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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I finally got around to finishing this book. I was assigned it as part of a trip to Gettysburg and I suppose finishing the book before the trip would have made me enjoy it a bit more... but I just found the book boring. I'm just not a huge fan of historical fiction.
In any case the book was decent when I gave it more effort and it really did a good job portraying the people in the civil war. I can't believe how crazy people were in the civil war, fighting friends for a cause that was muddled.
In any case the book was decent when I gave it more effort and it really did a good job portraying the people in the civil war. I can't believe how crazy people were in the civil war, fighting friends for a cause that was muddled.
I'm not sure how to characterize this... perhaps as "historical fiction non-fiction." Anyway, it's a wonderful account of the Battle of Gettysburg and made me feel like I was there. Tremendous description of the battle scenes.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's fantastic to view this entrenched and bloody battle from the viewpoints of those involved. I loved having descriptions of how it felt to be inside the battles, and also planning and waiting and marching. Hearing from characters from both sides (though mainly the South) added depth and interest to this story.
Before reading this book I knew nothing at all about the American Civil War. I was taught only British and European history at school. So I certainly know a lot more about it now, though this book is not one which sets out to explain the basics. There is an assumption of knowledge already, there's no explanation of the start of the war nor of how it would end. I decided not to worry about that and to enjoy it for the characters and evocations.
I did not find that the maps increased my understanding at all. In fact, I found them annoyingly distracting. I was also pulled out of my absorption in the telling which felt otherwise realistic, by the repeated descriptions by these tough fighting men of other tough fighting men as handsome, good-looking, or even beautiful. It just doesn't seem plausible that every one of these characters would be so interested in the aesthetic attractiveness of comrades and enemies.
There's not a lot of story or surprise, but for what it is -- a description of one event over a few days -- this is mostly very well done. The notes at the end on what became of those who survived are interesting, too.
Before reading this book I knew nothing at all about the American Civil War. I was taught only British and European history at school. So I certainly know a lot more about it now, though this book is not one which sets out to explain the basics. There is an assumption of knowledge already, there's no explanation of the start of the war nor of how it would end. I decided not to worry about that and to enjoy it for the characters and evocations.
I did not find that the maps increased my understanding at all. In fact, I found them annoyingly distracting. I was also pulled out of my absorption in the telling which felt otherwise realistic, by the repeated descriptions by these tough fighting men of other tough fighting men as handsome, good-looking, or even beautiful. It just doesn't seem plausible that every one of these characters would be so interested in the aesthetic attractiveness of comrades and enemies.
There's not a lot of story or surprise, but for what it is -- a description of one event over a few days -- this is mostly very well done. The notes at the end on what became of those who survived are interesting, too.
A wonderful recreation of the Gettysburg, this book has been sitting on our bookshelf for years, begging to been read, as friend after friend as recommended them to me. Finally took it down a couple of weeks ago, and I finished it today. The book isn't a scholarly treatment of the battle, nor a journalistically detailed one; it is, instead, a lyrical portrait of the feelings, perspectives, and experiences (told chronologically through the whole length of the battle, always in the first person) of a handful of the major players in the battle, mainly Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, with John Buford (whose early actions in securing the high ground south of Gettysburg was arguably the single most important tactical decision in the entire battle), an English observer named Arthur Freemantle, and a spy of Longstreet's called Harrison rounding out the chapters. It is such a persuasively told story, with the decisions and mistakes and heroism and cowardice and foolishness and bravery and plain ignorant determination brought to haunting life. I sometimes felt the book had, perhaps, a little too much of a mournful cast to the story, as if everyone was always fully aware that they were fated to some great Shakespearean doom. But I never got a feeling of Lost Cause romanticism from the book; while it doesn't go out of its way to highlight (or create) situations for its characters that would focus on the racist character of either the Confederacy or 19th-century America in general, neither does it display the condescending, aristocratic pretensions of some Confederate officers (George Pickett most particularly) as anything other than an occasionally humorous, occasionally infuriating, moral bone-headedness. Overall, Longstreet is the moral center of the story (though Chamberlain's stunning victory on Little Round Top is its narrative climax, by far); his ruminations on the changing nature of war kind of define a certain way of thinking about the tragedy of the Civil War, one which I kept sensing echoes of in Ken Burns's justly famous PBS series--which, frankly, now I want to re-watch. Anyway, great book.