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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
If you liked COLD MOUNTAIN, the debut novel by Charles Frazier that won the National Book Award in 1997, then I'm pretty sure you're going to like VARINA, his fourth and latest novel. I loved both.
The VARINA of the title, also called simply "V" through most of the book, is Varina Howell Davis, the much younger second wife of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. Her decision to marry Jeff as a 16-year-old woman was, in retrospect, the wrong choice because it placed her on the wrong side of history.
In spite of her wrong choice, it's hard to fault Varina for making the choice. Few avenues were available to young woman at the time besides marriage to a wealthier older man. It's also hard not to root for Varina during the book; she is a strong, smart, empathetic woman who spends most of her life on the run, including a large part of this book when she and her children have to flee from Richmond at the end of the Civil War with the Union Army closing in, and bounty hunters hot on her trail. Varina is a bit like the dirt farmers in Sherman's path described above, suffering for her connection to Jeff, even though they are estranged and physically apart for most of their 45 years of marriage.
One of my favorite passages happens near the end of the book when she finally reunites with Jeff, who is living now in Biloxi, Mississippi, trying to write his memoirs and keeping company with another woman, Sara Dorsey, a former classmate and rival of Varina.
In so many ways, this passage offers a great assessment of the Civil War, what it was about, and what it means today. It was a terrible war, with unfathomable human costs, borne of terrible decisions by men like Jefferson Davis. And to this day, it seems that many Americans seem not to hear or choose to ignore the reasons why their forebears were on the wrong side of history.
The VARINA of the title, also called simply "V" through most of the book, is Varina Howell Davis, the much younger second wife of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. Her decision to marry Jeff as a 16-year-old woman was, in retrospect, the wrong choice because it placed her on the wrong side of history.
Being on the wrong side of history carries consequences. V lives that truth every day. If you've done terrible things, lived a terrible way, profited from pain in the face of history's power to judge, then guilt and loss accrue. Redemption becomes an abstract idea receding before you. Even if your sin - like dirt farmers in Sherman's path - had been simply to live in the wrong place, you suffered. Didn't matter whether you owned slaves or which way you voted or how good your intentions had been. Or how bad. You might suffer as much as the family of a great plantation, which was maybe not completely just. But if you were the family with a great plantation, you had it coming. Those were times that required choosing a side - and then, sooner or later, history asks, which side were you on?
In spite of her wrong choice, it's hard to fault Varina for making the choice. Few avenues were available to young woman at the time besides marriage to a wealthier older man. It's also hard not to root for Varina during the book; she is a strong, smart, empathetic woman who spends most of her life on the run, including a large part of this book when she and her children have to flee from Richmond at the end of the Civil War with the Union Army closing in, and bounty hunters hot on her trail. Varina is a bit like the dirt farmers in Sherman's path described above, suffering for her connection to Jeff, even though they are estranged and physically apart for most of their 45 years of marriage.
One of my favorite passages happens near the end of the book when she finally reunites with Jeff, who is living now in Biloxi, Mississippi, trying to write his memoirs and keeping company with another woman, Sara Dorsey, a former classmate and rival of Varina.
- Jefferson makes daily progress on his book, Sara said. Some days good and others less so. But pages accumulate.
- Don't look at your feet. Look far down the road, V said.
Jeff entered the conversation, saying, By that you mean, what?
- Where you want to be rather than where you are. A wagon driver said it to me somewhere in the northern part of Georgia.
- Well, Sara said, you're right about the long view. Poets can burn themselves in the sun for a single poem, a page. A book, though, calls for share and time. That applies even to the entertainments I've written, and much more so to the history of a nation, its rise and fall.
V barely suppressed her laughter, a stage gesture meant to be readable from the upper balcony. Meant to provoke. She said, The Confederacy was not the Roman Empire - just four apocalyptic years. A blink of the eye with a horrible cost. Walk around Richmond or Lexington or Biloxi and count empty sleeves and pant legs and face masks.
Jefferson seemed not to hear, maybe listening exclusively to the tide.
In so many ways, this passage offers a great assessment of the Civil War, what it was about, and what it means today. It was a terrible war, with unfathomable human costs, borne of terrible decisions by men like Jefferson Davis. And to this day, it seems that many Americans seem not to hear or choose to ignore the reasons why their forebears were on the wrong side of history.
Charles Frazier’s newest novel, Varina explores the life of Varina, Jefferson Davis’ second wife. James Blake discovers that he was known as Jimmy Limber and raised by Varina with her children until after the fall of the Confederacy. He remembers little about that time of his life and spends six Sundays listening to the memories of Varina Davis. He learns not only about his part in the story but also about the life of Varina. A story of a Southern woman and her reflections on life and war and rebuilding.
Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC for my honest review.
Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC for my honest review.
Beautifully written and very humane but Frazier doesn’t romanticize the South or let anyone off the hook, so to speak. Several passages about choices and consequences feel incredibly relevant.
Resisting my impulse to compare it to Frazier's other three, I'll just say I loved it. It was well worth the wait. My biggest complaint was in the choice of how it was narrated. The decision was apparently made to narrate without accent - northern, southern, black, white, male or female. I would listen to it again one day when the audiobook is published again with a narration that does it justice.
