The Rebel Wife

Not sure what I was expecting precisely from The Rebel Wife by Taylor Polites, but it's not what I got. Which, honestly, isn't really a bad thing; this story is certainly more complex, and definitely more thought provoking than the one I'd anticipated. I just wish I hadn't spent half the book frustrated with Augusta's shallow blind devotion to her cousin Judge.

The Rebel Wife is the story of August Branson, proud daughter of Southern roots who made the fatal mistake of marrying a Union sympathizer (for money and security and at her family's urging) after the Civil War. It's ten years on and Gus now has a young child when her husband Eli dies unexpectedly of a mystery illness. It's at this point that Gus discovers, through her very controlling cousin Judge, that Eli's money is mostly gone or tied up in the mill he owned. Gus is a lot of things, but a woman with a backbone she is not; she listens to Judge and his equally smarmy son Buck, and believes that her dead husband was blackmailing and misusing many of the townspeople. Though it seems apparent to the reader that Judge is attempting to take Gus's money, she doesn't see it for a loooooooong time; until, that is, Simon, one of her servants, starts revealing Eli's past, slowly bringing Gus to the realization that she can stand up to Judge. Maybe.

There is a mystery involved: sometime around the time Eli got sick, a saddlebag containing $5000 disappeared, and Simon is determined to find it for Augusta and himself. Judge seems equally determined, and even Gus's ne'er do well brother Mike wants it. As time passes, Gus finds herself aiding Simon and listening more and more to her servants who have seen what's been going on and are determined to escape the prejudice of former slavery. I just wish she'd figured things out sooner...because up until the last 70 pages or so, I was seriously thinking she needed a good whop upside the head.

Minor spoiler.....The final climax is very thrilling, and well worth the frustration of the earlier pages; Gus finally, FINALLY comes into her own and takes charge. The Rebel Wife? What on earth did she rebel against for the first two thirds of the book? And her husband never really seemed much of a Rebel for the south, either. Oh well. I never did buy Simon in general; he seemed pretty shady and his speech was highly unrealistic for the time period. And it's written in present tense...which I detest, particularly in historical fiction. But Polites has definitely done his research and the entire book is filled with historical accuracy for the period. That coupled with the climax bumps this review up to 4 stars from the 3 I'd originally planned.

~taminator40

Rinaldi Back In Form

Fourteen year old Tacy Stryker is frustrated; the youngest and only girl of the family, she's left in the care of her mother and older brother David as she watches her other two older brothers and her father go off to fight for the Union. It's not that Tacy is a bad person, but she chafes under the close scrutiny of David, who is himself frustrated because an old injury keeps him from joining the Union Army. So when the battle of Gettysburg begins, Tacy's already frayed nerves take an even larger beating as David cracks down on her sassiness as the bullets fly by their home. Mix in keeping an African American friend and her mother safe, a fight with an old friend, and losing her beloved horse, and you have a young woman with very identifiable problems in a horrendous historical setting.

Rinaldi's been hit or miss with me for a few years now, but The Last Full Measure is a return to form for the author. Relatively short (just over 200 pages), the book focuses less on the actual fighting than it does on the relationships and feelings of the Stryker family. Expecting Rinaldi to gloss over events, I was pleasantly surprised at how well she described what was going on while still keeping the focus on rebellious Tacy. There is a shocker toward the end that had me glued to the pages until I could see how Tacy was going to survive; there are lots of emotions involved in these short pages. My only argument would be that I would have liked to have seen the book be a little longer, but that's a minor issue. I can now say I have lived through Gettysburg through the eyes of a young woman experiencing devastating loss and courage. Recommended.

~taminator40

Two About the Civil War

First up: An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi

It's not a surprise that I love Ann Rinaldi. I've loved her writing since I first read Wolf by the Ears and My Father's House many years ago. So even now I get excited when I pick up a book of hers that I haven't read. Below are my thoughts on this one, which turned out to be pretty good overall.

An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi is rather unique in that it begins with President Lincoln's assassination, focusing on his wife Mary's loss and the attempts of her friend Lizzy to get to her during the hours following. From there, the narrative splits into two very distinct tales, both of lonely young girls who grew up feeling as outsiders within their own families; finally the story rejoins the women as they meet later in life and form an odd yet strong bond. It's this particular stance to the storytelling that makes An Unlikely Friendship so personal and it's Ann Rinaldi's depth of research and gift of writing that makes it so compelling.

The first person narratives of first Mary Todd and then Lizzy Hobbs Keckley show how very differently the two young women grew up, yet both were eerily similar in their immediate family circumstances. Both struggled to find her place within the confines of the family she'd been born into, and both had difficulty learning to keep to themselves. Both share stories of how they found love with members of their families yet still felt distant. Both were headstrong young women who suffered losses yet somehow remained strong; when they meet later in Washington after Lincoln becomes President, they each discover that there is a kindred spirit in the other, despite the fact that one was raised in relative luxury while the other was a house slave. Rinaldi does a splendid job of bringing both ladies to light and showing them as real people, just as she always done in her fine historical fiction. Recommended for all ages.

Secondly, I read How I Found the Strong by Margaret McMullan in one afternoon. Excellently written! Below is the review for this gem.

Sometimes a book doesn't need to be very long to get its message across, and How I Found the Strong is a powerful reminder of this. I read it in one afternoon but I'm pretty sure its impact will stay with me a very long time.

Beginning at the start of the Civil War, we meet young Frank "Shanks" Russell as he wistfully watches his elder brother and father march off to fight for the Union. Left at home with his mother, his grandparents, and Buck, the slave not much older than he is, Shanks longs for his neighbor Irene as he begins to watch his world disintegrate into hunger and blood. First he loses his grandparents and then he has to struggle to help his pregnant mother; all of the things Shanks suffers through start to make him question whether or not slavery is worth everything it is costing him and the U.S. It is to Buck that he turns, and it is Buck who helps Shanks learn to stand up for what is right.

Powerful, yes, but also revealing; as Shanks grows up, he must come to terms with the idea that the world as he's known it is not what he'd hoped but he's got to find out what means the most to him. Excellently written and illuminating, this is one I can recommend without reservation.

~taminator40