Customer Reviews

Wilderness: A Tale Of The Civil War (Tennesseana Editions)

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This book is triggering some sort of artistic attack. I read this because I wanted to understand the work of another writer I admire who cited this book as an influence.

As an aside: Robert Penn Warren's poetry works for me. That says quite a lot since I only have about three poets I can say I enjoy at all. It is maybe easier to focus on the words and images when I am not trying to keep track of a story--something I had a hard time doing in Wilderness.

What interests me about the book are the poetic tricks my friend talked about. I LOVE the idea of laying down a code that only people who are really paying attention will tune into, or even better to maybe paint a picture they themselves aren't even aware they are looking at.

The author uses color in a concrete way, repeating words like white over and over, or green, or going on and on mixing the way he repeats the word stone with other descriptions of words like gray, slate, and other things that call to mind a certain solidity and coolness. (I am starting to sound like an English professor wannabe on meth.) But what bugs me about myself here is that I am giving the author my patient attention and thoughtful consideration because I know he is someone to pay attention to--this author won three Pulitzer Prizes for God's sake!

One thing I can rave about: the characters in the story are not black and white, they are all in the middle of moral and ethical difficulties. They are real. This renews my faith in the human mind's ability to see the various shades of gray in our experiences and characters (ourselves). So I am thrilled to say I didn't miss everything!

One example from Wilderness: A character who studied the bible all his life, wanted to be left in peace and found he had to kill the "'scripters" who came to collect him to avoid going off to war and killing any more people. After this he had to live in the wild to avoid being found. One night he wakes his wife up laughing (the giggling and laughter throughout the book make me think half of the cast is insane) and says:

"...the Lawd God said thou shalt not kill and then put a fellow in a tight whar he had to kill to keep from killen."

What would the writer's digest book on dialogue say about that one? Here is probably an example of knowing the rules and then bashing them to dust.

Back to the character's dilemma: when you read what this guy turns into, it does make you think the entire world must have been, and still is, totally off it's rocker and there is no such thing as sanity, morality, or right and wrong. I compare this to the way things work today and feel not a little silly for believing anything different.

Earlier in the book one character explains the necessity of conscription.

"...when the heroes are dead, you have to fill the ranks some way. Even with ordinary mortals. Who much prefer to stay at home and make money and sleep with their wives."

None of that sounds familiar right... All war books seem to end up being relevant at least in this way.

Anyone looking for time period details would find lots of good ones in here: the sutlers, the way people talk, the funky facial hair, the games people played outside their tents, the awful things people did to each other, and what people on the ground really thought about the whole business. I really appreciate when people don't fall into pat moral categories and just want to get on with their lives. This resonates and feels honest. We are not all heroes in the face of injustice, racism, apathy, greed, bullying, lust and all the rest of it. Some people overcome and some just try to get by.