Well y’all, I’ve done it again. I found another piece of sniveling, self-serving garbage. I finished this one out of spite. I wanted very badly, much like Signature of All Things, to cast this garbage into the sea. Unlike that previous disaster, I could not bring myself to punish the environment with this piece of “not all confederates” garbage. Charles Frazier spent a mind-numbing 353 pages elaborating on what could have been a pamphlet – “Varina Davis was a lady that had ideas outside of her husband’s thoughts”. Varina, wife of Jefferson Davis, gets the “smart lady that everyone is jealous of treatment” via anecdotes of her spaaaaarkling wit, her exooooootic feautres, and her looooooooove of ancient poetry in the original language. Ugh. It was another adventure in “look how enlightened this person is” that was built, not by action, but by lists of people they knew and books that they read.
I can get all worked up about this lazy story telling (am I really surprised? Cold Mountain was…fine. and a fluke), but what I would really like to spend my time raging about was this 353 page tome of why we should feel bad for the queen of the goddamn confederacy. We’re supposed to believe that this woman, her husband, his whole family, and everyone else that they ever came across was not really a racist, because they were all GOOD FRIENDS with their SLAVES. GOOD FRIENDS with the people that they OWNED. They were all NICE to the people that they considered THINGS and therefore they were all to be forgiven for the unforgivable situations that they charged into head-first with fists held high into the sky. Oh yes, and other people were mean to THEM- these FINE PEOPLE who were DEFENDING THE CONSTITUTION- in this day and age I cannot begin to consider the number of people responsible for allowing this book to be made without becoming apoplectic. I cannot type it out, so go ahead and imagine a scream here. Do not read this book.
I can get all worked up about this lazy story telling (am I really surprised? Cold Mountain was…fine. and a fluke), but what I would really like to spend my time raging about was this 353 page tome of why we should feel bad for the queen of the goddamn confederacy. We’re supposed to believe that this woman, her husband, his whole family, and everyone else that they ever came across was not really a racist, because they were all GOOD FRIENDS with their SLAVES. GOOD FRIENDS with the people that they OWNED. They were all NICE to the people that they considered THINGS and therefore they were all to be forgiven for the unforgivable situations that they charged into head-first with fists held high into the sky. Oh yes, and other people were mean to THEM- these FINE PEOPLE who were DEFENDING THE CONSTITUTION- in this day and age I cannot begin to consider the number of people responsible for allowing this book to be made without becoming apoplectic. I cannot type it out, so go ahead and imagine a scream here. Do not read this book.
I loved this book--a little sheepishly, as I'm pretty sure most of the Southerners I know would read this and write Frazier off as a "dayamnYankee." (I have been instructed that this is one word, and have attempted to spell it phonetically here.)
For my own part, I'm not entirely confident in the author's portrayal of historical fact--after reading this, I'd like to dig more into the real V's letters and published writings to compare. Sometimes the real Varina's actions, as recorded in history and included in this story, just don't seem to jive with the way Frazier portrays V's inner world. Still, Frazier shaped a fine narrative and made V into a completely compelling and real person for me--but at the same time you could tell he really has strong feelings about Jefferson Davis. I mean, when your introduction of a character is to call him hook-nosed and predatory... Let's just say, the author made it pretty obvious who the intended villain of his story was. Which made me appreciate the way he included Sarah Dorsey as a voice of compassion towards the end (albeit maybe pityingly). But still, this was a surprisingly black and white narrative about real people who lived, as we all do, much more in the gray area.
So. That is my criticism. But you can see I gave this five stars. And that's because it is simply the most wonderfully written piece of historical fiction I've ever read. I found it immersive from the start. The reader truly lives that refugee ride from Richmond along with V. -- Frazier's post-apocalyptic vision of the south after Sherman's march to the sea was chilling and spot on.
I loved the inclusion of James Blake, too, V's compassionate interrogator.
I think any bluestocking would read this book and find Varina a kindred spirit.
For my own part, I'm not entirely confident in the author's portrayal of historical fact--after reading this, I'd like to dig more into the real V's letters and published writings to compare. Sometimes the real Varina's actions, as recorded in history and included in this story, just don't seem to jive with the way Frazier portrays V's inner world. Still, Frazier shaped a fine narrative and made V into a completely compelling and real person for me--but at the same time you could tell he really has strong feelings about Jefferson Davis. I mean, when your introduction of a character is to call him hook-nosed and predatory... Let's just say, the author made it pretty obvious who the intended villain of his story was. Which made me appreciate the way he included Sarah Dorsey as a voice of compassion towards the end (albeit maybe pityingly). But still, this was a surprisingly black and white narrative about real people who lived, as we all do, much more in the gray area.
So. That is my criticism. But you can see I gave this five stars. And that's because it is simply the most wonderfully written piece of historical fiction I've ever read. I found it immersive from the start. The reader truly lives that refugee ride from Richmond along with V. -- Frazier's post-apocalyptic vision of the south after Sherman's march to the sea was chilling and spot on.
I loved the inclusion of James Blake, too, V's compassionate interrogator.
I think any bluestocking would read this book and find Varina a kindred spirit.
The book jumps around a lot in time. I know it's that way because of faulty old memory, but it was a bit hard to follow, at times. Beautiful writing and I want to know more about Varina's life.
disappointed with the very last sentence which devalues human life.
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes