Customer Reviews

Last of the Dixie Heroes

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

 

 

However, LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES is subtitled "A Novel of Suspense," but it's hard to figure out why. There really isn't much in the way of suspense in this book.

Regardless of this, Abrahams had me there for a while. For two thirds of LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES, Abrahams weaves an interesting tale of a guy stuck in a dead-end white collar job. Roy Singleton Hill is buffetted by the forces of corporate mergers, cuckolded by his floozy of a wife, and desperately trying to salvage his relationship with his son. Abrahams is at his best as he paints this uncomfortably realistic portrait of a man's world falling apart.

As Hill begins to get involved in reenacting the Civil War, we see him gradually move away from his grim present and live increasingly in his rose-colored view of the past of his great-great-grandfather and namesake, a Confederate hero who rode with Nathan Bedford Forrest. In spite of Abrahams' acknowledgement that he consulted men from the 22nd Massachusetts reenactment group in his research, he gets the reenactment scene a little wrong. But these are forgiveable errors, which can be put down to poetic license.

Less forgiveable is how the story implodes in the last seventy or so pages. Hill's relationship with Lee, a fellow reenactor who is not what he seems develops and peters out meaninglessly. Hill runs into what could be a long-lost relative, but this fascinating storyline is left undeveloped and without a real payoff. An incredible encounter with his one-time boss at an amazing point of the story come totally out of nowhere, and passes by without incident. But the worst part is where, for some strange reason, a group of rival reenactors escalate to a scale of real-life violence for no apparent reason. The climax of the book is so silly as to completely strain the credulity of even the most forgiving reader.

And in spite of all the momentus and over-the-top events that happen in the last two chapters, there is an incredibly brief two-page wrap up of all the plot lines that wraps up everything up in a way that is not only too convenient, but too implausible.

As I say, Abrahams had me there, and had orchestrated a nice set-up. But then he just tossed it all away by turning the whole thing into a silly action movie. Which kind of reminded me of "The Fan," a movie based on an earlier Abrahams book of the same title. Actually, THE FAN and LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES both feature fathers who have been separated from their sons by divorce. This doesn't come across as a theme in Abrahams' work; it's more like he took his manuscript for THE FAN and tweaked the setting from baseball to Civil War re-enactment. Unfortunately, the changes didn't improve the absurdity of the story.

In the praise for this book (on the back cover) it makes this book sound like a "crime story". To me it was more fantasy...sort of trying to see if history will repeat itself.

The first part of the book is somewhat gripping...a man down on his luck, having his life unravel before your eyes. Yes, Roy Hill's life slipped out of control, but to then have him reborn as a Confederate War Hero was a bit of a stretch.

I enjoyed reading the parts of the book dealing with Civil War Reenactments. Up until the end of the book, some of it was believable. The last few chapters were pretty bad. I think most people are annoyed at this book for unravelling in the same way the main character did.

I expected more. I hate books that wrap everything up neatly on the last page...that just isn't real life.

This book had a catchy title and I picked it up. It was a great read from the start but was so twisted near the end.

The main character Roy seemed so clueless. The author's constant uses of "What?", "I don't know what you mean", and Roy's constant state of bewilderment was almost laughable. He had no clue of what people were saying around him. In fact, a whole page is dedicated to someone trying to clue him in. For example when Roy was told his whole department was let go he didn't get it. Even though all of the furniture, computers, and cubes were gone Roy was still wondering when he was going to start his new job as the boss of a department that was missing. The conference call with NY was classic, Roy ripping his shirt off because he couldn't breathe... correction Curtis's shirt, because Roy forgot he was wearing a UGA Football T-Shirt. The ending made no sense. I should write a book if they publish this junk.

On the front of the book it said "A Novel of Suspense". I kept reading and reading waiting for the suspense to happen, even in the last 50 pages I still held out hope, but NOOO... This book reminded me of a bad made-for-TV movie. The epilogue-like ending (don't read further if you don't want it spoiled), was ludicrously unbelievable as the main character shoots the antagonist between the eyes then gets a $250 dollar fine for disturbing the peace. What a waste of time. This was my first Abrahams novel, read because Stephen King had recommend four of his books in "On Writing" (not this one). I'll give him another try - hope he has something better to offer than this wretched scribbling that would never have gotten published by a no-name author. Simply awful!

One of the worst books I ever read, if not theeee worst. It started out with a lot of promise. The author does touch on some good issues and why the war started. But he bogs down with poor character development and an even worst ending. (...) Absolutley the worst job ever. I felt robbed cheated and let down. The only thing I can possibly think is that the author wanted me to feel as bad as the Rebels when they surrendered. The writing style is so annoying. The main character is a moron. I thought of Homer Simpson the whole time. I mean the guy was clueless throughout the entire book. It started to piss me off. I had to force myself to continue. I strugggled to finish it believing you should finish what you start. Too bad the author didn't. I threw my copy in the trash so I couldn't ruin anyone elses day with it, ever.

