Re: RARA-AVIS: Burke's Civil War Novel

From: James Reasoner ( james53@flash.net)
Date: 14 Feb 2003


----- Original Message ----- From: "Robison Michael R CNIN" < Robison_M@crane.navy.mil> To: < rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 5:55 AM Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS: Burke's Civil War Novel

> James Reasoner wrote:
> I was just wondering if any of you have read James Lee Burke's
> recent Civil War novel WHITE DOVES AT MORNING.
>
> *************
> I haven't read it, but I've been feeling the need to read
> something else by him. Last Civil War novel I read was
> Frazier's COLD MOUNTAIN, an excellent, and very hardboiled,
> book. He really cuts loose from the cliches, I think.
> There aren't any battle scenes, the romance is portrayed
> as bumbling and awkward for both people, and the violence
> comes hard, fast, and mean. The ending is superb. I've
> been waiting for him to come out with something new.
>
> You've got a bunch of Civil War books out, haven't you,
> James? If I recall, most of it is nonfiction.
>
> miker

No, all my Civil War stuff is fiction, though (I hope) pretty accurate historically.

I haven't read COLD MOUNTAIN, but Burke's book is also rather hardboiled, as you might expect. Not just the battle scenes, but everyday life in Union-occupied Louisiana during the war and Reconstruction afterward. The characters are all supposed to have existed and include some of Burke's ancestors. Don't know how much is true, but it reads like it could have been.

James

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