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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
-- That line in the song, Old times there are not forgotten. I could argue that maybe they're not worth remembering.
-- I've never forgotten that girl, and I wouldn't want to. Remembering doesn't change anything--it will always have happened. But forgetting won't erase it either.
Varina was the second wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. She was raised in Mississippi according to her status, owned slaves and served as the first lady in Richmond. But she was also a woman who walked out of her husband's inaugural address halfway through, who, in the middle of the Civil War, took in a black child and raised him with her own children, who finished the work of her husband's memoirs after his death and then moved directly to New York City.
Charles Frazier tells the story of Varina's life as a series of reminiscences recounted by Varina to a young man who believes he might be Jimmy Limber, the boy Varina took in during the war. He is searching for his past and they meet each Sunday and she remembers her life before, during and after the war, the memories moving back and forth through time, as her train of thought brings other events to mind.
Many years later, now that choices matter less, V has finally learned that sitting calm within herself and waiting is often the best choice. And even when it's not, those around you become uncomfortable because they think you are wise.
Frazier writes beautifully, there's not a jarring sentence or an awkward word choice anywhere in this book. He also does the difficult job of threading the needle of being both faithful to the attitudes and behaviors of that time without alienating the modern reader. Varina is a sympathetic character, but Frazier never allows us to look away at the harm done by the system she lived in and tried to preserve.
-- I've never forgotten that girl, and I wouldn't want to. Remembering doesn't change anything--it will always have happened. But forgetting won't erase it either.
Varina was the second wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. She was raised in Mississippi according to her status, owned slaves and served as the first lady in Richmond. But she was also a woman who walked out of her husband's inaugural address halfway through, who, in the middle of the Civil War, took in a black child and raised him with her own children, who finished the work of her husband's memoirs after his death and then moved directly to New York City.
Charles Frazier tells the story of Varina's life as a series of reminiscences recounted by Varina to a young man who believes he might be Jimmy Limber, the boy Varina took in during the war. He is searching for his past and they meet each Sunday and she remembers her life before, during and after the war, the memories moving back and forth through time, as her train of thought brings other events to mind.
Many years later, now that choices matter less, V has finally learned that sitting calm within herself and waiting is often the best choice. And even when it's not, those around you become uncomfortable because they think you are wise.
Frazier writes beautifully, there's not a jarring sentence or an awkward word choice anywhere in this book. He also does the difficult job of threading the needle of being both faithful to the attitudes and behaviors of that time without alienating the modern reader. Varina is a sympathetic character, but Frazier never allows us to look away at the harm done by the system she lived in and tried to preserve.
Charles Frazier writes extraordinarily beautiful prose.
It took me awhile to come to this book because I was so disappointed with what I thought was an abrupt and unmotivated ending to Cold Mountain - another example of Mr. Frazier's beautiful prose.
This book is an immersion into a niche of Civil War Southern society that if taken as seriously as they seemed to have taken themselves would set the gag reflex to flexing. These characters, even in extremity are just too, too - Mr. Frazier doesn't allow us any metaphorical body odor, quite something for a small wagon full of people on the run from Richmond to Havana at the end of the war. Varina, v. of the novel, a.k.a. Mrs Jefferson Davis is too good to be true, and if true, too blinkered to be loved. It seems as though the war with its 700,000 dead wasn't much more than an inconvenience to V. and her coterie, but then, when you're a morphine addict not much is going to get through, anyway.
Varina has led me to Mary Chestnut's diaries, that were probably invaluable to Mr. Frazier. Mary and V. were quite the buddies drinking their morphine laced libations. The diary, thus far, and I'm only into 1861, treat the war as an interruption to social life, and why, oh why, would those darkies want their freedom anyway - we treat them so well.
So, you can see, a bit miffed at the POV. Would love for Mr. Frazier to get down, dirty, and a few miles closer to the horror of the period. (He does better in Cold Mountain.)
Ah, well, the nature writing is quite something.
It took me awhile to come to this book because I was so disappointed with what I thought was an abrupt and unmotivated ending to Cold Mountain - another example of Mr. Frazier's beautiful prose.
This book is an immersion into a niche of Civil War Southern society that if taken as seriously as they seemed to have taken themselves would set the gag reflex to flexing. These characters, even in extremity are just too, too - Mr. Frazier doesn't allow us any metaphorical body odor, quite something for a small wagon full of people on the run from Richmond to Havana at the end of the war. Varina, v. of the novel, a.k.a. Mrs Jefferson Davis is too good to be true, and if true, too blinkered to be loved. It seems as though the war with its 700,000 dead wasn't much more than an inconvenience to V. and her coterie, but then, when you're a morphine addict not much is going to get through, anyway.
Varina has led me to Mary Chestnut's diaries, that were probably invaluable to Mr. Frazier. Mary and V. were quite the buddies drinking their morphine laced libations. The diary, thus far, and I'm only into 1861, treat the war as an interruption to social life, and why, oh why, would those darkies want their freedom anyway - we treat them so well.
So, you can see, a bit miffed at the POV. Would love for Mr. Frazier to get down, dirty, and a few miles closer to the horror of the period. (He does better in Cold Mountain.)
Ah, well, the nature writing is quite something.
Excellent Book
This is the best book I’ve read this year. I really enjoyed “Cold Mountain” by the author but this one to me was even better.
This is the best book I’ve read this year. I really enjoyed “Cold Mountain” by the author but this one to me was even better.
A slow moving historical fiction novel about the First Lady of the Confederacy. It moves back and forth in time, largely through the conceit of Varina reminiscing with a young African-American that she raised as a child and lost track of until many years post-war. Frazier writes beautifully. There are passages where I just had to stop and reread and appreciate. Nevertheless, for me the characters never became fully developed. In that, as in so many, I am outvoted by critics and other readers.
Excellent book on Jefferson Davis' wife, Varina Davis. This one took me some time to get into, but once I got used to Frazier's writing style, I was definitely transported back into various times in Varina's life. 4.5/5 stars
I found this small window into the life and personality of Varina Howell Davis illuminating. We are so often forced to view historical figures and their actions solely through the eyes of what was recorded by men, what was important to men, and women take such a background role in those retellings - unless, God forbid, they asserted themselves in any way. Which many did at their peril, because an assertive female was certainly not the ideal. So while it is sometimes easy to forget that women were there at all, I greatly appreciate being reminded that, not only were they there, they had influence, and far more often than we know, they made a difference.
Haunting historical fiction centered around a little known figure in history, Varina Howell Davis, second wife of Jefferson Davis. Frazier does a beautiful job of describing the destruction and devastation after the Civil War as Varina and her children and motley crew of helpers escape Richmond after the war. Written almost as a series of vignettes of this most interesting woman’s life, this is a brilliant book. From her childhood in Mississippi to her unlikely marriage to the much older Davis to their bright years in Washington to the fated time in Richmond to her wandering in Europe and America after the loss of the war, Varina’s story is recounted through the haze of her opium addiction.
Did not finish. I couldn't get into the writing or story
I was halfway through when I couldn’t bring myself to finish. I didn’t care about the story or the characters.
I adored Cold Mountain. I wasn’t so wild about Nightwoods, and had no interest for some reason, in Thirteen Moons. But Varina is beautifully written glimpse into an amazing character. Varina was Jefferson Davis’ second wife and they lived much of their lives apart, both before and after the Civil War. Frazier brings Varina and her personality to life. Challenged and brilliant, she lived life on her terms. Was she a Thief of Life?