Abrahams LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES starts out pretty well, offering a glimpse into the disintegration of Roy Hill's life. With his wife and son living with a computer dork named Barry, Roy still has a good job and is geared up for a promotion. We never really understand what happened to his marriage, suffice to say his wife is a hypocritic flirt and his son, Rhett, an insufferable wimp. Roy ends up participating in one of those Civil War re-enactments and from there the story goes into a mind-boggling maze of ambiguities and unbelievable twists and turns. This might have worked if there had been some element of true suspense; however, Abrahams pokes along, losing character and plot development and an ending that comes out of nowhere.
Abrahams, the good writer he is, should have left this one alone.

NOT RECOMMENDED.

In Atlanta, Roy Hill believes he is living the American dream. He married the girl he loves and cherishes his eleven-year-old son Rhett. He is rapidly moving to the top at Chermerica Corporation.

However, Roy's dream quickly turns into a nightmare. His wife leaves him for someone else and his son is turning violent and angry because a bully threatens him. To make matters even worse, Roy loses his job due to a merger of his company with another. His job becomes redundant.

Depressed, Roy joins his friend Gordo at a Civil War reenactment scene. He begins to spend his weekends at the reenactment sites because he believes that 1863, the only date in these Confederate reenactments, is a nicer period than his "real" life. Roy's preference for the past soon leads to real bullets and perhaps a second battle for Atlanta with no General Sherman around.

LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES is an exciting psychological thriller of an individual whose life is spinning so out of control he chooses to live it in the past of his great-grandfather. The story line is fast-paced and surprisingly, Peter Abrahams has created a story with less gore than usual. The spellbinding Peter with his descent into insanity makes the tale work in spite of major shortcomings of several of the secondary cast members. Mr. Abrahams shows much growth as a writer since A PERFECT CRIME.

Harriet Klausner

This is a neat premise -- disaffected urban male retreats to 1863 to live. And Abrahams is a very good writer -- keen observations, sustained narrative drive, a dead-on sense of place (the Atlanta-area setting and details are at least as good here as Tom Wolfe's A MAN IN FULL; the biggest shock in the book was finding out that Abrahams lives on Cape Cod).

But LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES just falls apart like a house of cards in a slight breeze. Did an editor do anything with it at all, other than spellcheck? Are there any editors anymore? Or is Abrahams too valuable a writer to risk offending by editing his work?

The protagonist, Roy Hill, is fully-drawn, and his motivations are real. But none of the other characters breath at all. His wife arbitrarily becomes [promiscuous] after 10 years of marraige. His boss is "sharp-dressed, well-spoken Black man" from Central Casting, and there's no reason to see why he would take any interest in Roy's career. There's no reason why his best friend from work should even be his friend. The character Lee has a secret which surprised me -- because normally you watch reruns of THE A-TEAM to find plot points this silly.

This doesn't even mention the "damnyankee" bad guys who show up two-third of the way through the book, a climax that is obviously tacked on to fit, and an on again/off again racial angle that twists and turns into nothing.

This said, LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES is a compulsive page-turner. Peter Abrahams, and his readers, have been let down by the editing, or lack there-of. This one needed work done on it.

NOTE: My copy was the poorest printing of a mass-market paperback I've ever seen -- four pages totally darkened out, and another eight with very light printing. Of course, if you're not going to spend the $ to edit a book, I guess you're going to be reluctant to remainder damaged copies of the print run as well.

Warning: Spoilers Galore

As a Civil War re-enactor, I can honestly tell you that Abrahams does an abhorrent job of showing who re-enactors are and what goes on at re-enactments. It leads me to wonder whether or not he has actually attended or participated in a Civil War re-enactment.

The main character is a complete moron, despite the seeming attempts by the author to make him appear as very "deep". Characters are poorly developed and the whole plot line is, well, retarded.

Abrahams paints the picture that all re-enactors are crazy die-hards that often take things too far. The development of the hardcore re-enactors as being violent at events and gatherings is waaaay off. The whole ending scene where the Northern re-enactors kidnap Roy's son and then ends with a mini gun battle and thriller on Lookout Mountain was awful. The thought of the ending scene happening in real life is an insane thought.

I'm tempted to burn my copy of it.

Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!! This really makes me think if this book was sent to an editor at all, it was that bad. So again, I tell you, whatever you do, DO NOT BUT THIS BOOK! If you must read it, check it out at your local library, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS!

I listened to this book as read by Buck Schirner and I really enjoyed it. This was the abridged version on audio cassettes, about 4 hours of listening. The time flew by.

There is ambiguity in the book which keeps you guessing about what might be going on. Is the central character a "hero" or a clueless guy heading for disaster? Is he losing his grip on reality and starting to believe he's in 1863? Was his ancestor really a hero? Are the Yankee re-enactors dedicated to following the rules or are they up to something sinister?

I couldn't tell whether the abridgement helped or hurt my understanding of the story, but since the story moved quickly, I can't complain about the overall effect. The main thing I never figured out was why the "enemy" kidnapped Roy's son. But I didn't get hung up on it because the story is clearly a fantasy. It is obviously not intended as a realistic look at re-enactments; it's an adventure with an underlayment of mystery regarding the psychological state of the main characters. It was that secondary story that I found the most satisfying. Every person has the ability to escape into fantasy, and part of the suspense for me was whether Roy and his cousin would forget what century they were in and get swept up in violence.

The writing seemed terse and clipped at times, but for an adventure story that was not a problem. I recommend this audio book for listening to in the car. Maybe I'll get a print copy to see what I missed in the abridged version.