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ashlee_green's review against another edition
2.0
It was okay. I found some parts really engrossing, but then there were large chucks that were kind of a chore to read. There was too much going on. Jacob is kind of unbelievable as a spy; too many things that happened to move the plot forward were overly fortuitous; random scenes that dealt with slavery and antisemitism that didn't really fit in with the rest of the book. In the end I just felt dubious and underwhelmed by the whole book.
lindamoore's review against another edition
1.0
I love, love, loved The World to Come and anticipated this for over a year. Snapped it up in hardcover and found it to be little more than a corset buster --so disappointed.
dacohen37's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A great novel that may be difficult to get into at first because it begins at an oddly slow pace, however it picks up.
matthue's review against another edition
4.0
Dara Horn has never been a writer who shies away from strong imagery. Her first novel, In the Image, features a catatonic flood that wrecks a New Jersey town. In The World to Come, an antisocial bachelor at a Jewish singles event in a museum mopes in a corner and inadvertently steals a framed Chagall painting.
All Other Nights -- which comes out in paperback on March 10 -- is no exception. A Passover story about slavery and the American South, plotting with his future sisters-in-law to marry an "uppity woman"-type sister, simultaneously running away from one destiny while sliding seamlessly into a destiny of a very different caliber -- there are grand themes and epic storytelling, but Nights is about as subtle as the Civil War itself.
Jacob, a young man from New York, is sent across the Mason-Dixon Line at the height of the war as a spy with instructions to pay his uncle and aunt a visit. The Southern Rappaports are hosting a Passover seder, and Jacob has been ordered to poison his uncle, a conspirator in a plot to assassinate President Lincoln.
The night of the seder, the family receives an unexpected visitor in the person of Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish second-in-command of the Confederacy, and Jacob is forced to decide just whom he's expected to make his move on. Just when we think it's a simple matter of Inglourious Basterds-type fan fiction, things become a lot more complicated. For one thing, Benjamin doesn't simply die. For another, that's just the first fifty pages -- a teaser for a much longer and more intricate plot that dwarfs the moral quandaries of assassinating your own uncle.
Shortly after All Other Nights came out, Horn casually mentioned to me that she was afraid her Torah metaphor was too blatant -- "After all," she laughed to herself, "I named my main character 'Jacob'." For a moment, I was stunned. It actually hadn't occurred to me at all -- Jacob in the book, like Jacob in the Good Book, was part of an arranged marriage; was indentured to his father-in-law in a work arrangement for years; and was, as a child, when his mother dressed him up, definitely guilty of more than one instance of espionage.
Of course, she takes liberties. Not the least of which is that this Jacob doesn't marry any of the sisters of his beloved -- instead, he charms them into seducing the withdrawn, sly, and uncrackable Eugenia Levy, alleged spy for the Confederacy. And, when their marriage starts, the book -- for the sixth or seventh time, in what seems to be an unbreakable marathon of energy -- kickstarts into yet another beginning.
The weirdest thing about All Other Nights, at least compared to its predecessors, is its linearity of plot. In another binding -- and with characters with names like "Philip Mordecai Levy" and "William Wm. Williams" and, yes, "Eugenia" -- it could read as a historical thriller, or even a romance novel, instead of literary fiction.
The story is anything but straightforward. Luxuriously plotted and extensively researched, the novel shares snapshots of a fully-realized 19th-century world, from the most minute of details of food and architecture to hints of a suspected (but never proven) conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. In Horn's author's note at the end, she talks about a summer spent as a fact-checker at American Heritage Magazine, and of being warned that "Civil War buffs are to be feared the most" -- and she seems to have pacified even them.
The thing is, All Other Nights works on almost every level you can run it through, from philosophy to action to political thriller -- and yes, even as a romance novel (although a sort of depressive, masochistic one, at times). It doesn't have the singleminded brilliance of The World to Come, but it's not supposed to be that kind of book. Horn is the rare novelist, Jewish or not, who's not content to repeat a past triumph with slight variations, but searches as a writer to find something uniquely new and undiscovered. It's not a surprise that she's succeeded in the elusive Civil War genre with her first try. It's the same reason that I recommend Horn's books to friends and feel it necessary to add the caveat that "it's not that she's a Jewish novelist, she's just a damn good one" -- to Dara Horn, the story is paramount, and all else falls in its wake. For some people, that's what war does, and for others, that's what religion does. For her, it's all about the ride.
