Scan barcode
srash's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a really vivid, no-holds-barred depiction of how brutal the Civil War was in Missouri. It follows Jake Roedel, a teenaged Confederate bushwhacker. As a German-American, he's out-of-place in the group, and though he is privately uncomfortable with his comrades and their behavior at times, he is hardly an innocent bystander. In fact, in the first chapter, the group is enthusiastically slaughtering civilians, and Jake joins right in, even if it haunts him afterward. I thought that was a brilliant decision by Daniel Woodrell. Most authors would probably select a POV character who was more of an innocent to ensure the narrator was a more palatable figure.
Also, Woodrell does a fantastic job of documenting Jake's growing discontentment as his friends and comrades die beside him and as his family back home suffers the consequences of his loyalties and as his group stages the audacious and notoriously savage raid on Lawrence, Kansas. He also does a good job of depicting how badly things escalate as both sides prey upon civilians and each other, and then honor, such as it is, demands satisfaction and an eye for an eye in return. Woodrell's prose is especially stunning, both lyrical and colloquial. With their dialogue and the narration rendered as brutal idiomatic poetry, a strange but hauntingly effective combination, Jake and the other characters sound authentic to the time.
Also, Woodrell does a fantastic job of documenting Jake's growing discontentment as his friends and comrades die beside him and as his family back home suffers the consequences of his loyalties and as his group stages the audacious and notoriously savage raid on Lawrence, Kansas. He also does a good job of depicting how badly things escalate as both sides prey upon civilians and each other, and then honor, such as it is, demands satisfaction and an eye for an eye in return. Woodrell's prose is especially stunning, both lyrical and colloquial. With their dialogue and the narration rendered as brutal idiomatic poetry, a strange but hauntingly effective combination, Jake and the other characters sound authentic to the time.
ajordan60's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I did not find some of the writing choices to be "brave" as described by Ron Rash in the forward.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
larryerick's review
4.0
My emotions want to give this book a higher rating than I did. The fact is the story is not "monumental", but it is more than worth absorbing. Many a reader may not chose to pick up this volume because it deals with Missouri bushwackers during the Civil War. Indeed it has its share of violent encounters to turn off the more squeamish. One might compare it in its own way to The Red Badge of Courage. But, folks, I'm here to tell you that this has some of the best written prose I've ever read. The author has a masterful touch in turning a phrase that is as soothing to the soul as the soft touch from a loved one, as heart-warming as the shared laugh from a good friend. For one small sample, with three of the men discussing a well-regarded young woman, one says, "She is coltish of attitude, with an ungainly gallop of spirit." Much later, when two of the men are regarding the new infant of the same young woman, one says, "Babies is something I never can believe." "What do you mean!", says the other. "Well, look at it. Do you believe that thing will shout and holler and haul water someday?" And then the other man relates to the reader in the first-person, "To realize that this little handful was actually a person is to have faith in a miracle of dimensions." This book was turned into an Ang Lee movie, "Ride With the Devil", which I have not seen, but, while I can see the dialogue coming through in the transition, I have a hard time imagining the first-person narrative will be done the justice it deserves.
tasharobinson's review
3.0
Gradually reading my way through Daniel Woodrell's back catalog, I'm astonished at how many voices and styles he comes up with to express roughly the same class of people: poor strivers navigating their lack of education or prospects in an environment where criminal activity is the norm, and has to be contended with in one way or another. But this novel goes particularly far afield with the idea: It's set in the Civil War, among Southern "irregulars" who ride around raiding and hiding, choosing their targets and their enemies with impunity, and then mostly dying hard. This isn't normally a setting that catches my attention or interest, but I got so caught up in the rough poetic language of this book, with lines like "I drove a mess of potatoes into my mouth. I wrapped a string of bacon around a corn-bread chunk and set it chasing after the potatoes. The race to my gullet was more or less a tie." Or the way a woman "lingers a look on" a man she likes, or a man "kisses" another man in the face with the side of a pistol, causing "a pink spray of misery spittled on the wind." I found the protagonist's voice compelling even when the story felt deliberately, nihilistically aimless and empty, a long, Cormac McCarthy-esque litany of cruelty and empty, ugly deaths.
dave37's review
4.0
A fascinating, well-written excursion into a period of Missouri's history that I wasn't very familiar with. Very interesting to see the genesis of the dislike between Missouri and Kansas wrapped into a compelling tale. There are instances of Cormac McCarthy-esque violence in this one - much more so than any of Woodrell's other books - so, fair warning if that's not your cuppa. I didn't find the violence gratuitous - this is the Civil War after all - but Woodrell relates it in the same vivid, no-nonsense prose that he uses to tell the rest of the story.
bundy23's review
4.0
3.5 stars. Starts great but the romance is a bit YA and an unnecessary addition.
eleellis's review
5.0
Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell follows Jake Roedel, a young, Confederate-leaning southerner, as he rides across the south in the early 1860's with a band of men as they pillage, rob and attack those with Northern leanings and those felt to have attacked the southern culture and way of life. Roedel desires to avoid fighting alongside the Confederate army due to the perception of too many rules and regulations, while a member of a band of men hellbent on destruction and carnage across the south.
