The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War (Hardcover)

by Jimmy Carter (Author) "The young girl stood quiet and unseen behind the trunk of a large walnut tree, its leaves and branches scarred on one side by a..." (more)
Key Phrases: militia leaders, Charles Town, South Carolina, Elijah Clarke (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Carter continues to have one of the most productive and varied post-political careers of any former U.S. president. A prodigious writer with 16 works of nonfiction to his credit, Carter turns to fiction with this account of the Revolutionary War as fought in the Deep South. Because most of the accessible literature revolves around battles fought in New England and the Middle Atlantic colonies, it is easy to overlook the fierce fighting that took place in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. The plot revolves around the migration of newlyweds Ethan and Epsey Pratt from Philadelphia to a homestead in Georgia. When the War for Independence heats up, the Pratts and their friends and neighbors--many of them Quakers--are forced into the vortex of historical events beyond their control. What Carter lacks in narrative style and characterization, he more than makes up for in the breadth of historical fact and detail interwoven into this obvious labor of love. It is not surprising that a history-maker would turn to history for fictional inspiration; what is surprising is the effectiveness of his debut effort. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
One of the less ostentatious residents of the White House, Jimmy Carter, America's 39th President, was, nevertheless, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his continuing work for 'peace, freedom and democracy'. He's also published seventeen non-fiction titles, including memoirs and poetry. This is his first work of fiction - albeit fiction closely related to fact. It tells, through the experiences of real and imagined people (including some of his own ancestors) the story of the late-18th-century American Revolutionary War against Britain (as it was fought in the southern States) which finally established the USA as an independent nation. Like all incestuous wars it split families, set brother against brother, father against son. It was bloody, bitter, prolonged and exhausting. In the end the colonists won their right to rule themselves. But at what a cost! Carter's detailed knowledge of a complex situation is impressive; his writing style movingly simple, clear and eloquent. Highly recommended. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 465 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (November 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743255429
• ISBN-13: 978-0743255424
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #503,152 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

285 of 300 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Befitting a respected American President, November 14, 2003

By A Customer

I was so incensed by the Missouri reviewer who thought this book was just a Revolutionary War history "textbook masquerading as a novel", and who thought that it wouldn't have been published if an ex-President hadn't written it, that I decided to write a rebuttal review, my first fiction review on Amazon. So first of all, let's be clear on what actually happened. The Revolutionary War in the south was hardly the stuff legends are made of, but it was certainly vicious. Here's an outline.

There was strong Loyalist sentiment in Georgia and the Carolinas at the start of the war. The British planned to exploit this when in 1778 they seized Savannah as their base in Georgia. The plan worked, for two years later, British forces commanded by Sir Henry Clinton, the top British general, could advance north and besiege the American-held city of Charleston in South Carolina. The city was defended by General Lincoln with 3000 men. But Clinton forced Lincoln to surrender, which put the whole region in British hands.

For all practical purposes, there were now no American regulars left in the south. Clinton then went back to New York, and left the subjugated south in the care of Lord Cornwallis. American Patriot forces, however, were still active in the region, and kept up a bloody guerilla campaign against British and Loyalist forces. (Had the word been invented back then, the British might well have called them terrorists.) Encouraged by their struggle, Congress eventually got around to sending a General Gates south with a force of 3,000 to help the Patriots fight Cornwallis and the Loyalists. But Cornwallis defeated him in August of 1780 at Camden, South Carolina.

Finally it was the turn of the Patriots. In October of 1780, a Patriot force of 1,000 mountaineers attacked and totally destroyed a Loyalist force of 1,000, in their stronghold of King's Mountain in South Carolina. General Clinton, when he heard of it, wrote that it was the first link in a long chain of "evils" that eventually led to the loss of America.

The American General Nathaniel Greene now marched south to help the Patriots' guerilla war against Cornwallis. Eventually, General Greene did battle with Cornwallis in the spring of 1881, at Guildford Court House in North Carolina. Neither side won, but Cornwallis retreated north with worn-out forces, and took charge of the vital British naval base at Yorktown. There, he was later besieged by 9,000 Americans and 30,000 French, and, as all the world knows, finally surrendered to George Washington in October of 1781.

The war in the south was thus mostly a guerilla war with many minor engagements, individually unimportant, but collectively playing a significant role in the eventual defeat of the British at Yorktown. So what kind of a book has Mr. Carter written about this war? Would it have been published if you or I had written it? Almost certainly not. But so what? A then unknown John Grisham couldn't get "A Time to Kill" published by a major publisher. Jimmy Carter is hardly unknown, but his novel deserves to be published because it brings expertise, devotion to historical accuracy, literary creativity, and a presidential viewpoint to the story of that southern war that nobody else could. That makes it unique, and worth reading. And besides, it's very good.