All Other Nights -- which comes out in paperback on March 10 -- is no exception. A Passover story about slavery and the American South, plotting with his future sisters-in-law to marry an "uppity woman"-type sister, simultaneously running away from one destiny while sliding seamlessly into a destiny of a very different caliber -- there are grand themes and epic storytelling, but Nights is about as subtle as the Civil War itself.
Jacob, a young man from New York, is sent across the Mason-Dixon Line at the height of the war as a spy with instructions to pay his uncle and aunt a visit. The Southern Rappaports are hosting a Passover seder, and Jacob has been ordered to poison his uncle, a conspirator in a plot to assassinate President Lincoln.
The night of the seder, the family receives an unexpected visitor in the person of Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish second-in-command of the Confederacy, and Jacob is forced to decide just whom he's expected to make his move on. Just when we think it's a simple matter of Inglourious Basterds-type fan fiction, things become a lot more complicated. For one thing, Benjamin doesn't simply die. For another, that's just the first fifty pages -- a teaser for a much longer and more intricate plot that dwarfs the moral quandaries of assassinating your own uncle.
Shortly after All Other Nights came out, Horn casually mentioned to me that she was afraid her Torah metaphor was too blatant -- "After all," she laughed to herself, "I named my main character 'Jacob'." For a moment, I was stunned. It actually hadn't occurred to me at all -- Jacob in the book, like Jacob in the Good Book, was part of an arranged marriage; was indentured to his father-in-law in a work arrangement for years; and was, as a child, when his mother dressed him up, definitely guilty of more than one instance of espionage.
Of course, she takes liberties. Not the least of which is that this Jacob doesn't marry any of the sisters of his beloved -- instead, he charms them into seducing the withdrawn, sly, and uncrackable Eugenia Levy, alleged spy for the Confederacy. And, when their marriage starts, the book -- for the sixth or seventh time, in what seems to be an unbreakable marathon of energy -- kickstarts into yet another beginning.
The weirdest thing about All Other Nights, at least compared to its predecessors, is its linearity of plot. In another binding -- and with characters with names like "Philip Mordecai Levy" and "William Wm. Williams" and, yes, "Eugenia" -- it could read as a historical thriller, or even a romance novel, instead of literary fiction.
The story is anything but straightforward. Luxuriously plotted and extensively researched, the novel shares snapshots of a fully-realized 19th-century world, from the most minute of details of food and architecture to hints of a suspected (but never proven) conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. In Horn's author's note at the end, she talks about a summer spent as a fact-checker at American Heritage Magazine, and of being warned that "Civil War buffs are to be feared the most" -- and she seems to have pacified even them.
The thing is, All Other Nights works on almost every level you can run it through, from philosophy to action to political thriller -- and yes, even as a romance novel (although a sort of depressive, masochistic one, at times). It doesn't have the singleminded brilliance of The World to Come, but it's not supposed to be that kind of book. Horn is the rare novelist, Jewish or not, who's not content to repeat a past triumph with slight variations, but searches as a writer to find something uniquely new and undiscovered. It's not a surprise that she's succeeded in the elusive Civil War genre with her first try. It's the same reason that I recommend Horn's books to friends and feel it necessary to add the caveat that "it's not that she's a Jewish novelist, she's just a damn good one" -- to Dara Horn, the story is paramount, and all else falls in its wake. For some people, that's what war does, and for others, that's what religion does. For her, it's all about the ride.
katiecks's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of my other favorite books. I love the time period it is set in and I love the writing, storytelling and character development. I was totally absorbed and I love Dara Horn's writing. I am anxiously awaiting more books from her.
hplatter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
celebrin's review against another edition
4.0
This didn't end as well as I had hoped, which kept it from being 5 stars. That being said this was a wonderful book for anyone who likes history viewed by someone other than a white protestant. The OTHERNESS of the main character's Jewishness is displayed wonderfully. I especially loved the scene at a seder in the south--served by slaves.
