"The Havoc of War"
Doctorow turns his masterful writing ability to the 1864 March of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman burned Atlanta and then marched his Union Army of sixty thousand through Georgia and up the Carolinas. The troops lived off the land, pillaging and demolishing cities along the way.
Doctorow has provided the reader with an enormous caste of unforgettable characters, white, black, men, women and children. The key cast is Sherman, Colonel Sartorius a Union regimental surgeon, Emily Thompson, the dispossessed daughter of a George Supreme Court Judge, the two misfit soldiers Arty and Will, and last but not least, Pearl the beautiful freed slave girl. The author provides a stunning description of the countless victims swept up in the violence of a country at war with itself.
My mind wanders from Doctorow’s descriptions of the families displaced by civil war to what I was watching daily on T.V. of the civil war refugees fleeing Syria to Europe. The book won the National Book Critics Award and the 2005 PEN/Faulkner award and was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. Joe Morton did a good job narrating the book.
"Doctorow at His Best"
I haven't enjoyed a Doctorow novel this much since I first read Ragtime. The structure is similar: the story is told from the points of view of a diverse group of characters who have one thing in common, their participation--willing or unwilling--in events surrounding Sherman's march. The characterizations were fascinating. Someone mentioned his atittude towards Sherman was hostile, but I didn't read it that way. In fact, he tempered it with Sherman's sadness about his son's death and his subsequent sympathy for other children and for parents who have also lost children. And he seems to have a moment of insight when he meets Johnston near the end of the novel. I loved Pearl and Stephen Walsh, Calvin, Sartoris, Arly--all of whose lives had been changed forever by the experience of war--some for the better, others much worse. A solid and engaging work.
"great narration"
narrator brought the book to life. excellent
"Wonderful"
Doctorow is a wonderful story teller. The paths of the characters flow, and his language is very satisfying. One of my favorite purchases so far.
"Astonishing"
This audiobook is simply amazing in its ability to bring history to vivid, compelling life. The narrators do an excellent job, and the writing is Doctorow's best since Ragtime. I highly recommend this audiobook.
"Interesting"
I really enjoyed this book. It made me want to learn more about Sherman's March.
"The Civil War Marches On"
This is a very good book but it is long and I am exhausted after marching, burning, and plundering across the South; I am ready to end the war as soon as possible but the characters are fascinating and they are hard to let go.
"Merely a B"
I agree with another reviewer that although the book is pretty good entertainment as a listen, I could never have gotten through it as a read. I found the historical aspects interesting, but the characters and plot line were not compelling. It reminded me a little of a made-for-TV miniseries.
"Must listen for Civil War Buffs"
I scoff up every historical novel about the civil war I can get my hands on, but this is the absolute creme of the crop. It's about the civil war, but its more about the people who fought it, from the drummer boy up to the generals. Don't miss this one. It is a wonderful experience.
"Not his best"
A difficult subject to tackle because of the geographic spread of the action and the constraints of audio in following the action. Built into this genre is the uncertainty over who is an historic personage and who is a purely fictional character. I like Doctorow and thought City of God, Billy Bathgate wonderful novels. The writing in The March was not as rich as in City of God, but it was more than adequate to render the characters and the action. A problem was the absence of historic context - just what was happening elsewhere in the war, what was Grant doing, how important was Sherman's victories, etc.
One final caveat: Joe Morton's narration was not good enough. When de does the characters he's fine; but when he reads the narrator's voice it was dull and not properly inflected in too many places.