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Reviews tagging 'War'
When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864 by Barry Denenberg
3 reviews
peytonktracy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Oof. This book had me set up to be skeptical from the minute I picked it up, that it's from the perspective of a young woman in Virginia whose family owns slaves and is fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. I'm not opposed to having problematic history portrayed in fiction, like this, but I feel this one could have been done more carefully than it was. There were occasional letters from Emma's father going on wildly racist rants and rampages about "Northern aggression" which alludes to the idea that the war was about "state's rights" and not explicitly slavery. There was also a lot of what I would consider "mammie" portrayals of enslaved people; very convenient that all of Emma's family's slaves were the loyal dedicated kind who loved their kind, gracious masters. So those elements made me cringe a bit, but I suppose it could have been worse. That being said, I felt like I never knew exactly what was going on historically in this book because, accurate to the moment in history, Emma didn't know what was happening. It was more just repeated death and violence and trauma over and over again and then the book ended. It was a little bizarre in that way - I felt like Emma did grow from a child to a traumatized young adult by the end but I never felt like I saw the growth, just the horrors that forced her to grow up. It was certainly more character focused than others in the series, which I appreciated, but still didn't land right for me. But as the rare book from the Southern perspective in the war, I would say it wasn't a bad read? Go in with a couple tablespoons of salt.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, War, Violence, Child death, Grief, Racism, Animal death, and Death of parent
lindsbian's review
slow-paced
I’m honestly lost for words at how bad this book was. Other reviews said most of it, except comparing it to Jr Gone With the Wind is an insult to Gone With the Wind - that book at least led to something good with Hattie McDaniel gaining prominence for her performance in the movie. This book doesn’t even have that.
The characters are all completely unlikable people. I was cautious at the beginning because I hoped there would be character development, since the POV character Emma goes on about how good slave owners her family is. Maybe she would listen to and learn to humanize one of the people her family enslaves? But no, absolutely none. Not even the epilogue indicates she ever grew with the times. And passing this off as historical accuracy is ludicrous - as others have mentioned, Emma’s family apparently teaches the enslaved children to read and write. In Virginia. Which like most Confederate states, made this illegal. Apparently the author never heard of this law or the 1854 memoir “Educational Laws of Virginia: The Personal Narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a Southern Woman, who was Imprisoned for One Month in the Common Jail of Norfolk, Under the Laws of Virginia, for the Crime of Teaching Free Colored Children to Read” (long title but it really says it all, doesn’t it!) A plot like that of Margaret Crittendon Douglas where they broke the law could have actually made this book interesting. Instead, like other reviewers have said, nothing happens!
If the author really wanted to be historically accurate in depicting a Confederate family, a more sympathetic story could have centered around a more average white slave owning family - or slavery sympathizers who themselves were poor. Instead, Emma’s family has a massive plantation with an unspecified large number of people enslaved (but all treated well! trust the unreliable narrator!) - which bizarrely, the writing refers to as the family’s “servants.” The family are in fact slave owners and Emma mentions slavery so I don’t know why she shies away and calls them servants. It’s very strange and ahistorical.
The writer didn’t have to do any of this. It’s not historically accurate and it’s not a good story even remotely. It’s so strange to read this after rereading “A Picture of Freedom,” an actually amazing Dear America book that both accurately portrays horrors of slavery and also presents MULTIPLE sympathetic characters who are white family members of slave owners. That book did more in its epilogue in a sentence or two with the son of the family who enslaved Clotee than this book does in its entire uneventful plodding excuse of a plot.
I can’t believe this author decided to write this book from the Confederate POV with so little story to tell and such gross racism left unquestioned. It’s probably not impossible to write a good story from the POV of a white slaveowner, but it’s a daunting task for him to have chosen - and failed spectacularly at. For anyone who wants to try to do so now, at least this book can serve as a great How To guide - just avoid basically everything it did! Especially avoid including blatant white supremacist rhetoric left completely unquestioned. Again, use the epilogue or something if you have to, since then the character can have a whole lifetime for character development and social progress that leads to the acceptable views of the time changing.
The characters are all completely unlikable people. I was cautious at the beginning because I hoped there would be character development, since the POV character Emma goes on about how good slave owners her family is. Maybe she would listen to and learn to humanize one of the people her family enslaves? But no, absolutely none. Not even the epilogue indicates she ever grew with the times. And passing this off as historical accuracy is ludicrous - as others have mentioned, Emma’s family apparently teaches the enslaved children to read and write. In Virginia. Which like most Confederate states, made this illegal. Apparently the author never heard of this law or the 1854 memoir “Educational Laws of Virginia: The Personal Narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a Southern Woman, who was Imprisoned for One Month in the Common Jail of Norfolk, Under the Laws of Virginia, for the Crime of Teaching Free Colored Children to Read” (long title but it really says it all, doesn’t it!) A plot like that of Margaret Crittendon Douglas where they broke the law could have actually made this book interesting. Instead, like other reviewers have said, nothing happens!
If the author really wanted to be historically accurate in depicting a Confederate family, a more sympathetic story could have centered around a more average white slave owning family - or slavery sympathizers who themselves were poor. Instead, Emma’s family has a massive plantation with an unspecified large number of people enslaved (but all treated well! trust the unreliable narrator!) - which bizarrely, the writing refers to as the family’s “servants.” The family are in fact slave owners and Emma mentions slavery so I don’t know why she shies away and calls them servants. It’s very strange and ahistorical.
The writer didn’t have to do any of this. It’s not historically accurate and it’s not a good story even remotely. It’s so strange to read this after rereading “A Picture of Freedom,” an actually amazing Dear America book that both accurately portrays horrors of slavery and also presents MULTIPLE sympathetic characters who are white family members of slave owners. That book did more in its epilogue in a sentence or two with the son of the family who enslaved Clotee than this book does in its entire uneventful plodding excuse of a plot.
I can’t believe this author decided to write this book from the Confederate POV with so little story to tell and such gross racism left unquestioned. It’s probably not impossible to write a good story from the POV of a white slaveowner, but it’s a daunting task for him to have chosen - and failed spectacularly at. For anyone who wants to try to do so now, at least this book can serve as a great How To guide - just avoid basically everything it did! Especially avoid including blatant white supremacist rhetoric left completely unquestioned. Again, use the epilogue or something if you have to, since then the character can have a whole lifetime for character development and social progress that leads to the acceptable views of the time changing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and War
littleseal's review
After reading another Dear America book, this one is pretty boring in comparison. There was definitely a funny moment or two, a number of tragedies, and some interesting historical context but they overall felt lackluster. Especially because as other reviewers said, some of the historical context is inaccurate. Like it's "nice" her slaves were "treated well" but it felt icky reading. Maybe that's the point.
Also, pretty sure Rachel (the cousin) was gay. All her talk of not wanting to get married, being disinterested in boys... I'm telling you, she was a lesbian.
Also, pretty sure Rachel (the cousin) was gay. All her talk of not wanting to get married, being disinterested in boys... I'm telling you, she was a lesbian.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicide
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