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A review by srash
Woe to Live on by Daniel Woodrell
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a really vivid, no-holds-barred depiction of how brutal the Civil War was in Missouri. It follows Jake Roedel, a teenaged Confederate bushwhacker. As a German-American, he's out-of-place in the group, and though he is privately uncomfortable with his comrades and their behavior at times, he is hardly an innocent bystander. In fact, in the first chapter, the group is enthusiastically slaughtering civilians, and Jake joins right in, even if it haunts him afterward. I thought that was a brilliant decision by Daniel Woodrell. Most authors would probably select a POV character who was more of an innocent to ensure the narrator was a more palatable figure.
Also, Woodrell does a fantastic job of documenting Jake's growing discontentment as his friends and comrades die beside him and as his family back home suffers the consequences of his loyalties and as his group stages the audacious and notoriously savage raid on Lawrence, Kansas. He also does a good job of depicting how badly things escalate as both sides prey upon civilians and each other, and then honor, such as it is, demands satisfaction and an eye for an eye in return. Woodrell's prose is especially stunning, both lyrical and colloquial. With their dialogue and the narration rendered as brutal idiomatic poetry, a strange but hauntingly effective combination, Jake and the other characters sound authentic to the time.
Also, Woodrell does a fantastic job of documenting Jake's growing discontentment as his friends and comrades die beside him and as his family back home suffers the consequences of his loyalties and as his group stages the audacious and notoriously savage raid on Lawrence, Kansas. He also does a good job of depicting how badly things escalate as both sides prey upon civilians and each other, and then honor, such as it is, demands satisfaction and an eye for an eye in return. Woodrell's prose is especially stunning, both lyrical and colloquial. With their dialogue and the narration rendered as brutal idiomatic poetry, a strange but hauntingly effective combination, Jake and the other characters sound authentic to the time.