I enjoyed this book and will be looking at books from this author.
I enjoyed this book and will be looking at books from this author.
mycouscous's review against another edition
4.0
I very much enjoyed this Civil War novel. All Other Nights centers around Jacob Rappaport, a Union Jew who enlists in the army to escape an arranged marriage. He's given orders to murder his uncle and then to marry a Confederate spymistress. The detail Horn pours into her historical fiction is incredible, rendering a believable setting that is fraught with danger. It was a perfect balance between intrigue, suspense, and romance wrapped up in a literary style. Horn closely examines the themes of bondage, loyalty, and justice through the lens of the Jewish experience in the 1800s. I would give this 4.5 stars and heartily recommend it to fans of historical fiction.
heidig's review against another edition
2.0
I was determined to finish this book despite a slow start so I forged ahead and completed it. I don't often do that-- if I don't 'feel' the book immediately I usually stop. This time, however, I was really afraid I was the problem and to some extent I think that remains true. I just wasn't as into the subject (Civil War espionage from the perspective of a Jewish soldier from NYC) as I could have been. I resisted Horn's narrative in ways and didn't allow myself to go with the flow of the book.
This is disappointing because I think All Other Nights is a genuinely good and compelling read, but perhaps just not for me. I'll be analyzing why that is for a long time. It's got the elements that should, and probably will, grab anyone else who picks this up-- it's an historical novel of the civil war but the protagonist is a Jewish Union soldier who must go undercover in the deep South to marry a Confederate female spy. Surprisingly it was the female characters that I didn't really 'get' in the book. They were a strange combination of vapid Southern Belles and Jewish Scarlett O'Haras. Very odd. I don't know enough about American Judaism in this period and region to know if they are really plausible.
What I did connect with, however, was the anti-Judiasm that was so prevelant in the South at that time as well as the ways in which prejudice reared its head within the military. I had no ideas Jews were expelled from American towns during the Civil War. That alone should have make this compelling reading for everyone. At this point in our country's history I think many readers know about and respect the service of african american civil war combatants, but I know I had never considered the role Jews might have played in the Civil War.
Anti-Judiasm gets overlooked or trivialized today in ways that are inexcusable. This book would definitely be a fascinating starting point to discuss religion, ethnicity, and war. In the United States we pride ourselves on our heritage as a "melting pot" -- but this book forces the reader to wrestle with questions of identity and allegience. Which is more compelling-- Religious identity? Family connection? Love? Ethnicity? Regional heritage? Politics? I definitnely appreciate Horn's book for allowing me to consider these questions.
This is disappointing because I think All Other Nights is a genuinely good and compelling read, but perhaps just not for me. I'll be analyzing why that is for a long time. It's got the elements that should, and probably will, grab anyone else who picks this up-- it's an historical novel of the civil war but the protagonist is a Jewish Union soldier who must go undercover in the deep South to marry a Confederate female spy. Surprisingly it was the female characters that I didn't really 'get' in the book. They were a strange combination of vapid Southern Belles and Jewish Scarlett O'Haras. Very odd. I don't know enough about American Judaism in this period and region to know if they are really plausible.
What I did connect with, however, was the anti-Judiasm that was so prevelant in the South at that time as well as the ways in which prejudice reared its head within the military. I had no ideas Jews were expelled from American towns during the Civil War. That alone should have make this compelling reading for everyone. At this point in our country's history I think many readers know about and respect the service of african american civil war combatants, but I know I had never considered the role Jews might have played in the Civil War.
Anti-Judiasm gets overlooked or trivialized today in ways that are inexcusable. This book would definitely be a fascinating starting point to discuss religion, ethnicity, and war. In the United States we pride ourselves on our heritage as a "melting pot" -- but this book forces the reader to wrestle with questions of identity and allegience. Which is more compelling-- Religious identity? Family connection? Love? Ethnicity? Regional heritage? Politics? I definitnely appreciate Horn's book for allowing me to consider these questions.