Kentucky Blues (Cassell Military Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Derek Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cassell Military Paperbacks | Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Derek Robinson tells the story of a small pioneer community in deepest Kentucky across a century from its founding in the 1820s, through the Civil War, to the dawn of the modern age. Following several generations of two unreconcilable families: the Hudds and the Killicks, Robinson creates a gallery of unforgettable characters and delivers a powerful and wholly persuasive account of the transition from slavery to relative freedom for the former slaves of each clan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Deft and nuanced, Robinson’s epic account… stirs fresh air into a too often musty and stale corner of American history.” -- Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Derek Robinson’s taut, masterful portraits of combat have established him as one of the top writers of war fiction. In Kentucky Blues, his longest and most ambitious novel to date, he sets himself a new challenge: to tell the story of a small pioneer community in deepest Kentucky across a century—from its founding in the 1820s, through the Civil War, to the dawn of the modern age. Following several generations of feuding families—the Hudds and the Killicks—Robinson creates a gallery of unforgettable characters, delivering a powerful account of the transition from slavery to provisional freedom for the former slaves of each clan. It is a bravura performance from a great modern storyteller at the top of his form.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Cassell (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304365661
• ISBN-13: 978-0304365661
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,729,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent change of pace, and a great story, January 13, 2003

By 

M Larson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kentucky Blues: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you're a fan of Robinson's war novels, this is a great opportunity to see his story-telling talents turned in another direction. His sharp, witty dialogue, realistic details and bittersweet story elements make this a great novel about 2 families (and their strange neighbors and friends) that feud in a small river town in Kentucky before, during and after the Civil War. His typically unsympathetic views of his own characters, their motivations and actions really enrich this story. I strongly recommend it if you love Derek Robinson's work, or even if you've never heard of him, and just want to read a great novel full of fascinating characters set in a pivotal time in America's history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Free to What?, December 26, 2010

By 

R. Sundquist (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Kentucky Blues (Cassell Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Robinson is known mostly for books like PIECE OF CAKE, about the Royal Air Force at the start of World War Two. He's also written a number of great books about spies, but they all land squarely and comfortably in the middle of the 20th century. KENTUCKY BLUES is a different beast altogether. Set between about 1830 and 1870, it takes place almost entirely in a small fictional backwater town and boasts a large cast of realistically ridiculous characters.

Kentucky was one of the in-between states during the Civil War, neither Union nor Confederate, and that helps fuel some of Robinson's plot. The farmers own slaves, but their farms are not the massive plantations of the Deep South that we know from "Gone With the Wind". Slave-owning is just a way of life, and one that everyone regrets seeing the end of. Everyone except the slaves, who are now free (according to one ex-slave-owner, they were stolen by President Lincoln). But free to do what? No one wants them around. No one will hire them or pay them to do anything. All they can do is build themselves some shacks up in the hills and try to make do. The townsfolk have enough problems of their own, with bushwhackers, carpet-baggers, anvil-launching competitions, and a murder trial so preposterous it would make Atticus Finch break down and cry. There's also a cattle drive which makes me wish that Mr. Robinson would just write a full-blown Western novel.

The story is a long and rambling one, full of action and comedy and overflowing with Robinson's usual sharp dialogue. It's not his usual setting, but doesn't suffer for it, and the subject matter benefits greatly from the outsider's perspective. I suppose everyone is entitled to take their own history seriously, which is why Derek Robinson is such an important writer: without sacrificing the historical truth, he strips away the layers of solemnity and shows us the past for what it really was, with all the irony and slapstick intact.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Failed to grab me, May 19, 2005

By 

J. Marshall (Oxford, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kentucky Blues (Cassell Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

This book just seems to ramble along like a wagon with one square wheel. The character development is incongruous and unconvincing and the book is full of inconsistencies. A waste of time.