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Title: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor ISBN: 0-452-26956-3 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (27 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A richly detailed tapestry
Comment: This book is astounding in its scope, detail and depth of characters. The way Kantor spins the intimate lives of so many individuals around the central thread of the Claffey family and the prison... It is simply amazing. I see many of the previous reviews complaining that this was a difficult read. I did not find it so, but the writing IS like thick rye bread or dark heavy beer. You aren't going to be able to plow through 300 pages a night. The writing is saturated with detail and will drift for chapters into recollections or musings of various characters. People who are linear thinkers probably will have trouble with this book, because this is not just a story about Andersonville. It's a giant timeless snapshot of humanity.
Rating: 5
Summary: The best book I've ever read
Comment: This won't be a long review.
This is a story about the infamous Andersonville prison of Civil War fame, into which tens of thousands of Northerners were inhumanely confined under obscene conditions.
MacKinley Kantor introduces and keeps faithful track of scores of characters, and does each and every one of them full justice. Whether he is illuminating the background of a simple soldier or conveying the daily goings-on of the locals, the way he maintains the unity of this massive narrative is a marvel.
The main character, and the moral center of the story, is Ira Claffey, a Southern farmer, slave-owner and philosopher. Though in this day and age most people would argue that a slave-owner cannot be moral, Kantor suggests otherwise. The beauty of Ira's character is that it is capable of accepting and adapting to the great social unheaval the Civil War brought to the South, and we are shown in other characters, most notably his wife Veronica, what happens to those who cannot accept and adapt.
Most striking of all is the humanity to be found inside and outside the four walls of the cesspool of disease and despair that Andersonville stockade quickly became. Some passages are almost too heartbreaking to read, and others lift the spirits like a tonic. It may seem contradictory, but there is great beauty in this book about evil, suffering, and death.
I can't recommend this book highly enough, or do it any sort of justice in writing a few paragraphs about it. You must read it.
Rating: 4
Summary: An honest review
Comment: This novel is just too long. There are beautiful, compelling, heart-wrenching,and inspirational moments. Kantor at times demonstrates a fine ability to evoke certain images.
The problem is that not every episode is captivating and the reader often has to wade through pages and pages before reaching the "literary payoff". At times I wondered if I would ever finish the novel. A decent editor could have trimmed this book by 200-300 pages and I believe the novel's impact would not have been changed. I do recommend reading this novel, but with reservations.
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Title: Long Remember by MacKinlay Kantor ISBN: 0312875207 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 07 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr ISBN: 0312265077 Publisher: Picador Pub. Date: 05 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr ISBN: 0312280696 Publisher: Picador Pub. Date: 04 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Andersonville: The Last Depot (Civil War America) by William Marvel ISBN: 0807821527 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $37.50 |
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Title: History of Andersonville Prison by Ovid L. Futch ISBN: 0813005914 Publisher: University Press of Florida Pub. Date: 01 June, 1968 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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