These characters are not sympathetic, nor are they written so, nor do I think, meant to be. The book is a violent book with racial language that may be offensive to some readers.
The writing is seamless and while reading, it reads as if Daniel Woodrell wrote this novel straight through. The way Woodrell strings to together words to tell his stories cannot be aptly described. When it comes to the descriptive ability of a writer, Daniel Woodrell is one of the best. Like William Gay, Woodrell has such an excellent skill to create lush and colorful mental imagery with his selection and usage of words.
Highly recommended, especially for those that enjoyed the recent novel If The Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss.
These characters are not sympathetic, nor are they written so, nor do I think, meant to be. The book is a violent book with racial language that may be offensive to some readers.
The writing is seamless and while reading, it reads as if Daniel Woodrell wrote this novel straight through. The way Woodrell strings to together words to tell his stories cannot be aptly described. When it comes to the descriptive ability of a writer, Daniel Woodrell is one of the best. Like William Gay, Woodrell has such an excellent skill to create lush and colorful mental imagery with his selection and usage of words.
Highly recommended, especially for those that enjoyed the recent novel If The Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss.
djrmelvin's review against another edition
4.0
how I love a book that not only entertains, but also educates and enlightens. My knowledge of the Border Wars between Kansas and Missouri was limited to what I was taught in high school US history, that is, that Congress didn't want to settle the volatile issue of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, so they passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and a few people from Missouri disagreed, kicked up a fuss because they were pro-slavery, and were then relocated away from the border. That's just sad, isn't it?
Woodrell takes on the incredibly violent confrontations between the Jawhawkers and the Border Ruffians from the side of the to show how the issue of states rights affected Southern homesteaders and immigrants that didn't own slaves. Jake Roedel, if first generation American born to German parents narrates his story of joining up with a group of Missouri irregulars. His motivation for joining goes beyond fighting against the Unionists who want Kansas to be a free state, he's also there because his best friend, near brother, and center of his world, Jack Bull Chiles has joined up after Chiles' father is killed by a band of Jayhawkers. Like any group that operates on the fringe, there are some men of varying degrees of quality and sanity in the unit they join. The fever to rebel reaches its peak when the group Roedel is with joins up with the (real) William Quantrill for what will be known as the Lawrence Massacre. Roedel takes an outsider's pov to that battle, which allows Woodrell to describe the atrocities that really happened without turning his flawed hero into an unredeamable villain.
Woodrell takes on the incredibly violent confrontations between the Jawhawkers and the Border Ruffians from the side of the to show how the issue of states rights affected Southern homesteaders and immigrants that didn't own slaves. Jake Roedel, if first generation American born to German parents narrates his story of joining up with a group of Missouri irregulars. His motivation for joining goes beyond fighting against the Unionists who want Kansas to be a free state, he's also there because his best friend, near brother, and center of his world, Jack Bull Chiles has joined up after Chiles' father is killed by a band of Jayhawkers. Like any group that operates on the fringe, there are some men of varying degrees of quality and sanity in the unit they join. The fever to rebel reaches its peak when the group Roedel is with joins up with the (real) William Quantrill for what will be known as the Lawrence Massacre. Roedel takes an outsider's pov to that battle, which allows Woodrell to describe the atrocities that really happened without turning his flawed hero into an unredeamable villain.
sherrylockwood's review against another edition
5.0
So, so good. The script of Ride With the Devil was pretty much lifted word for word from the dialogue in the book.
ctgt's review against another edition
4.0
What a brutal yet beautiful book. The story of a young recruit among the rebels, bushwackers, who specialize in guerrilla warfare battling the bands of Jayhawkers from Kansas. Jake joined Black John Ambrose's band of the First Missouri irregulars with his "near" brother Jack Chiles.
The obvious comparison is to The Outlaw Josie Wales, but this book seems much more brutal or primal, if you will. There are no punches pulled in this story and death is a constant companion. Jake sits on the periphery of the group , not so much for his age but because he is a "dutchman" and he can read and write. As you get to know Jake you begin to see he is a little different, at one point he engineers the release of someone from his home area and in one scene feels that while the killings were justified the manner of death was not. A raid on the town of Lawrence, Kansas proves to be the final straw for Jake.
It took a little while for me to get into the rhythm of his terse, choppy dialogue but once I got used to it the story really flowed quite well. The phrasing reminded me of some of the dialogue from True Grit.
A very different book from Winter's Bone but no less powerful.
The obvious comparison is to The Outlaw Josie Wales, but this book seems much more brutal or primal, if you will. There are no punches pulled in this story and death is a constant companion. Jake sits on the periphery of the group , not so much for his age but because he is a "dutchman" and he can read and write. As you get to know Jake you begin to see he is a little different, at one point he engineers the release of someone from his home area and in one scene feels that while the killings were justified the manner of death was not. A raid on the town of Lawrence, Kansas proves to be the final straw for Jake.
It took a little while for me to get into the rhythm of his terse, choppy dialogue but once I got used to it the story really flowed quite well. The phrasing reminded me of some of the dialogue from True Grit.
A very different book from Winter's Bone but no less powerful.