Product Description

The story of a 99-year-old half-blind wife of a Confederate veteran. Confined to an old people's home, but with all her memories intact, Lucy Marsden unfolds the tale of the American South from General Lee and Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King and the Challenger disaster.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #704273 in Books
• Published on: 1991-03-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

Customer Reviews

an epic american history - unputdownable!
Written amazingly by a man, University lecturer Allan Gurganus, this massive tale is told through the voice and memories of a 98 year old widow of the American Civil War. She is telling her memoirs c. 1980, to a young researcher. The widow was married in her teens to a 50 plus year old Confederate General whose story she tells. The book also steps aside for a gruelling account of the round-up and transportation of slaves from a peaceful African village to a life of unredeemed misery on the plantations. [In this it predates the film Amistad by some time and does, arguably, an even better job.] The book changes from 1st person to narrative with flawless ease and despite its length has an economy of language which absolutely captures the graphic detail of America's bloodiest strife. In this sense it rivals Dickens and Zangwill in taking you to the very place it describes. A masterpiece that deserves coverage and should be filmed by Spielberg.

Lengthy but worth the read
If you're at all interested in the last 100 years of American history, but don't really have a clue about the American Civil War & all that - who did what to who, etc. - then this is a really good place to start.
Far more readable than any history book, with a real sense of pace, and lots of really sparky characters, I really enjoyed it. I would also agree that it's not obvious that it's written by a man - as the story is told very convincingly from the point of view of a 98 year old woman.