer a "little foppish yellow dog" and Halleck a "fatuous, double-dealing, conniving louse," then this book will be a welcome, albeit guilty pleasure. I enjoyed new twists on Lincoln, Lee, and Sherman. I laughed out loud at Grant's brutally honest assessment--as presented in the novel--of the deficiencies of the Army of the Potomac, and I actually thought his depiction of the character of Lee made sense, with reasonable explanations of the man's sometimes difficult-to-explain actions.

"Grant Speaks" is proof that fiction has it's own advantages--it can dance around literal truth, entertaining and amusing--and perhaps revealing larger, more universal truths.