Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light [Paperback]

Madison Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

In a brilliant historical novel set during the siege of Nashville in December 1864, Madison Jones tells of the adventures of twelve-year-old Steven Moore and his slave companion, Dink. In search of Steven's father, a heroic Confederate captain in General Hood's ragtag army, they slip behind enemy lines. When the two boys stumble across a Rebel group waiting in ambush, it is the beginning of what Steven will remember as "my long nightmare." Jones's lucid prose guides the reader through the disorienting fog of battle and memory, following Steven and Dink toward the shocking climax that forces them into the recognition of their separate identities and the brutal consequences of war. For its sheer storytelling power and the truths it reveals of the Civil War, Nashville 1864 is sure to join the handful of indispensable books on our nation's history and character.

* Winner of the 1997 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA?An important addition to Civil War literature. Jones tells of the occupation of Nashville, Tennessee, by Union soldiers. However, the perspective from which he writes makes the story especially appealing to young people. Now a grown man, the main character recalls the events of the war and its impact on his family when he was 12. Steven and his family live just outside Nashville and are trying to hold on as the war rages around them. His father has gone off to fight with the Confederates, and the family has heard nothing from or about him. Steven, with the certainty of youth, sets off with his slave companion, Dink, to locate his father, give him some food, and return with word of his condition. Jones writes with a tender and understated simplicity to convey the confusion and tragedy the boys experience as they muddle through fog, smoke, and cannon and gun fire. The scene in which the boys witness the ambush of black Union troops is particularly touching. Dink is deeply shaken by the sight, and Steven finally says, "They were Yankees too, come to take our country away from us. We got to fight back." To which Dink replies after a silence, "They was niggers just like me."?Cynthia J. Rieben, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A somber, spare portrait of the Confederacy's twilight, as witnessed by a 12-year-old. The plot has the simplicity of a folk tale. Steven Moore sets out to find his father, a soldier, on the eve of a great battle, and becomes an eyewitness to the carnage. Jones, the author of seven previous novels (To the Winds, 1996, etc.), has the measured cadence of southern voices down perfectly. The book is purportedly a memoir written by Moore decades after the events it describes, as he seeks to make sense of what he experienced. In December 1864, the ragged, shell-shocked Confederate army under Gen. Hood moves to confront the Union forces outside Nashville. Steven's younger sister is seriously ill, his mother exhausted, their farm, close to Nashville, menaced by Union forces, so he decides to bring his father, an officer in Hood's forces, home. He takes Dink, one of his family's slaves, with him. Dink, who is Steven's age, views the trip, at first, as a curious adventure. But their encounter with a black Union soldier, who tells Dink that he is free, confuses and disturbs him. The boys reach Hood's army just as the battle of Nashville begins. Steven discovers that battles are entirely unlike his imaginings: They are confused, bloody, terrifying events. Dink is killed, and a wounded Steven begins a hallucinatory journey with the retreating Confederates. These scenes have a raw power and harsh originality that set them apart from most recent fiction about the War. The narrative, though, suffers by seeming so entirely partisan. Dink is a cipher. The grown Steven's rhapsodic celebration of the Confederate soldier, and his defense of slavery- -while perfectly believable in this character--diminish the book's power somewhat. The story would have benefitted from some authorial distance. It seems, finally, too partisan to be entirely compelling. A flawed but intermittently powerful work. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014027880X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140278804
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,999,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Authentic Southern Voice - Good Fiction, Good History, June 17, 2005

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nashville 1864 -The Dying of the Light: A Novel (Hardcover)

I am sometimes disappointed with fictional accounts of the U.S. Civil War, perhaps because the historical accounts are so remarkable in themselves that they seldom benefit from fictional license. There are indeed exceptions, splendid novels like The Red Badge of Courage, Andersonville, The Killer Angels, and the subject of this review, Nashville 1864 - The Dying of the Light, by Madison Jones.

In this fascinating short novel Confederates forces are continuing to fight against overwhelming odds, with little hope of victory. Nashville has been occupied by Northern soldiers since February, 1862. In a desperate attempt, General Hood's shattered forces, severely crippled shortly before in the disastrous battle at Franklin, Tennessee, are now engaging the Union Army in what is today called the Battle of Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864.

Madison Jones portrays this battle and its immediate aftermath from the perspective of a young boy, Steven Moore, as he searches for his father among the wounded Confederate soldiers. The story is presented as a memoir written by the adult Steven Moore many years after the actual event, but nonetheless filled with detail and emotion that remained deeply etched in his memory. Steven Moore had not forgiven the North for its severe, mean-spirited occupation of Nashville, especially the period under General Rosecrans.

This short novel, Nashville 1864 - The Dying of the Light, is good, powerful fiction, and it is also good history.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Civil War from a Young Boy's Perspective, December 13, 2003

By 

gac1003 "gac1003" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light (Paperback)

At the outbreak of the Civil War, 12-year-old Steven Moore watches on as his father Jason saddles up his horse to join other Confederates in the fight to protect Tennessee. After many months of hardship, Steven's youngest sister, Liza, becomes so gravely ill that he decides to find his father and to bring him home. With his mother's approval and a crude map, he and his companion, a young slave named Dink, set off into the heart of the battle to find his father.

This is one of the most compelling novels of the Civil War, told from the perspective of a 12-year-old boy. Through his eyes, we see the area surrounding Nashville change from healthy farmland to desolate battle fields. The Confederate soldiers whom he knew to be proud and strong turn out to be haunted men with sallow faces, bare feet and rags for clothing. He and Dink watch some of the fighting firsthand: the booming of the canons, the black troops fighting for the Union, the dead and the dying everywhere. And, still he continues to search for his father, diving deeper and deeper into the heart of the battle.

With fantastically detailed imagery and strongly developed characters, Madison Jones has created a Civil War novel that appeals to all readers, both young and old. You have a real sense of what the war must have been like for a young boy, witnessing his family life upturned and almost destroyed. Nothing is romanticized. A strong novel for young adults and anyone interested in the Civil War.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful miniature by a master, May 26, 2000

By 

Randall Ivey "Randall" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light (Paperback)

Madison Jones is one of the unheralded masters of contemporary American fiction. He has written powerful, compelling stories dealing with such explosive issues as racism (in his masterpiece A CRY OF ABSENCE), drugs, family conflict, and sex (AN EXILE, turned into the Gregory Peck film I WALK THE LINE).

In the present volume Jones turns his attention to the waning days of the War Between the States, in which a young boy, with his black companion, goes searching for his father. This is not sugar-coated stuff. Jones casts an unflincing eye on the events, related in memoir form by the adult Steven, and the descriptions of war and its carnage are often graphic (but never exploitively so)in the manner, say, of Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Jones never loses his moral focus, however. This is a story of love and courage, faithfulness and innocence, determination and loyalty.

A short work but memorable nonetheless, by a novelist long overdue greater and wider attention.