Customer Reviews

Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This epic civil war novel follows the lives of a southern plantation, from just before the war until the end at Appomattox. McCaig gives us several viewpoints, from slaves and slaveholders to the soldiers fighting the war. I was reminded of Gone With the Wind, Roots, and Glory at various times during the novel. As you would expect in a civil war novel, there are plenty of gory battle scenes.

It was a very good, though not the most original, telling of the civil war period. But McCaig makes up for the lack of originality with a strong narrative and some really memorable characters. You will be left with a good sense of what it was like during the darkest period in American history. I give this a strong recommendation for those who enjoy historical fiction, and especially those who enjoy civil war novels.

Dickensian in scope, this book follows the inhabitants of a Virginia plantation called Stratford, both white and black, as the existence they've always known is shattered forever by the coming of the war. In the course of the novel, every character is tested beyond anything they could have ever imagined. Some manage to make choices that leave them with honor, love, and freedom; others fall by the wayside.

The book begins in 1859 with the youthful love affair between Duncan Gatewood, the young son of the Stratford's owner, and Midge, a pretty little slave who works in the house. The consequences of Duncan and Midge's affair explode when Midge gives birth to Duncan's son, Jacob, and Duncan wants to acknowledge the child as his own. But anything that the impulsive pair might have done is derailed by the coming of the war.

What happens to Duncan after he joins the Confederate Army and Midge after she is sold away from Stratford are just two of the threads that make up the absorbing tapestry of Jacob's Ladder. Some of the other intriguing characters are Sallie Kirkpatrick, a young girl who becomes a woman in the brutal military hospitals of Richmond; her husband Alexander, a vain schoolmaster who drifts from one disaster to the next; Jesse Burns, who runs away from Stratford and seeks pride and a new future as one of the Union's colored troops; and Catesby Byrd, who only wanted to be a comfortable country lawyer but finds his intelligence and sensitivity mauled in some of the war's most horrific battles.

A puzzling and pointless framing device involving a 1930s WPA slave narrative could have been easily dispensed with, and as with any multi-character saga, some of the storylines are more satisfying than others. But these are minor criticisms. The characters, settings, and battles in Jacob's Ladder are masterfully rendered. The handling of the multi-racial storyline is the best I've seen. Anyone with an interest in the Civil War or historical fiction will find this book a very satisfying read.

I read Donald McCaig's wonderful new book two months ago and waited for the rest of the world to discover it too. What gives? Here is a complex, seamless and beautifully written book that neither glosses over the social inequities of the time nor attempts to judge 19th century thoughts and actions with a 20th-century hoity-toity political correctness. Not only that, it's a heck of a story. Anyone who likes a good read should like this book. Anyone who's interested in the Civil War and wants a heart-in-your-throat, immediate sense of the horrific Virginia battles should like this book. Don't get me wrong, I loved "Cold Mountain." But it mainly a love story, with nature as a subplot and the Civil War only as a backdrop. "Jacob's Ladder" is mainly about the war, as seen through the eyes of some endearing and deftly drawn characters. Why is this book missing the public bandwagon? I'm glad I sneaked into the select group who heard about it early and read it right away.

I agree that JACOB'S LADDER is a TV miniseries waiting for production; as I read it, I kept thinking "LONESOME DOVE in the Civil War." The characterizations tend to cardboard, although sometimes they're well-painted. On the other hand, at several crucial points, somebody does something because author McCaig needs to advance the plot, not because it's what that character would do under the circumstances. The book comes nowhere near generating the power of THE KILLER ANGELS or Thomas Keneally's CONFEDERATES. The latter in particular covers much the same historical ground but produces a near-overwhelming sense of the moral horror of slavery and the war, a thunderous undercurrent that JACOB'S LADDER doesn't match. THE KILLER ANGELS imagines its way into the mindset of its characters and reproduces Gettysburg as if it were happening for the first time. JACOB'S LADDER misses this kind of immediacy. If you've already read CONFEDERATES and THE KILLER ANGELS, read JACOB'S LADDER; otherwise, save your money.

