Customer Reviews

The Hessian (North Castle Books)

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Over the past 45 (of my 60) years, I've read or skimmed through almost every one of the many books Howard Fast has written. This is my favorite. I have used it - when it was available - in my American History classes. Like the better known April Morning, its setting is the American Revolution. I prefer The Hessian to April Morning - which is also an excellent book - because it has even more thoughtful questions raised, questions of justice and morality and decency. I think any reader with a heart will inevitably identify with the narrator, Dr. Evan Feversham, and his admiration for the gentle, loving Quakers, and will share, too, his anguish and uncertainty about the human condition.

The Hessian is an interesting story about the American Revolution, centering on the prejudices and uncertainties of one town. When a group of Hessians (German mercenaries who were hired by the English in the Revolutionary war) kill one of their townspeople, Abraham Hunt, the town's leader, plans an ambush, then puts the only surviving Hessian, the drummer boy, on trial for murder.

This book completely sucked me in when I read it several years ago. The setting is the American Revolution. A New England town is outraged after an enemy platoon of Hessian mercenaries, passing through the countryside, hangs a mentally disabled townsman because they think he's been spying on them. The men of the town ambush and massacre the platoon, and only the teenaged drummer escapes. When he is eventually captured, most of the town wants to hang him in retribution, urged on by the strong-willed leader of the ambush. A bitter debate ensues, with essentially one man holding for fairness and mercy, and suffering in payment.

I found great resonance with events of recent history. The US was attacked by terrorists in 2001. Calls for cool-headed thinking and a "learning moment" from many quarters were drowned out in the brief debate on whether to go to war. The majority for retribution did not argue so much as threaten and intimidate the dissidents for peace. Obviously, Howard Fast could not see the future when he wrote this book. My point is that the reader can find himself and his own times reflected here.

Tightly paced and beautifully written. I highly recommend.

I liked it better than most of the books we reading english. I thought it was very thought provoking.