Customer comments on this selection.
 Long, Slow, Serious
I have the UK paperback edition, published by Faber and Faber in 1990. Only mentioning because the page count is different from the current edition, and there may have been editorial changes which I am not aware of.
This book could have benefited from a ruthless editor trimming about 200 pages out of it. Just too long, full of digressions that contribute little to the story but fill it with tiresome, mundane detail. It had interesting parts (the best for me were the chapters about the burning of the Plantation house, and the story of the slaves' crossing from Africa) but the pace was so slow and the narrative voice so distracted, it was often difficult to stay interested, and it took me much longer than it should have to finish.
The setting is a nursing home, late 1980s, Lucille Marsden (the 99-year-old Confederate Widow) is telling her story to an unnamed, invisible interviewer with a tape recorder. The "Oral History" gimmick allows the author to ramble and present self-contained little vignettes out of chronological order, as a person would whilst rummaging through memories: one thing reminds us of another, and so on ... When this works, it works well, but all too often I felt the book was too "writerly," too literary. It was, at times, cleverly and formally structured beyond what would be believable as an old woman's spoken recollection, and I became consciously aware that these words were NOT spoken "ex tempore" by an old woman, but carefully crafted over long hours by a professional writer. So much for suspension of disbelief. Plus I noticed several points where something is mentioned by way of illustration which only makes sense in print but would never work if spoken aloud (i.e. descriptions of the signs leading up to the hick vegetable stand outside Falls near the beginning of the book. There were other examples but this one stands out because it was the first I noticed.) Mr. Gurganus failed to maintain the believability of his novel's central conceit.
Plus, what Lucille tells us about how the Captain died, on the very first page of the book, does not match the way he died when she told the full story later, near the end. Maybe this is just to show that Lucy doesn't trust the interviewer at first and can't tell the ugly truth until she has gotten comfortable, much later ... it seems to me like a mistake though, like the author forgot what he said 700+ pages ago.
The story seems plausible enough as "historical fiction." Being a Southerner myself, i found much of the material familiar. It had a ring of truth about it. It really made me think about the African-Americans' situation in a way that I hadn't before, and I value it for that.
It was a good book, but not a Great book. Worth reading if you have lots of time to kill and are interested in the Civil War and its after-effects, of seeing these events from an involved, human perspective (rather than the detached perspective you often get from history texts.)
 Stunning achievement
For many years, I intended to read this novel. Now I have ... and I was swept away by the scope and depth and insight of the "story," one that will repay a reader many times over for the challenge of staying the course. The book succeeds on so many levels, maintaining multiple messages, if you will, and allowing them all to play out. It's about war, indeed, but war in all guises: among people, within families, and the one each of us fights every day, with ourselves, our dreams, and our realities. It's about southern life and values, then and now, about southern history, then and now. It's about memory and storytelling ... and how the two intertwine and confuse one another. The book, simply put, teems with life as we all live it, so full of joy and sadness, reminiscence and regret, soaring dreams and sordid realities -- it contains multitudes. This is as fine a book as I've read in some time; it's that good. Strap yourself in and read it. Just read it, slowly and lovingly, and let the beauty of its imaginative and historic genius work its magic. It will.
I Love This Book!
This book was in a lot of used paperbacks that I bought on eBay. I decided to read it first because I had seen the movie several years ago, and enjoyed it.
It is a long book, yes. I would have to say, though, that it is one of my favorites. There is not one minute that I spent reading it that I regret. The characters were real to me, the setting so vivid, so imaginable. I could picture it all in my imagination.
I loved Lucy. I was actually sad the day that I finished this book, I felt as though I was putting to rest an old friend, one that I will miss.
Often I wondered how it was possible for a man to write so insightfully about the life of a woman. I felt as though Mr. Gurganus understands a lot more about female life than I would have given most men credit for.
 Propaganda
I did not read the book, but watched the mini-series on cable. The segments which amounted to vehicles for the implantation of emotional anti-gun propaganda and feminist philosophy gave me cause to doubt the veracity of the entire work. I prefer to think for myself and make my own conclusions, thank you.
 Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Just started the book but seems very candid, which is what I was looking for.
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