Not since Shaara's "The Killer Angels" has anyone written a novel so expressive of the passion and agony wrapped up in this terrible war. McCaig's memorable characters weave a tight and authentic story of love and honor and compassion that does more to express humankind's for familial relationship than any book I've ever read. Here is a genuine story of race relations. Plus, the novel is absolutely true to its setting: McCaig knows Virginia and Virginians like a native.

Monty S. Leitch Pilot, VA

What a disappointment. After reading the reviews above I expected so much more. The characters are poorly developed and the dialogue is strained at best. I give this book two stars because of historical research and the battle scenes are well done. Perhaps the author should try nonfiction. For an outstanding insight into the "psyche" of the pre-civil slave; try William Styrons incomprable "The Confessions of Nat Turner." Give Jacob's Ladder a miss and wait for Blair Underwood in the TV version instead.

I picked up this book by chance at a secondhand bookstore, and found it an extremely satisfying reading experience. There are books that you read that are merely good, and books from the first page that are great in comparison. This is one of the great ones. The author's style is unique and original, the story engrossing to the end. What the characters have to say is so authentic, if one can be a judge of that without having direct experience of the 19th century. I bought this book in part because I still carried the memory of having read "Cold Mountain" and wanted to, in a sense, extend that reading experience, and I would recommend "Jacob's Ladder" over "Cold Mountain" any day. This is one of the rare books that I am looking forward to rereading some day.

Meticulously researched, yes. But other than one female character who ends up serving as a nurse on the Confederate side, the characters are truly flat. Unlike in Shaara's Killer Angels, where the characters are almost unbearably compelling--who, for instance, is not touched by the portrayal of Joshua Chamberlain?--the effect of this book is very chilly. Even the battle scenes are more scholarly--lots of period detail--than engaging. I had high hopes, but was very disappointed with this book.

If Margaret Mitchell had been as sensitive to the Black characters as to the white ones, she might have written this engrossing novel. That is, if she had had Donald McCaig's courage in taking the reader into the fire-belly of war. The scope of this book is huge, yet its focus is at the same time fine. The variety of the characters is remarkable. And there is an effortless continuum between the mythical and the factual. Donald McCaig is an author of deep intelligence and great heart. He has written the War and Peace of the Civil War.

I read this novel last year. This was well in advance of the recent revelations about Strom Thurmond's unacknowledged child by his family's black maid back when Strom was in his 20s and the young lady was 16. The hypocrisy of that episode brought to mind the story of Duncan and Midge. And of course there is a current film with Anthony Hopkins where he portrays a young black man who "passed" for white to advance in the USA back in the days when this nation was overly obsessed with skin pigment.
This book can be appreciated on many levels. There really was an effort made to record the oral narratives of former slaves although by the 30s, very few were still alive or lucid enough to provide accurate histories. The author's skillful use of this actual event in the 30s to construct the storyline was impressive.
The hardships and deprivations of the landed Virginia planter aristocracy during and after the war are vividly brought to life. The lives of the slaves and the world they inhabited are also recreated in this book as in no other I've ever read though sadly we dont have much lit dealing with the day to day reality of being a slave in the old South.
We read this book and we find ourselves cheering Midge as she ultimately triumphs and earns a spot in "respectable society". But at what cost? Early on in the book we learn that Midge/Maggie/Marguerite ---perhaps unique among her fellow slaves--had the gift of mimicry and could "talk white". That talent--coupled with her lighter skin--- so early displayed in the novel will carry Midge along thru the rest of her life.
I dont know if anyone has ever bought the rights to this novel and I'm sure a politically correct Hollywood would badly mangle the storyline, but the role of Maggie/Marguerite would be great for a young Halle Berry.
One of my favorite lines is spoken by Duncan to a Confederate soldier and fellow alum of VMI: "Boy we sure did teach them Yankees a lesson back there" [referring to a battle] and the reply: "Yeah, and they keep on not learning it!"