The Year of Jubilo [Paperback]

Howard Bahr (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: New York, Henry Holt; First Edition edition (2000)
• ASIN: B000UZLRVG
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended--From a Non-History Buff, September 19, 2000

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War (Hardcover)

I am not usually drawn to novels about the Civil War, but every once in a while, there is one that gets such good reviews, that I have to read it. After seeing all of the great reviews for The Year of Jubilo, I bought the book, but I must admit, it sat on my bookcase for a while because it was sort of intimidating. Was I really going to like it? The answer is yes. This novel has a lot to recommend for fans of Civil War fiction, and fans of well-written novels. Howard Bahr is a wonderful writer and this book, while I finished it a few days ago, is constantly on my mind. As the novel opens, we meet Gawain Harper who is returning to his home after the Civil War. He reluctantly fought for the CSA and now is anxious about what lies ahead for him in the town he grew up in. He is most concerned about Morgan, the love he left to fight in the war. The concerns he focuses on as he returns home, are not those he must deal with when he gets home. Much of his world is turned upside down. Morgan still loves him, but old alliances have crumbled and much of his town has burned down. He must make sense out of the post-war South, of his post-war life. He manages to face down fears that have haunted him since before he left for the war.

This novel is well-told and thought provoking. I highly recommend it.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fiction at its best. Hard to put down., June 9, 2000

By 

Kenneth S. Smith (Goleta, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War (Hardcover)

A book that once opened is hard to put down. An engaging read from the first page to the last. Filled with some of the most interesting and off-the-wall characters you will ever meet. Gives a vivid portrait of the time just after the Civil War, and of the place, a small town in the South, ravaged by war. Gawain Harper, a literature teacher at a girl's school in Cumberland Mississippi, is shamed by his lady love, Morgan Rhea, into joining the Confederate Army. He survives the war and on his way home in June 1865, he meets Captain Henry Stribling, an unusual man of many talents and past professions. When they reach Gawain's home, things have changed considerably and much of the town has been destroyed. The town is now occupied by Union Troops commanded by a tired Lt. Colonel Burduck with many problems, assisted by his no-nonsense Provost, Captain von Arnim. They are trying to keep the peace and help restore order. Morgan has written of Gawain as long dead and has trouble accepting his return. Her home has been burned and she now lives with a demented cousin along with her once powerful father, Judge Rhea, and her younger brother. While most of the people of Cumberland are struggling to return to normalcy, there is one evil man, the self appointed Captain Soloman Gault, leader of raiders, misfits, and murderers during the war, determined to stir things up and cause as much trouble as possible. Unfortunately, he has many willing accomplices. Gawain's newfound friend Henry Stribling has a talent for sticking a finger in a hornet's nest and stirring things around until something happens. Now that the stage is set, to say anything more would spoil the fun. Get a copy of this book and be prepared to not do anything but read for several hours.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At Last a New BAHR, May 2, 2000

By 

P. Marshall (Washington DC suburbs) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War (Hardcover)

Just purchased this book yesterday and stayed up all night to finish it....could not put it down. From the first chapter you feel part of the scene and what a tragic one it is. The Civil War has just ended, but the fighting and killing goes on. Bahr's BLACK FLOWER is a book that has stayed with me since I read it over three years ago....it is the ultimate Civil War novel and I was anxiously awaiting his new THE YEAR OF JUBILO and was not disappointed in the least....He has done it again...created a setting and characters that breathe life into the consequences of war and its aftermath. The description of the young blind boy hearing and "seeing" the slaughter of his mother and father by confederate "soldiers" sets the scene for the tragic aftermath of war and the revenge and retribution that both sides deemed necessary. Thank you Mr. Bahr for providing the reader with a part of history that has not previously been openly discussed and written about in such detail.