Is it a history textbook masquerading as a novel? Definitely not. But let's be candid on what kind of novel it's not. It's not anything like the tactical drama of the Gettysburg battle as told in Michael Shaara's classic "The Killer Angels", or the WW1 horror story depicted in Eric Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front", or the conflict of self-interest and honor in Hemmingway's Spanish Civil War novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls", or the chilling suspense of Ken Follett's WW2 classic "Eye of the Needle", or, to continue into the future, the suspense and surprise of Thomas Cronin's extraordinary USA/EU future conflict novel "Give Us This Mars". So certainly, if you buy the book expecting a classic literary masterpiece or riveting page turner, you could be disappointed. But I'm sure Mr. Carter didn't intend it to be any of those things. Instead, he has created a solid, interesting, eye-opening dramatization of the southern Revolutionary War. It needed doing, and Mr. Carter is just the person to do it. He has done an outstanding job of dramatizing the many interwoven events, even bringing in the local Indian tribes, which each side tried to exploit. This obviously well-researched novel, which includes a horrible massacre (fictional I hope) of Indians by whites, beats a history textbook every time.

Given the relatively minor nature of most of those far off events, we could expect that a history textbook about the campaign would be bed-time reading only for insomniacs. But war is never a minor matter for those at the front line, and Mr. Carter's novel brings the war in the south back to life. You experience it vividly through events in the life of Ethan Pratt and his friend and neighbor Kindred Morris, solid folk who have moved south to Georgia to live in a peaceful Quaker community. Many people, after reading this book, will probably be motivated to look up the history texts, as I was. If so, Mr. Carter will have succeeded admirably in bringing an important segment of American and world history to public awareness, a task befitting a respected American President.

I have one minor complaint. The writing style is good, but is not quite right for a novel. A bit on the academic side. Every so often, I wanted to alter sentences and paragraphs to speed things up. But what can you expect? Mr. Carter is over eighty and has written sixteen nonfiction books. You can't expect him to turn into a Dean Koontz or John Grisham overnight. Be thankful he has worked hard to create this very good novel, and enjoy it for what it is.

104 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From a history lover, November 12, 2003

By A Customer

President Carter demonstrates that he was not only a wonderful President and man, but also a good researcher, writer and teller of stories with his first work of fiction. For someone who loves history and lives in Georgia, this was a fascinating look into a time in the history of our region about which very little is known or understood. I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the story line, the characters and the history!!

76 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched, but disappointing, December 8, 2003

By	Respice, Adspice, Prospice (Texas) - See all my reviews

Let me begin by saying something I shouldn't have to - I think that Jimmy Carter was a fine president at a difficult time, and I think that any person in that office at that time would have had an equally difficult time. I also think that Mr. Carter is a fine, decent, honorable man, and the most scholarly of our ex-Presidents. I understand that he is a fine writer of non-fiction works.

That said... I was looking forward to this novel about a time and a place not often explored in literature. Most Americans (and Americans are virtually the only audience for historical fiction set in this time and place) know very little about the Revolutionary War in the American South; Mr. Carter had every chance to shine here, with few competitors. His name will bring people in to read the book, and he had a fine opportunity to educate as well as entertain. He knows his time, his place, and his subject well. I can tell he loves this subject, and this place. His scholarship shows on every page.

And therein lies the problem.

This is an extraordinary work of scholarship - I'd like to read it with the characters taken out as a survey of the Revolutionary War South.

It is an abysmal work of fiction, even by a first-time novelist. The characters are flat, the dialog is inexcusable, the transitions in time and place are poorly done. Speeches are put in characters' mouths intended primarily to educate us, the readers. Characters sound as if they are reading from 20th Century American history texts, breaking character each time. In real life, people don't (generally) lecture one another about current events; in novels the shouldn't either. Instead of a long lecture, the author should assume the other characters remember what is being discussed, and let the reader infer from the discussion.

I wanted to like this book very much; I couldn't get past the anachronisms, the speeches, the preachiness, the stilted way people, places, and things are introduced and described. I couldn't get past the way that the author transitioned from descriptive and narrative text. I couldn't get past the fact that the characters all spoke with the same voice.

There are far, far better works of historical fiction on this time, albeit not in the American South. Consider the works of James L. Nelson for the naval war in New England, or perhaps Dudley Pope for the British side of the same Naval War.

Please try again, Mr. Carter, but this time get a good editor who knows fiction, and who will help you to write better fiction. As a writer myself, I know how hard it is to change editors. I also know how much a good editor can improve my work.